A high-profile cast and Stephen Moffat's writing convinced me to give the BBC's Sunday night drama "Inside Man" a go. I'm going to review this as season one, assuming from the mid-credits tease and the plot strands left unexplored that the plan at least is to make some more.
Beth Davenport (Lydia West) interviews death row convict Jefferson Grieff (Stanly Tucci) about a side-line he's been running as a consultant criminologist from his prison cell. Meanwhile, in a leafy London suburb, Harry Watling (David Tennant) the Reverend of the town, makes a catastrophic decision and a series of escalating misunderstandings lead to him trapping his sons Maths tutor Janice Fife (Dolly Wells) in his basement. Janice and Beth are friends though, and when she receives a concerning text, Beth engages Grieff to help her find out what happened.
It's a tough one this. I think it's because rather than being all good, or terrible, there were aspects of this show that I enjoyed and bits that really frustrated me. Let's start with the negatives, the show's tone felt smug to me, not smart like "Sherlock" (mostly) was but pleased with itself, that it has secrets it delays in telling you for no real reason. The London side of the story, particularly at the start relies on Watling to make a wild decision, to protect another character at the risk of himself and his family, that doesn't ring true and I spent much of that first episode thinking 'phone the Police and explain, they'll be able to forensically verify the story' but he doesn't and it's very frustrating. I also think there are aspects of the American story that are very heavy-handed, particularly the booming modern gospel that hits with every exterior shot of the Prison. The resolution of Watlings story was underwhelming and lacking in the clever twist I was hoping for.
But. The performances are very good, as you might expect from such a great cast. Moffat's script favours wit and humour over realism and once you adapt to that unreal nature, I found that enjoyable, particularly the later interactions between Tennant and Lyndsey Marshal who plays his wife and appears to have been waiting for this to happen for years. I'm interested in the bits of the story related to Jefferson Grieff, it seems unlikely that he really killed his wife, so what happened and why is he prepared to be executed for it.
I think there's potential here for something interesting, particularly if the show refocuses on Grieff, or gives him another case to deal with, but I'd hope for that case to be a little less frustrating and perhaps a little craftier.
Beth Davenport (Lydia West) interviews death row convict Jefferson Grieff (Stanly Tucci) about a side-line he's been running as a consultant criminologist from his prison cell. Meanwhile, in a leafy London suburb, Harry Watling (David Tennant) the Reverend of the town, makes a catastrophic decision and a series of escalating misunderstandings lead to him trapping his sons Maths tutor Janice Fife (Dolly Wells) in his basement. Janice and Beth are friends though, and when she receives a concerning text, Beth engages Grieff to help her find out what happened.
It's a tough one this. I think it's because rather than being all good, or terrible, there were aspects of this show that I enjoyed and bits that really frustrated me. Let's start with the negatives, the show's tone felt smug to me, not smart like "Sherlock" (mostly) was but pleased with itself, that it has secrets it delays in telling you for no real reason. The London side of the story, particularly at the start relies on Watling to make a wild decision, to protect another character at the risk of himself and his family, that doesn't ring true and I spent much of that first episode thinking 'phone the Police and explain, they'll be able to forensically verify the story' but he doesn't and it's very frustrating. I also think there are aspects of the American story that are very heavy-handed, particularly the booming modern gospel that hits with every exterior shot of the Prison. The resolution of Watlings story was underwhelming and lacking in the clever twist I was hoping for.
But. The performances are very good, as you might expect from such a great cast. Moffat's script favours wit and humour over realism and once you adapt to that unreal nature, I found that enjoyable, particularly the later interactions between Tennant and Lyndsey Marshal who plays his wife and appears to have been waiting for this to happen for years. I'm interested in the bits of the story related to Jefferson Grieff, it seems unlikely that he really killed his wife, so what happened and why is he prepared to be executed for it.
I think there's potential here for something interesting, particularly if the show refocuses on Grieff, or gives him another case to deal with, but I'd hope for that case to be a little less frustrating and perhaps a little craftier.