{"id":262,"date":"2026-01-12T19:21:27","date_gmt":"2026-01-12T20:21:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.professional-astrology.com\/?p=262"},"modified":"2026-01-21T15:52:56","modified_gmt":"2026-01-21T15:52:56","slug":"a-man-on-the-inside-netflix-comedy-offers-a-timely-defence-of-higher-education","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.professional-astrology.com\/index.php\/2026\/01\/12\/a-man-on-the-inside-netflix-comedy-offers-a-timely-defence-of-higher-education\/","title":{"rendered":"A Man on the Inside: Netflix comedy offers a timely defence of higher education"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Season 2 of Netflix\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt26670955\/\"><em>A Man on the Inside<\/em><\/a> finds <a href=\"https:\/\/www.netflix.com\/tudum\/a-man-on-the-inside\">Charles Nieuwendyk<\/a>, private investigator and retired engineering professor (played by Ted Danson), undercover at Wheeler College. <\/p>\n<p>The mission: recover the college president\u2019s laptop. This might not seem juicy, but said laptop contains sensitive information about a $400 million donation by a tech multibillionaire, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.netflix.com\/tudum\/articles\/a-man-on-the-inside-season-2-cast-guide\">Brad Vinick<\/a>.  <\/p>\n<p>As someone who has <a href=\"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/humanities\/english-language-and-literature\/faculty\/barbara-seeber\/\">lived and studied academic life<\/a>, I find the series created <a href=\"https:\/\/www.netflix.com\/tudum\/articles\/ted-danson-mike-schur-comedy\">by Michael Schur<\/a> (also <a href=\"https:\/\/www.townandcountrymag.com\/leisure\/arts-and-culture\/a25426147\/michael-schur-interview-the-good-place-season-3\/\">behind <em>The Good Place<\/em> starring Ted Danson<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.imdb.com\/name\/nm1321658\/\">among other hit series<\/a>) is both funny and uncomfortable because it hits close to home. <\/p>\n<h2>Budgets trimmed to the bone<\/h2>\n<p>The P.I. is thrilled by his university case, calling it something \u201cI can really sink my teeth into.\u201d <\/p>\n<p>Wheeler College, founded in 1883, has seen better days. It is struggling financially and its leadership is unpopular. The board of trustees hired <a href=\"https:\/\/variety.com\/2025\/tv\/news\/a-man-on-the-inside-season-2-cast-1236388675\/\">a president<\/a> who trims department budgets to the bone, cuts student aid and embraces corporate sponsorship \u2014 as well as the bonus he receives with every major donation. <\/p>\n<p>These measures are not enough. Enter Vinick. <\/p>\n<figure>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"A Man on the Inside | Season 2 Official Trailer | Netflix\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/Y6UXdDbuNFc?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><figcaption><span class=\"caption\">\u2018A Man on the Inside\u2019 Season 2 trailer.<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Vinick\u2019s secret plan \u2014 \u201cProject Aurora\u201d \u2014 is to fire half the professors, exclude faculty from decision-making and close what he considers \u201cnon-essential departments,\u201d leaving \u201cthree tracks of study \u2014 biotechnology, economics and computer science <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rottentomatoes.com\/tv\/a_man_on_the_inside\/s02\/e07\/cast-and-crew\">to prepare young adults for life in the modern world<\/a>.\u201d <\/p>\n<p>President Jack Beringer knows Vinick\u2019s intentions but does not want anyone to know he knows. Faculty uprisings would not help his bid for a higher-paying university job in Dallas, where he ate the best steak ever.<\/p>\n<h2>Language of efficiency, innovation<\/h2>\n<p>Any campus stroll reveals that Wheeler\u2019s \u201cPepsi T-Mobile Covered Garage brought to you by Sephora\u201d (Episode 4) is only a slight exaggeration. <\/p>\n<p>Vinick\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.oneducation.net\/no-06_december-2019\/money-talks-the-language-of-the-corporate-university\/\">language of efficiency and innovation dominates in real life<\/a>. Universities are run increasingly on a corporate model, as <a href=\"https:\/\/academic.oup.com\/book\/40915\">numerous studies<\/a> have demonstrated, including my collaboration with Maggie Berg in <a href=\"https:\/\/utpdistribution.com\/9781487559489\/the-slow-professor\/\">our book <em>The Slow Professor: Challenging the Culture of Speed in the Academy<\/em><\/a>. <\/p>\n<p>Budgets and programs are being slashed, and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.caut.ca\/bulletin\/associations-warn-of-corporatization-amid-austerity\/\">in the guise of economic necessity, principles of higher education are undermined<\/a>.  <\/p>\n<h2>Professors also satirized<\/h2>\n<p>While Beringer and Vinick are the villains of the piece, there are, of course, some digs at the professors. (I admit we are an easy target). <\/p>\n<p>The musicologist, for example, will abandon any conversation mid-sentence when inspiration hits.<\/p>\n<p>In Episode 4, we see the chair of the English department is a snob about books you can buy at airports. <\/p>\n<p>However, the show resists indulging in nutty, overpaid professor stereotypes because it recognizes, in the words of Dr. Benjamin Cole, head of the English department, \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.reddit.com\/r\/ManOnTheInsideTV\/comments\/1p1slhk\/a_man_on_the_inside_s2e6_extracurriculars_episode\/\">these are not the best of times<\/a>.\u201d The show focuses on staff and faculty efforts in an era of budget cuts and attacks on what the billionaire investor calls \u201cpointless subjects\u201d like art history and philosophy. <\/p>\n<p>Holly Bodgemark, the provost, is so overworked she swallows nicotine gum (\u201cIt works faster if it goes right to the stomach\u201d) and mixes her own \u201cPeptocoffee.\u201d <\/p>\n<p>The musicologist may be flaky, but she buys used instruments out of her own pocket for students who can\u2019t afford them. Money is tight for students. Student Claire Chung works a dozen jobs to pay tuition and housing. \u201cWhen do you sleep?