A Peek "Inside No. 9"

I watched the first two series of "Inside No. 9," the British anthology series written by Reece Shearsmith and Steve Pemberton, members of "The League of Gentlemen" comedy troupe.  I haven't seen any of their prior work that I'm aware of.  I plan to keep watching, but wanted to take the time to put down some initial impressions while I'm still early in the show's run.  "Inside No. 9" is a rarity, a long-running anthology program of thirty minute episodes where none of the stories have anything to do with each other except taking place in a location marked as "No. 9" in some way.  Shearsmith and Pemberton, both comedians, usually have roles in every episode, which range from the dramatic to the farcical.  Most of the stories are some type of black comedy with a twist at the end.  

I was a little tripped up by the first episode, "Sardines," which involves a group of partygoers playing a game of Sardines and revealing all sorts of lurid secrets in the process.  The dialogue is dense, the plot unfolds very quickly, and I had to rewatch the ending twice to untangle one of the big reveals.  Then, in the next episode, "A Quiet Night In," there is no dialogue at all.  This installment is a slapstick comedy about two hapless burglars trying to steal a painting from the home of a feuding couple.  Other episodes take place in a train car, a theater dressing room, and a 17th century barn, but the action is always kept fairly small scale.  This is wonderful for the more intimate dramatic episodes, but neither of the two horror episodes worked for me at all.  It could be a cultural thing.

It took a few episodes for me to get used to the format and the style of the humor, but I like "Inside No. 9" for its sense of scrappiness and unpredictability.  Budgets are obviously low, but there's a lot of creative ingenuity on display, and a taste for experimentation with the format.  The episodes I've enjoyed the most so far are the ones that have managed to surprise me, like "Cold Comfort," which takes place in a crisis hotline call center and is primarily filmed with stationary security cameras, and "The Trial of Elizabeth Gadge," which is the funniest take on a witch trial I've ever seen.  It's often not clear which genre an episode belongs in until it plays out completely, so part of the fun is trying to guess what the turn is going to be.  Will the domestic dramedy end in an ironic murder, a poignant reveal that the main character has been dead the whole time, or a wry subversion after someone finally admits a lie or deceit?  

So far the casts have been very good.  Shearsmith and Pemberton have turned in some strong performances, and have been joined by familiar British talent like Gemma Arterton, Jessica Gunning, and Jack Whitehall.  These episodes are old enough that I was happy to find a few departed stars like Helen McCrory and David Warner gamely playing ridiculous characters.  However, "Inside No. 9" also makes room for unexpectedly touching episodes like "The 12 Days of Christine," featuring Sheridan Smith as a woman who seems to be unstuck in time.  By the time the final reveal rolled around, I'd completely forgotten I was watching an "Inside No. 9" episode.

So far the ratio of good and middling-to-bad episodes isn't great, but I'm heartened by the fact that "Inside No. 9" has improved over the two series I've seen, with the stories getting more complex and ambitious.  Or maybe I'm just getting used to Shearsmith and Pemberton's writing.  The highs have been very high, and I like that there seems to be a determination to parody or pay homage to so many different kinds of British media, from Shakespeare troupe hijinks to "Witchfinder General."

I'm glad to have seven more series to look forward to, and will do my best not to binge them too quickly.  However, I can already tell I'm going to have a heck of a time writing up the Top Ten episodes list when I'm done.  

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