The Inside

I have found this on my must see list of shows for the week. It has a number of hooks that brings me back each week. The reference to Silence of the Lambs has definite merit. However, I have seen a number of other comparisons such as Coyote's vague similarity to Mark Harmon. But, I still go back to the show for it's own merit. I have hope that the show will survive and be on the coming season's lineup, or brought back in at mid-season. I think Locke has the ability to carry the character which she has demonstrated up to this point. She recently made the adjustment to become one of the crowd, and attempt to lose her standoffishness.

What is the matter with FOX? And what was wrong with The Inside? Too gory for the eyes of puritans? This is just like "Millenium." Remember that? Great show, but people complained. I wonder if the big shots consider the opinions of people outside the U.S.. We are watching the same shows, too, and paying to watch them. It is amazing how the rest of the world that watches cable TV is not even taken in consideration when canceling shows. Same thing happened to "Bones." What is the point of showing it if you know that in the States it has already been canceled. I mean, we are seen the previews here in Panama cause it will air in March, but we already know it won't last long. What's the point in even starting to watch it. It's like giving a lollipop to a child, and then, take it away. WAY TO GO GUYS!!! LET'S KEEP THE STUPID SHOWS ON AIR. THEY MAKE AUDIENCE BUT ARE TOTALLY BRAINLESS. IS THIS TELLING US SOMETHING?

Fox is, I gather, legendary for canceling shows. This one where all the episodes were not even sent is at present doing its second complete run over here, first TV3 and now TV6 – Sundays at 9 pm. Although the plots with a captured Rebecca Locke were a bit repetitive, they were nevertheless well executed and played with a peculiar somewhat alienated intensity by Ms. Nichols, who is not only beautiful but obviously has considerable acting potential, as she also showed in Alias. The rest of the cast were quite good also, and the show should have been given at least two full seasons to develop such things as the relationships within the group of investigators including their weird leader. For the series was developing, and the last episodes had a greater directness and also better scripting. The series might well have made better in the ratings had it been aired in the autumn, for example. As it is, one suspects Fox to have a very strange policy of producing shows they don't believe in and then doing their damnedest to ensure their non-success. It can't be a good business strategy.

The mercurial FBI Agent Virgil Webster (Peter Coyote) leads the L.A. Violent Crimes Unit. After losing an agent, rookie agent Rebecca Locke (Rachel Nichols) joins the group. As a 10 year old, she was held prisoner for 18 months and escaped. It's a past that only Webster is purview to as he tries to use her experience from The Inside.

The obvious question is why this show crashed and burned while a similar show like 'Criminal Minds' keeps going and going and going. It has to be both the show and what Fox does with the show. For Fox, this was nothing but a summer burn-off. They aired the episodes in a jumbo and dump them like dirty laundry. The show has a bit of serial element and showing the episodes out of order doesn't help. Criminal Minds is an easy to digest police procedural. There is hardly any serial element to the show and CBS actually supported it.

The central aspect of Locke's past is a bit too fake and the show is trying to make her too special. She is still a rookie after all. As for the look of the show, it is very stark and somewhat dark. The visual is almost drained of color. In fact, the most color in the show comes from some dream sequences. The show makes a basic mistake that some of these serial killer show at the time makes. The dark material convinces the showrunner to film it darkly. The material is dark enough that it doesn't need to be starkly filmed. It drains the life out of the show. With a few tweaks and actual support from Fox, this could have been a successful show.

I thought that the first episode was very promising. Kind of a cross between CSI and Without a Trace. There was also a small trivia bit when Adam Baldwin's character said he was in the marines and tried to give himself a tattoo. Baldwin of course played Animal Mother in Full Metal Jacket and was a Marine. There are way too many shows of this variety out, but this one in my opinion is the better of them. It is also somewhat like Silence of the Lambs without Hannibal Lector. Rebecca Locke is very much like special Agent Starling, and the killers are much like Buffalo Bob. Fans of the Lector movies will like this show. In all, the show should hold it's own during the summer, but it might get hard during the fall, if it lasts that long.