Mike Schur devised a mostly foolproof formula for the perfect modern workplace sitcom that began with “The Office” and steadily evolved through “Parks and Recreation” and “Brooklyn Nine-Nine.” Watching enough of his shows and you'll notice a repeating pattern of types, starting with the well-meaning but weird protagonist who is good at his job but takes some effort to fall for. Every episode after the pilot is a courtship between that character and the audience, facilitated by the wingmen and wingwomen surrounding them.

Those are familiar personalities too – the stardard-bearer for normalcy (like Rashida Jones’ Ann Perkins in “Parks and Rec”), the skilled weirdo (Dwight Schrute in “The Office”), the lovable dim bulb (Manny Jacinto’s Jason in “The Good Place").

Sometime during “The Good Place,” Schur began to break pattern. Somewhat. "The Good Place" is still a workplace fable connected to a post-life, rules-defined bureaucracy that's eventually defeated and rebooted by a few souls pursuing the meaning of goodness. It was reliably and breathtakingly hilarious, heartfelt and often heartbreaking.

“A Man on the Inside” meets our current moment of yearning for connection.

His latest, Netflix's “A Man on the Inside," operates as a twist on an old maxim. If dying is easy and comedy is hard, making the years leading up to death humorous without making the people living through them into a joke takes . . . something else. Here, Schur brings the audience into the reality of what it means to keep going after much of what you've taken for granted fades away.

Pulling that off requires prioritizing heartfelt moments over brazen hilarity which, again, few TV storytellers do well. I'm guessing that's because in the youth-obsessed entertainment industry, few know what it’s like to be old or conceive of that age as being a time of renewed independence and agency. "Every great thing in your life, looking back on it, feels like a miracle," says one of its dearest figures, and he's talking about simple moments like meeting his wife and cooking for her for the first........

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