Inside No9 just doesn’t miss
Oh now, Inside No9, here is a show I’m continually impressed by with its consistent charm and intellect. This is just so clever and it can’t seem to run out of gas even when it's exhausted every genre, relationship, situation, or joke when others of its kind may tread old ground. The sharp social commentary that doesn’t feel like social commentary or an effortless balance of tone from episode to episode but however we may choose to complement this brilliant show it’ll probably find a way to dramatically tell the story of that complement. It feels like a show with so many ideas that it turns into a sort of game of witts with the audience to try to beat them to their own endings. Given out how infamous Inside No9 has become within twists and reveals, being able to be ahead of their own viewers brings the episode from good to great.
Acting/writing power duo Reece Shearsmith and Steve Pemberton (two of the most British names ever nonetheless) we see a birth every episode from all five series’ from this anthology show. Not many strings together the episodes besides Shearsmith and Pemberton having roles, minor or major in each one, and being locked into just one location. Every episode acts as a one-act play with dialogue that pops and moments are that instantly memorable. Written like the theater but still as cinematic as a feature film, Inside No9 is so good it's not even tied down formally.
Of course so radically different from its pier in the anthology genre too, the most famous example being The Twilight Zone in its many iterations or most recently another UK staple Black Mirror. Honestly, both anthology shows are formative for me, with social commentary being inherently accessible as it is intelligent. While Twilight Zone and Black Mirror have had ups and downs through the years with trying things that don’t feel polished well enough, Shearsmith and Pemberton’s creation feels fresh enough to not feel as though its time wasted. With the ladder having a rough season and a half to two seasons is where Inside no9 ultimately comes into scratch that itch in peculiarities in humanity.
For as much as the pilot episode Sardines was impressive and had many of the trademarks that would soon in nearly every episode already baked in, it’s “A Quiet Night In” in series one that had me officially hooked. Pemberton and Shearsmith prove themselves as fantastic actors now, as previously seen them as talented writers in Sardines and their range as performers will only blossom. They play two dimwitted thieves trying to steal a highly valued piece of art during a night with everyone who happens to be home, oh, and it's completely silent.
Steve plays the imbecile so well paired with Reece’s straight man, kind of. Even if he is the better thief, they’re equally as bad at stealing this one art piece. The piece in question is just nothing, literally white pieces of paper being replaced by paper towels when the actual piece is taken- for a minute. Of course a play on how much value is placed on seemingly something that looks like nothing and the lack of attention paid to it by the man and his wife occupying the homestead. Maybe is the priceless art hanging on their wall that could be any old decoration and it wouldn’t matter, or maybe it's the marital trouble we see playing out in the backdrop while the two dimwitted thieves keep hosing around. Either way, the silent performances from Dennis Lawson and Oona Chaplin are both fantastic, as are all performances in Inside No9 and then we even get a reveal at the very end that would become signature for the show moving forward.
Speaking of the twists of Inside No9, in what be one of the twisty-est episodes they have ever done is “The Bill” in series three. Archie (Shearsmith) and Malcolm (Pemberton) are two old friends out to dinner alongside Kevin (Jesse Watkins) and Craig (Phill Glenister) and all is well until tension start to rise when the classic situation of who pays the bill for a meal comes about. After a game of pinfinger and even a murder takes place, the men are in a state of panic now. Far from tension inherently sprung from splitting a bill, instead, it's a game of who is able to perform the least selfishly with now the classic Inside No9 twists that feel satisfying. Even if the ending reveal is hiding in plain sight with the waitress, Anya, (Ellie White) Pemberton and Shearsmith decline reading it as a lie since the characters kinda deserve it. The singular location saw here is banal just to have it turned into something more elaborate with the number of lies and misunderstandings that come out of the evening.
Really, “The Bill” goes to examine Archie, Malcolm, Kevin, and Craig's deep-seated brash masculinity and extreme competition inside of them all. The need to care for their friend group but without showing off that they are paying for a meal. Especially Craig, coming from a place of fortune and privilege that paying for such an expensive dinner is no big deal but now pushed to a breaking point, the truth comes out about his wealth which then adds to the domino effect the lads showing their true colors. Speaking of Craig, Phil Glenister is the standout performance here even with the typical inclusion of Shearsmith and Pemberton, never overshadowing Glenister even when each character has equal importance.
And now for maybe my favorite Inside No9 episode, series five’s “Love’s Great Adventure”. This tells the story of a financially depleted family around the holiday season who face many tribulations that life throws at them but at least they are still all together in a time where the family is most valued. Things are a bit more melancholic than a typical holiday season (more or less relatable nowadays) but it’s just a wonderful reminder that the magic of Christmas has the ability to mend even the messiest of situations with the vignette structure that opens up a new day for the Morbury family each time little Connor opens the advent calendar.
Another episode from series 5, “The Referee’s A W***er”, focuses on the lengths a referee official will go to protect a football team, now the same test of morality is similarly applied to the parental protection of a family unit. What is first the problem at hand with Trevor (Steve Pemberton) suffers an injury at work but is then let go. Then only to face his troubled son, Patrick, (Bobby Schofield) enters back into his life for the holidays, but just happened to owe some money to the wrong people at the wrong time. With the mom of the family, Jules, (Debbie Rush) really feeling like the glue that holds everyone together in the most tender of moments like Trevor's self-loathing or fixing Patrick a bowl of soup, even dealing with teenage Mia (Gabby French) fresh off of passing her driving test with her instructor, Alex, (Reece Shearsmith), also being Trevors best friend. It's the familiar energy we all know from Julia, reminding me of maternal figures from the filmography of Mike Leigh like Alison Steadman in Life is Sweet or Lesley Manville in All or Nothing complete with the feeling that simply everything will be okay. And ya know, even when things looked bleak from the Morbury family in an average home, there were still gifts under the tree.
Inside No 9 is something I can’t wait to return to, even with knowing the outcomes of each episode, it doesn’t hurt the reachability as I’m sure the clues are waiting to be spotted. Shearsmith and Pemberton crafted something so unique even with such comprehension with the anthology format, but maybe Shearsmith was onto something when he said ‘It’s not all about the twists ’ in an interview with the BFI.
