• by Adam Buckman , Featured Columnist, December 5, 2024

Having just finished watching all eight episodes of the Ted Danson amateur-sleuth series “A Man on the Inside” on Netflix, I could not help noting the similarities to “Only Murders in the Building” on Hulu.

The two shows differ in many specific ways such as their location, the relationships between characters, and even their storylines.

But they both feel very much the same. Most notably, they both have leading men over 70 whose senior foibles and anachronisms are the shows’ principal source of comedy.

In “A Man on the Inside,” Danson, 76, plays a retired, widowed engineering professor who answers an obtuse newspaper classified ad that leads to an assignment as an amateur sleuth going undercover in a San Francisco high-rise retirement community.

In “Only Murders in the Building,” Steve Martin, 79, and Martin Short, 74, play neighbors in a Manhattan apartment who comically investigate murders in their building with the help of a young woman neighbor played by Selena Gomez, 32.

In the Hulu show, Gomez is there to roll her eyes or shake her head in pity whenever her two friends act their ages.

In today’s popular culture, that means that they do not have a firm grasp on modern touchstones such as social media and the like -- you know, like all old people.

Despite this, the three collaborate on a podcast called “Only Murders in the Building.”

While Gomez undoubtedly helps attract younger viewers (she is said to have a huge fan base), most of the show’s attention is paid to the comedy team of Martin and Martin.

In “A Man on the Inside,” there is no Gomez character to provide reactions to Danson’s engineer character. 

He does have a grown, married daughter with three boys (his grandsons), but his scenes with his TV daughter are played mostly for sentiment.

Indeed, “A Man on the Inside” is a show that is more about the journey toward old age than “Only Murders in the Building.”

Although both shows are positioned as comedies, “Only Murders in the Building” is the more comedic of the two.

Still, one of the closest similarities between the two shows is the way their amateur sleuths solve their crimes in the season finale after bumbling through all the other episodes. 

For this reason alone, “A Man on the Inside” plays like it is Netflix’s answer to the hit Hulu show.

In “A Man on the Inside,” Danson is on the trail of an apparent thief in the retirement building after several valuables disappear from some of the residents’ apartments.

Just like in “Only Murders in the Building,” he figures out that the culprit is somebody who no one else would have suspected.

The title of “A Man on the Inside” refers to more than just Danson’s position as a secret spy. It also refers to the “man” who is “inside” him who is navigating old age.

“A Man on the Inside” wears its old-age, retirement-community setting proudly. Casting includes Sally Struthers, 77, of “All in the Family”; Veronica Cartwright, 75, former child actor and as an adult, an Emmy winner for “ER” and “The X-Files”; and Susan Ruttan, 76, of “L.A. Law,” who is outstanding as a woman drifting into old-age dementia.

Coupled with “The Golden Bachelor” and “The Golden Bachelorette” on ABC, and “Later Daters” on Netflix, the two detective comedies seem like part of a trend in which TV is growing more senior-accepting -- a new Golden Age for Golden Agers.