If you’re an avid watcher of hit comedy shows such as The Office, Parks and Recreation or The Good Place, you may have heard rumblings about Michael Schur’s latest creation, titled A Man on the Inside. Schur, who co-created each of the aforementioned comedy classics, has now paired with Netflix, offering an eight-episode Ted Danson-led comedy of errors sure to entice Netflix subscribers everywhere. The show initially premiered on the streamer on Nov. 21 and has already amassed a staggering 95 percent certified fresh critic score on Rotten Tomatoes. While many viewers were drawn to the show based on its premise and credits alone, others raised the question of whether A Man On The Inside is an original work or an adaptation of a true story.
If you fall in the latter camp, keep reading for a comprehensive guide to A Man on the Inside, complete with a breakdown of its influences, origins and overarching themes. Since the series is so new, we’ll do our best to keep the following write-up entirely spoiler-free. Still, if you’re looking to go into the new series completely blind, be sure to bookmark this page and return later, as the true tale may help to shed some light on the hilarious twists and turns of the fresh new narrative.
What Inspired Netflix’s ‘A Man on the Inside’?
Though much of the series’ narrative and humor are the pure, unadulterated creation of Michael Schur, A Man on the Inside adapts the true story of Sergio Chamy. For those not in the know, Chamy is a retired widower who, at the age of 83, decided to boldly venture into a brand new career path as a private investigator. The Chilean senior citizen was bored and looking for a hobby back in 2017 when he encountered a private detective named Rómulo Aitken, who sought to uncover possible instances of elder abuse in a local senior living facility. Unable to penetrate the facility himself, Aitken enlisted the help of Chamy, who agreed to enter the elder home as an undercover spy and report his findings over several months.
Chamy’s story was previously told in the hit 2020 documentary The Mole Agent, which was nominated for two Academy Awards shortly after its release. As anyone who has seen the doc will surely tell you, Chamy struggles to be an effective spy due to his complete lack of mastery over basic technology such as cell phones and email. Still, he exhibits a natural charisma that instantly attuned him to the struggles and difficulties of his fellow senior residents. It may sound bizarre to say this about a film investigating the possibility of elder abuse, but The Mole Agent, and by extension, A Man on the Inside, offers a truly heartwarming story about aging and identity.
How Is ‘A Man on the Inside’ Different From ‘The Mole Agent’?
Though A Man on the Inside is meant to adapt the events of Sergio Chamy’s journey, the series does so more on thematic similarities than direct recreations. The Netflix original ultimately takes big swings that make it wholly original, bearing only a broad-strokes resemblance to the 2020 doc. For starters, Ted Danson – who is currently 76 years old in real life – portrays the senior-turned-spy, though his name is not Sergio Chamy. Instead, the series centers on a man named Charles Nieuwendyk, who takes up a young woman’s job offer to infiltrate San Francisco’s Pacific View Retirement Community in search of a missing family heirloom, in place of elder abuse violations. These changes make sense from a narrative standpoint, and not just because it’s all but impossible to make elder abuse the subject of a half-hour comedy.
The true inspiration of Sergio’s tale, as Schur explains, is his willingness to adapt to new experiences even in his advanced age. While sitting down with Netflix’s Tudum, the creator stated “It’s a beautiful meditation on aging, a subject we are uniquely terrible in this country at confronting, dealing with or discussing. It showed the reality of aging for people along a very broad spectrum — some folks who were doing great and some folks who were not — and that really grabbed me.” Schur also explained that the decision to swap out Sergio for the bumbling Charles character came to him after Ted Danson joined the project, as he argued “it became so clear that there was a way to take that story, swapping in Ted’s unique charisma for Sergio’s unique charisma.”
Where Is the Real-Life Sergio Today?
Fans of both The Mole Agent and A Man on the Inside will be pleased to know that the real-life Sergio Chamy, now aged 90, is still alive and well in 2024. The former spy now runs an active Instagram account where he shares frequent updates on his life and work, including promotional materials for the Netflix series he inspired. Since finding success in his own documentary film, Chamy has popped up in numerous television and film ventures, making him a bonafide actor. Clearly, Schur chose the right subject given his intention to highlight the joy of aging, as Chamy has found a great deal of happiness and success in the last several years.
Other Stand-Out Influences on the Series
Michael Schur’s career trajectory seems perfectly primed for a show about the complexities of life after retirement, given his recently developed obsession with ethics and the afterlife, as explored through The Good Place. The television producer tends to utilize comedic narratives as a means of parsing through his fixation with the absurdity of life, often complimented by a revolving door of exceptional on-screen talent. For A Man on the Inside, Schur develops these ideas with an extra layer of hilarity by invoking classic spy films of the past century or so. Netflix subscribers will be quick to notice that each episode title of A Man on the Inside contains a humorous reference to espionage classics such as 2011’s Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, or 1946’s The Postman Always Rings Twice.
These titles offset the expectations of viewers by harkening back to projects that show spies at their youngest and most capable. Rather than delivering on that tired premise, Schur utilizes the eight episodes of A Man on the Inside to highlight the strengths of our elders, even if they show shortcomings when presented with the task of operating hidden cameras and returning text messages. As always, Schur is assisted by a cast consisting of fan-favorite collaborators, such as Brooklyn Nine-Nine‘s Stephanie Beatriz, The Good Place‘s Eugene Cordero, and Parks and Recreation‘s Marc Evan Jackson. If you’re curious to see how this hilarious comedy of errors plays out, be sure to stream both The Mole Agent and A Man on the Inside on Netflix today.
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