Ted Danson returns to school

My favorite episode of the beautifully written and deeply humanistic Season 2 of Netflix’s mystery-comedy-drama series “A Man on the Inside” is a “bottle episode,” that is, an interlude limited to a few main set pieces, with the main plot waiting as we delve into a charming and poignant ensemble character study.

Ted Danson’s Charles Nieuwendyk, a retired engineering professor and widower turned private detective, hosts a Thanksgiving gathering at his home. It’s her most cherished holiday tradition: “Small group. Close, close friends… We talk, we drink, we eat. We have a calm, quiet evening.”

Spoiler alert: that’s not quite how it happens. The gathering expands to more than a dozen guests, including a complete stranger, and turns into a messy affair that’s weird and heartbreaking but also wonderful, involving everything from an upside-down entrée to the search for the perfect pecan pie to some surprising revelations about a guinea pig named Joni Mitchell, don’t ask.

It’s a near-perfect episode of warm, intelligent, empathetic television. The second season of “A Man on the Inside” represents another triumph for series creator Michael Schur, whose resume includes writing, producing and/or creating duties on “The Office,” “Parks and Recreation,” “Brooklyn Nine-Nine” and “The Good Place” (which also starred Danson). Please keep making television, good sir. You provide some of the best standards of rebroadcast and rebroadcast comedy of this century.

Season 2 opens with Charles, erudite but slightly clumsy, restless from his work as an apprentice private detective for San Francisco-based Kovalenko Investigations while mired in a rut of mundane cases, usually involving someone suspected of infidelity. Like Charles’ boss, Julie Kovalenko (Lilah Richreeck-Estrada, ably playing the comic role of contrasting characters) explains that such is the nature of the gig, that juicy cases are rare, between Jack Berenger (Max Greenfield), the able president of Wheeler College of Liberal Arts, and the exhausted and overwhelmed provost, one Holly Bodgemark (Jill Talley).

As Wheeler’s richest alumnus Jack explains, preternaturally ethical billionaire Brad Vinick (Gary Cole) verbally pledged $400 million to the school — but someone calling themselves “Wheeler Guardian” stole Berenger’s laptop and sent an email saying, “You’re taking a dollar from [Vinick’s] damn money, I’m revealing all your secrets. Fearing that the slightest whiff of scandal will scare Vinick, Berenger and Holly hope that Kovalenko Investigations can help them identify “Wheeler Guardian” and recover the laptop.

“Every faculty member could be a suspect,” Charles says. “Your only chance to save Wheeler College is if you…”

GOOD. A man inside.

It’s a smart setup; Who better to infiltrate Wheeler College as “Charles Nieuwendyk, Visiting Lecturer of Engineering,” than Charles Nieuwendyk, retired professor of engineering? (The Caltech campus in Pasadena, California, also serves as the headquarters of the fictional Wheeler College, and the production team makes great use of the idyllic exteriors.) We are introduced to a band of well-drawn and colorful academics and students (any one of whom could be a suspect!) played by a strong cast.

Most notably, there’s Mary Steenburgen (Danson’s real-life wife) as music theory professor Mona Margadoff, a free-spirited soul who sang lead for a hit band called Lavender Highway in the 1970s; David Straitharn as Dr. Benjamin Cole, the grumpy but beloved head of the English department; and Madison Hu as Claire Chung, a junior who works multiple jobs on campus to help offset tuition costs.

The writers also find welcome excuses – some more intrinsic to the main story than others – to bring back favorites from the first season, including Mary Elizabeth Ellis as Charles’ daughter Emily; Stephen McKinley Henderson as Calbert, Charles’ friend; and Stephanie Beatriz as Didi, the general manager of the Pacific View retirement community.

The central mystery of season 2 isn’t that compelling; it’s really just an ongoing McGuffin that opens the doors to a myriad of storylines exploring the complex nature of relationships between parents and adult siblings, the enduring value of friendship and loyalty, and the possibility of love in old age. There’s no mention of politics, but there’s an obvious connection to the real world in a plot about a liberal arts college that’s struggling financially and considering making a deal with the devil to stay afloat. (We also get some snarky social and economic commentary, like when Claire laments that changing guidelines mean she’ll have to drop out of college, and she says, “I’ve made a lot of memories here, and you can’t really put a price on that, you know? Well, actually, you can. It’s $86,000 a year.”)

A few minor characters are broad and sitcom-like, for example Lisa Gilroy’s Kelseigh Rose, the much younger, selfie-obsessed new wife of billionaire Brad Vinick. (That’s not Gilroy’s fault, who does what she can with a silly, cartoonish role.) This is only a minor quibble, because the casting overall is quite brilliant; I mean, Cole plays a vain rich guy hilariously, and how can you top Strathairn as a grumpy academic who looks like he’s cutting his hair and clearly believes that books are much better than people?

Danson, a master at playing both dignified and silly, is a match for Pierce Brosnan as seventy-year-old guys who look spectacular in tailored suits. He created yet another memorable comic character in Charles, who has his flights of ego and his moments of self-indulgence, but is just about the best father, grandfather, friend and colleague – and inside man – you could hope to have.

It’s low-key, engaging, stress-free viewing at its best. The quiet humor is soothing and the moments that make your eyes light up are well-earned and artfully executed.

All eight episodes of ‘A Man on the Inside’ season 2 screened for review.