The Inside

This series has just finished its UK run on ITV4, a minor satellite channel. I thought it was really good but, just as others have commented on the rotten support by Fox Network, the scheduling on ITV4 was also unhelpful. Halfway through the series, it got demoted from prime time to a graveyard slot post midnight. Still, we all have video timers . . . And the good news for UK viewers who missed an episode is that the series will be repeated from October. I wouldn't really compare The Inside to The Shield or CSI or Law & Order; those shows are similarly violent but less involving I think. The obvious comparison is with Criminal Minds - FBI specialist team, IT expert, damaged/socially inept team member, aspiring to high mindedness - but the scripts on Criminal Minds do tend towards an unpleasant didactic ism. Maybe that's why that show continues to run . .

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.

Was there any doubt this show would get canceled? After all it had 2 things going against this series from the get go. First and for most it played on FOX which is famous for and that would be keeping cartoons and reality shows for great shows, which is why I avoid the FOX network like the plague.

The 2nd would be it was too sophisticated and required the viewers to actually use their brains more than a 1/2 hour at a time 2 things fox Viewers don't have. They prefer The Simpson's, American dad, The Cleveland Show and Family Guy instead of shows such as The Insiders and Justice I hope many read my comments before you decide next time to watch a complicated shows like the Insiders on FOX, heed my warning steer as clear away of it. That way you won't ever be disappointed when its AXED also while your at it NBC is just as bad as Fox when it comes to yanking great shows off the air that have serious depth to them.

Just a small comment on this show it was a brilliant and it was a well written show that should of lasted more than 13 Episodes. This show makes any of the CSI's look like a poorly written sitcom. This was a show that just had to be watched weekly, few shows can even come close to this one and yet only 13 episodes were made. It such a shame to lose it I'd give it a 20 out of 10 if I could but I can't so I gave it the next best thing, a perfect 10.

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.

You see, I'm a TV jinx. Any show I like, no matter what the network, is sure to be canceled abruptly with no explanation. I liked this show from the first episode, and after the second episode it went on "hiatus", and then was abruptly canceled. The same thing happened with "Nowhere Man" (FOX), "Now and Then" (CBS?), "John Doe" (FOX), "The Fugitive" (the remake series, I forget the network), and many, many other shows that I grew to like. I'll try not to let it happen again. Maybe I'll try liking really bad shows like "So You Think You Can Dance", or "Survivor" or any one of those other insipid reality shows. Maybe then the networks will cancel them and leave the good shows on the air. Only problem is, what will I watch then?