\u201d Nieuwendyk asks. \u201cIn class,\u201d she replies. <\/p>\n<h2>Defending higher education<\/h2>\n<p>To defend higher education, the show calls in the big guns: <a href=\"https:\/\/rpo.library.utoronto.ca\/content\/ozymandias-0\"><em>Ozymandias<\/em><\/a>, a sonnet by 19th- century Romantic writer <a href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/biography\/Percy-Bysshe-Shelley\">Percy Bysshe Shelley<\/a>. It\u2019s mentioned in one of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.netflix.com\/tudum\/articles\/a-man-on-the-inside-season-2-cast-guide\">Cole\u2019s lectures<\/a>, where he recites some of its lines and comments on its continued relevance: \u201cMoney, fame, power do not last. But ideas \u2026 can endure.\u201d <\/p>\n<figure class=\"align-center \">\n            <img alt=\"Two men in discussion on a bench.\" src=\"http:\/\/www.professional-astrology.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/file-20260107-62-pag525.jpg\" \/><figcaption>\n              <span class=\"caption\">Literature professor Dr. Cole tells his students: \u2018ideas \u2026 can endure.\u2019<\/span><br \/>\n              <span class=\"attribution\"><span class=\"source\">(Netflix)<\/span><\/span><br \/>\n            <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Published in 1818, <a href=\"https:\/\/rpo.library.utoronto.ca\/content\/ozymandias-0\"><em>Ozymandias<\/em><\/a> speaks of a \u201ctraveller from an antique land.\u201d The traveller comes across the remains of a sculpture with an inscription that reads:  <\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>\u201c\u2018My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings,  <\/p>\n<p>Look on my Works ye Mighty, and despair!\u2019\u201d  <\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>The rest of the sculpture is a \u201ccolossal Wreck,\u201d and the king\u2019s boast has dwindled into unintentional irony.    <\/p>\n<p>Given that the show is American, the literary allusion might be a veiled reference to the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nokings.org\/\">No Kings protests<\/a>. <\/p>\n<h2>Making sense of the present<\/h2>\n<p>The series seems to side with philosophers like <a href=\"https:\/\/press.princeton.edu\/books\/paperback\/9780691264394\/not-for-profit?srsltid=AfmBOopBFCBkbXB4BV-VhjVmeND5mnAa3d3EGDnKFu7C51Sx6GNonx9J\">Martha Nussbaum<\/a>, who argues that a liberal arts education can help us make sense of the present and read it critically. <\/p>\n<p>Vinick is a modern Ozymandias. He wants to be immortal, literally (he undergoes longevity treatments) and figuratively (he commissions oil portraits of himself). As the professor of fine arts notes in the first episode of Season 2: \u201cNewsflash: the billionaire is a narcissist.\u201d <\/p>\n<p>Not to give away the mystery, but a crisis is averted. Wheeler is safe \u2026 for now. It might go under, but, as the provost says, \u201cbetter to end on our own terms.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>And those terms are: education is not a business; it cannot be reduced to the delivery of quantifiable outcomes. The book <a href=\"https:\/\/www.penguin.co.uk\/books\/182024\/what-are-universities-for-by-collini-stefan\/9781846144820\"><em>What Are Universities For?<\/em><\/a>, by <a href=\"https:\/\/www.english.cam.ac.uk\/people\/Stefan.Collini\/\">Stefan Collini<\/a>, professor emeritus of intellectual history and English literature, makes this case in a particularly compelling (and at times laugh-out-loud) way. <\/p>\n<p>Higher education is a public good because it teaches critical thinking and civil debate and prepares engaged citizens. <\/p>\n<h2>Community<\/h2>\n<p>Good satire like <em>A Man on the Inside<\/em> points out the problems as well as possible remedies. Vinick mocks the notion of community, but the show values it above all because, without it, resistance is impossible. Wheeler College\u2019s faculty and staff celebrate each other and band together across disciplinary divides. <\/p>\n<p>In the words of the provost in the last episode of the season, they are committed to protecting \u201ccommunity and knowledge for the sake of knowledge.\u201d <\/p>\n<p>Schur\u2019s comedy offers a timely defence of higher education and is notable for bridging the gap between academics and the general public.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/counter.theconversation.com\/content\/270934\/count.gif\" alt=\"The Conversation\" width=\"1\" height=\"1\" \/><\/p>\n<p class=\"fine-print\"><em><span>Barbara K Seeber received a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council Institutional Grant at Brock University. <\/span><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Season 2 of Netflix\u2019s A Man on the Inside finds Charles Nieuwendyk, private investigator and retired engineering professor (played by Ted Danson), undercover at Wheeler College. The mission: recover the college president\u2019s laptop. This might not seem juicy, but said laptop contains sensitive information about a $400 million donation by a tech multibillionaire, Brad Vinick. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":264,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[9],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.professional-astrology.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/262"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.professional-astrology.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.professional-astrology.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.professional-astrology.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.professional-astrology.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=262"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/www.professional-astrology.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/262\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":265,"href":"http:\/\/www.professional-astrology.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/262\/revisions\/265"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.professional-astrology.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/264"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.professional-astrology.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=262"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.professional-astrology.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=262"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.professional-astrology.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=262"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}