TV Review: A Man on the Inside Season 2 (2025)

A Man on the Inside Season 2 (2025) created by Michael Shur based on the Chilean documentary The Mole Agent

Charles (Ted Danson) is still working at Julie's (Lilah Richcreek Estrada) detective agency but they are doing the bread-and-butter jobs 0f private investigation--busting suspected cheating spouses. Charles wants something more substantial than following sleazy guys around. A job falls in their laps--Wheeler College is about to honor one of their graduates, but only to get a $400 million-dollar donation from him. Brad Vinick (Gary Cole) is an egotistical corporate sleazeball about to get his portrait in the gallery of great graduates from the college. College President Jack Beringer (Max Greenfield) gets an anonymous threat and his laptop is stolen. Anonymous threatens to reveal secrets unless the college refuses to give Vinick honors and take his money. Julie's agency is hired to find the laptop and who the anonymous person is. Charles pretends to be a visiting professor of engineering at the school, trying to sus out who among the faculty might be blackmailing the president.

The story spins out from there, ranging through a lot of suspects and a lot of personal dramas. Charles immediately falls romantically for Mona (Mary Steenburgen), a music professor who is a kooky free spirit and instantly off Charles's list of suspects (but not off Julie's). Pompous English professor Doctor Benjamin Cole (David Strathairn) despises Charles so naturally he's Charles's top suspect. Plenty of other characters are possible suspects too. If that's not enough, Charles goes back to the retirement home community for help, along with his daughter and their family. A lot of narrative strands are played out with most of them getting resolved sooner or later. The writers care maybe even more about the characters than the mystery.

I found the show enjoyable but not as tightly realized as the first season. The resolution of the mystery is not quite credible but the focus is more on comedy and personal situations. Quite a few in-jokes and easter eggs are thrown into the show too. I laughed plenty each episode and appreciated the occasional insightful commentaries on human relations.

Mildly recommended--this is a fine sequel but not as good as the first season.

As I write (December 2025), this is only available on Netflix.