A Man on The Inside – Season 1 Episode 1 Recap & Review

Tinker Tailor Old Spy  

A Man on the Inside episode 1 starts with Charles dreaming about how he proposed to his wife, Victoria. Years later, with Victoria dead, Charles struggles with what to fill his days with. He maintains a boring schedule of drinking his coffee while filling the crossword puzzle and sending his daughter, Emily, newspaper clippings of news he finds interesting. He then reads a book and turns in for the night. 

On the other hand, we have Julie, a private investigator in San Francisco. She gets a new client, Mr Cubbler, to investigate his mom’s stolen necklace. The problem is the necklace was stolen at his mom’s nursing home and Julie is not sure how she can infiltrate the place. However, she gets an epiphany and decides to put a job advertisement in the newspaper looking for an old man who is good at technology. 

In the meantime, after getting the latest mail from her dad, Emily worries he is lonely and pays him an impromptu visit. She advises him to find a hobby to fill his days.  Charles takes her advice and applies for Julie’s job offer. Julie is surprised that Charles is more technology savvy than most of the candidates and hires him on the spot. She informs him that he will have to move into the nursing home for at least a month and be her man on the inside. The possibility of being a spy excites Charles and Julie’s flattery gets to his head. He quickly agrees to the job. The next few days, Julie teaches Charles how to be a good, efficient spy. Although Charles barely manages to be covert, Julie is forced to send him in. 

She and Charles visit the nursing home and talk to Didi. Julie pretends to be Charles’s daughter, Emily and Didi give them a tour. However, seeing the memory care centre triggers Charles to remember his experience with his late wife. She died from complications of Alzheimer’s. Julie is not pleased when Charles as for time to think about moving into the home. However, after discovering the reason behind his hesitation, she helps him get past it. Julie’s grandfather had Alzheimer’s, and she gets what Charles is going through. After thinking about it, Charles calls Julie and agrees to her plan. She walks him through the phases of his mission and get their story straight. 

Charles happily moves into the home and Didi helps him settle in. He then calls his real daughter and lies to her about joining a photography, painting, and gardening class. Emily thinks it is a great idea and is supportive. The episode ends with Charles waking up and getting ready for his first day as a spy at the nursing home. 

The Episode Review

As expected, it is nice to see Ted Danson on our screen again. He truly brings the character to life and based on this first episode; this is going to be a good series. It will be exciting to see Charles get out of his cocoon and make new friends as he focuses on his mission. It is not the kind of hobby that Emily had in mind when she suggested he find a project to work on, but this is good.

At the beginning of the episode, he felt lonely and just trying to get by. With this mission, he will have a chance to make new experiences, meet new people and solve a crime. Isn’t it exciting?