Anyone has it in them to snap and become a murderer, Stanley Tucci’s death row inmate ominously warns in Inside ManA 4-episode BBC One/Netflix crime drama that’s currently dominating the streamer’s Top 10 chart in the US.
“All it takes is a good reason, and a bad day.”
Tucci here plays Jefferson Grieff, a prisoner on death row in the US who uses his power of deduction to try and stop one of those bad days — specifically, a murder — from unfolding.
Inside Man Netflix
Steven Moffat, Emmy- and BAFTA-winning writer and a former writer to internationally acclaimed British series like “The Crown”, is the Netflix writer. SherlockAnd Doctor Who. His Inside Man is a four-part mini-series in which Tucci’s prisoner, a vicar in a quiet English town played by David Tennant, and a math teacher (Dolly Wells) trapped inside a cellar all cross paths in an unexpected way.
By way of a little more background, it’s perhaps worth pointing out how I’ve noticed an interesting phenomenon when it comes to many of Moffat’s projects that viewers might also find to be the case here.
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From a distance, if you don’t look at them too closely? Moffat’s shows are fine — with moments, even, of episodic brilliance. Moffat wrote some of my most favorite shows. Doctor WhoFor example, scenes and episodes. However — and this is just my opinion — I’ve also watched enough Moffat-penned TV to feel like he writes from the top down and doesn’t always seem to let things unfold organically.
His Spaceship with DinosaursAnd Let’s Kill HitlerThe episodes of Doctor WhoThese titles felt like they were just random ideas, and had entertaining stories built around them. Similar with Inside Man — it felt like Moffat had a bare-bones idea for a story here and then just kind of shoehorned it into existence, paint-by-numbers style.
Reaction
Poor viewing habits despite being the #1 show on Netflix US right now Rotten Tomatoes reviews (from both critics and viewers – 58% and 41% scores, respectively) seem to speak to the same thing. That there’s basically a lot of nonsense that was cobbled together for the story, and the only thing saving Inside ManIt is not a complete failure. One would expect nothing less from actors such as Tucci and Tennant when they are involved in this production.
The plotting here, according to the Rotten Tomatoes critics’ consensus, is “clunky and predictable.”Be aware of these things before you decide to watch the latest Netflix hit.
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