Review: 'Inside Man' is a serviceable thriller tailormade for a Netflix binge

David Tennant in the BBC limited series 'Inside Man', which drops on Netflix on October 31, 2022. (Image via Twitter)

“This has all got very stupid,” says vicar Harry Watling, played by David Tennant, halfway through the first episode of Inside Man. And the audience can’t help but agree. This pacey but ultimately empty show is serviceable for a midweek binge on Netflix, to be easily forgotten the next morning.

When math tutor Janice Fife, played by Dolly Wells, finds explicit images of child pornography on a USB drive that she believes belongs to Harry’s son, Harry reacts by locking her up in his basement until he can convince her that the drive belongs to someone else. As this endeavour becomes increasingly complicated, Harry is left with an ever-narrowing set of unsavory choices to extricate himself from his situation. Meanwhile, journalist Beth Davenport, played by Lydia West, is doing a story on convicted murderer Jefferson Grieff, the dependable Stanley Tucci, who solves cases that have what he deems to be “moral worth”.

Inside Man is written and created by Steven Moffat of Sherlock fame. Here he reunites with David Tennant after having penned several memorable episodes during Tennant’s run as the Tenth Doctor on Doctor Who, including the instant classic 'Blink'.

Here, Moffat tries hard to examine the vagaries of human action and reaction, but ends up muddying the waters by putting his characters through a series of improbable decisions. The convoluted storyline only serves to move the plot forward, but sheds no light on why any of the characters do what they end up doing. What should be a meditation on how anyone can be driven to murder ends up being a run-of-the-mill crime thriller.

The character decisions aren’t the only inexplicable story choices, some of the plot contrivances also strain the viewer’s credulity. Why doesn’t Tennant’s vicar just go to the police - the information he has was not obtained under confession and is not subject to privilege, and clearly a crime has been committed. Which media organization is paying for Davenport to fly halfway across the world to meet a subject without a discernible story pitch? How exactly is a death row inmate meeting people and taking ‘cases’? All kinds of contrivances can be forgiven when the final product is good.

Moffat has a tendency to get caught up in intricate plots at the expense of his characters. Sherlock’s later seasons faced a similar problem, and the show ended after losing the goodwill it had built up with audiences. His River Song storyline for the Matt Smith incarnation of Doctor Who was a promising idea that overstayed its welcome with a multi-season plotline that no one could keep track of. Moffat could benefit by going back to first principles and writing for his characters rather than towards a pre-determined plot ending.

Tennant delivers a good performance as the increasingly frustrated Harry, trying hard to make his character’s inexplicable decisions seem believable. He is most effective in the scenes with his son and wife. His innate decency comes through in his interactions with his parishioner, Edgar.

Tucci uses his considerable charm to play what can only be described as budget Hannibal Lecter. Unfortunately, his character is the most let down by Moffat’s bad dialogue. Grieff’s intelligence is most often communicated by smug questions and self-aggrandizing declarations that make you want to smack him across the head and tell him to get to the point.

The production values suffer considerably in the Tucci portions which are set in the US but are clearly shot on dressed up sets in the UK. All the secondary and tertiary characters in those sequences (barring Dylan Baker’s warden) are played by British actors doing acting school versions of generic American accents. It’s a baffling creative decision to have set large portions of the show in the US and executed them so badly, especially when there’s no real story or plot reason to do so.

There is a rich tradition of excellent Brit crime dramas - Happy Valley, Broadchurch, The Fall, Luther, etc., that work both on a character and plot level, but Inside Man is not one of those. It is, however, short enough at four episodes, and entertaining enough for a binge watch when you have nothing better in your ever-expanding Netflix queue.