Watched: Inside No. 9
This is a six-part series that loosely identifies as comedy, but really becomes something more. Written and partially-performed by Reece Shearsmith and Steve Pemberton (of The League of Gentlemen fame), it often recalls The Twilight Zone, introducing itself as something innocuous and whimsical and escalating into something far more sinister. Sardines, the series opener (each episode takes place behind a different “number 9”, the number being the only plot connection), establishes a cast of ridiculous characters in a comedy of errors before becoming something altogether creepier, and it sets the tone for a wonderfully imaginative set of stories with very little overlap, instead preferring a thematic context. In this sense, it feels like Shearsmith and Pemberton’s logical next step after the equally-brilliant Psychoville, which followed a series of loosely-connected characters inhabiting the same world. The characters in this are all radically different, but each occupies an uncomfortable moral distance from the viewer, usually guilty of one attitude or another, whether it’s snobbishness, or greed, or outright selfishness. You never quite relish the grisly ends that certain characters meet, but it’d be a lie to say you feel horrified. Instead, it’s a far more fascinating middle ground that makes you look inward just as much as it makes you want to rewatch each episode. Hunt this down if you can.
