In streaming and elsewhere, Old Coot TV is a new trend 05/12/2024

Having just watched all eight episodes of Ted Danson’s amateur detective series “A Man on the Inside” on Netflix, I was struck by the similarities to “Only Murders in the Building” on Hulu.

The two series differ in many ways, such as setting, relationships between characters, and even their storylines.

But both feel very similar. Most notably, both feature lead characters over 70 years old, whose foibles and anachronisms are the main source of comedy.

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

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 neighbor, played by Selena Gomez, 32.

On the Hulu show, Gomez rolls her eyes or shakes her head in pity when her two friends act their age.

In today’s popular culture, that means they don’t have a firm grip on modern touchstones like social media and the like – you know, like all ancient people.

Nevertheless, the three are collaborating on a podcast called “Only Murders in the Building.”

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

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

Although he has a grown, married daughter with three boys (his grandchildren), his scenes with his TV daughter are played primarily for sentimental reasons.

In fact, “A Man on the Inside” is a series that is more about the journey into old age than “Only Murders in the Building.”

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

Still, one of the biggest similarities between the two series is the way their amateur detectives solve their crimes in the season finale, after muddling through all the other episodes.

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

In “A Man on the Inside,” Danson is on the trail of a suspected thief in a retirement home after several valuables go missing from some of the residents’ apartments.

Just like in “Only Murders in the Building,” he finds out that the perpetrator is someone no one else would have suspected.

The title “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” the one who is coping with old age.

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

Combined with “The Golden Bachelor” and “The Golden Bachelorette” on ABC and “Later Daters” on Netflix, the two detective comedies appear to be part of a trend in which television is becoming more accepting of seniors – a new Golden Age for Golden Ages.