Ted Danson's character in the Netflix comedy The Good Place role. The new comedy series comes from the same creator as The Good Place, Michael Schur, and therefore carries a similar brand of quirky comedy. With Danson in the lead role of A Man on the Inside, the commonalities between these two series are all the stronger despite the drastically different premises. With just the smallest, delightful stretch of the imagination, Danson's new comedy series even feels a bit like a spinoff.

Danson was easy to Charlie in Schur's A Man on the Inside, a retired widower who goes undercover in a senior care facility to find a lost, priceless heirloom. The series, which begins streaming on Netflix on November 21, 2024, is based on the 2020 documentary The Mole Agent and is therefore not connected to the story of The Good Place in any way. Still, Danson and Schur's reuniting is a cause to celebrate—especially when considering Charlie's and Michael's stories.

Ted Danson's A Man On The Inside Feels Like An Unofficial The Good Place Sequel

Charlie Is Like The Human Version Of Michael

At the end of The Good Place, Michael is given the chance to go to Earth and live as a human—something he had always wanted. Danson's character was thrilled about even the simplest of life's experiences, from receiving store credit card offers in the mail to telling people to "take it sleazy." Of course, given the series' ending, audiences never got to learn much about what Michael's life actually looked like. There have long been requests for a The Good Place spinoff following Michael's "human" life, but A Man on the Inside is an adorable alternative.

The trailer for A Man on the Inside introduces Danson's character as a recently widowed older gentleman who has lost his lust for life. His daughter encourages him to find something that would "excite" him, and Charlie's answer is to become an undercover private investigator. The character's charming excitement over his new job quickly brings The Good Place's Michael to mind. It's fun to imagine that A Man on the Inside is all part of Michael's continued story. After all, going undercover in an old folks home is precisely the sort of thing this character would have taken joy in.

The Good Place is available to stream on Netflix.

Could The Good Place Still Get A Real Michael Spinoff?

This Isn't The Danson & Schur Reunion The Good Place Fans Were Waiting For

Kristen Bell as Eleanor and Ted Danson as Michael in The Good Place

Of course, The Good Place and A Man on the Inside aren't a seamless fit. It's fun to imagine an in-story connection, but these are, in the end, two different series of two entirely different flavors. Still, seeing Danson return to a Schur comedy is sure to reignite the requests for a Michael spinoff. Danson's character was a fan favorite in The Good Place, and there has been a lingering sense that there could be more to his story. Unfortunately, Danson and Schur returning for an unrelated series seems to imply that the 2016 sitcom truly is done for good.

While the Netflix series isn't the spinoff audiences hoped to see Danson in, it satisfies the themes that made The Good Place's Michael so charming to begin with.

The Good Place being over is rather fitting with the show's general theme since an idea frequently pushed by the series is that life is beautiful because it will end one day. Michael is an immortal being who chooses to experience human life with all its joys and bitterness. While not strictly connected, A Man on the Inside seems to continue these same themes. Danson's character is a man who lost love but finds a unique way to experience life's small pleasures. So, while the Netflix series isn't the spinoff audiences hoped to see Danson in, it satisfies the themes that made The Good Place's Michael so charming to begin with.