WHAT’S IT ABOUT?

Charles (Ted Danson) is a retired San Francisco engineer, who’s recently lost his wife to Alzheimer’s. He spends his time alone, sending newspaper cuttings to his daughter Emily (Mary Elizabeth Ellis) but rarely visiting her.

While cutting an article out of the newspaper, he spots a job advert – a valuable necklace has been stolen from an elderly woman at a residential home in the city and a local private detective, Julie (Lilah Richcreek Estrada), needs a man on the inside to help her find the thief.

As the only one of the elderly applicants to know how to use a mobile phone, the job is his and before long, Charles is getting settled into his new home – quickly making friends and enemies among the residents and staff, as he gets to work on his mission.

WHAT’S IT LIKE?

Ted Danson is clearly having as much fun as his character, diving head-first into a world of espionage, seeing himself as something of a James Bond character, immersed in this exclusive residential care home.

The creator of his most recent series, The Good Place, Michael Schur, has developed a new vehicle for the star, who retains elements of the youthful swagger and undeniable charm we first enjoyed in Cheers, back in the 1980s.

While there is much to enjoy here – from the fish-out-of-water situation comedy to mistaken identity and making fun of the internal politics that develop in such an environment. But it comes dangerously close to making fun of old people – justifying it by showing some residents are still formidable personalities, well into retirement.

The atmosphere is also a little uneven – one minute, we are in full spy mode, the next we are character building as genuine bonds are struck, which is perfectly moving but leaves the core plot behind, sometimes for episodes at a time. There are two perfectly entertaining shows here, a sitcom which plays with spy tropes as it gently mocks an older community and a drama in which an widower comes to terms with his own age and helps others to do the same, but efforts to blend them into one coherent package feel a little disjointed.

And while it builds to its narrative climax, it reaches its denouement in the first few minutes of the final episode, using the rest of the running time to leave the story behind again to tell us what has happened to the minor characters and to set up for a second series.