Inside Man

My title says it all. Two of my pet plot peeves are stupidity (the characters do something stupid to move the plot forward) and contrivance (circumstances beyond credibility to move the plot forward). So masterful in so many ways, it is a shame that this plot seems written by a drunk amateur shouting out random ideas ("hey, and then this could happen!...").

The best bit was Stanley Tucci's and Atkin Estimond's neo-Sherlock/Watson rendition. Great character concept, actor pairing, and portrayal. The only downside (again) was the fairly contrived scenarios they were challenged to solve. But I could watch them banter all day.

I would reboot the series around Tucci and Estimond and hire a professional writer to focus on plot structure and you would have winner to rival "Sherlock" and "Elementary".

I dont understand why the negative reviews? Moffat developed a tongue in the cheek thriller. I think that people who gave this series 1 star dont understand the quirky, playful script behind it. They take it all very seriously and dont grin as the the story develops.

It is not a drama, it is not a thriller that will make you sit at the edge of your couch. Did you guys watch "The Woman in the House Across the Street from the Girl in the Window"? Did you think that was a real crime show? This is a implausible but playful TV series that will hook you to Netflix for four hours because everything that sounds very illogical will tie to a ending and everything will work out. And your heart will pound to know what will happen in the end!

Relax, just sit and enjoy the show. Dont take everything too seriously! This one will make you disconnected from the world over the weekend! Quite good and very enjoyable light series!

This show pulled me in within the first 15 minutes. The storyline is a complicated, frustrating mess from the off. It is a reminder how anyone can find themselves in a predicament which leads them to do silly things that they would never have thought possible. The first episode is the best for comic value but the episodes get a little darker as they go along and the last is the most frustrating but not in a bad way. It is just like the characters. All likeable, but annoying because of the things they do. This is definitely set up for a sequel and I will be tuning in. Very smart script and so very watchable.

I decided to watch this despite mixed reviews because I love Stanley Tucci. As per usual, Stanley does a great job especially given the writing he had to work with. Tucci and the other death row inmate are fantastic together and it would be a much more interesting show if it was just based on them solving cases. Instead there is a horrible second story involving David Tennant. This is where the show goes off the rails. Tennant's character makes the worst decisions imaginable. I caught myself asking why countless times just during the first episode. It makes the show so unrealistic that it's practically unwatchable. Normally I see Tennant in great roles and I have no idea why he decided to take this part. He does a solid job but his character makes such poor decisions that I don't think any human would make regardless of their level of intelligence that it makes his part of the story very hard to watch. I've seen this in a couple other reviews but if you can throw all reality out the window while watching this, you'll probably enjoy it especially if you're a fan of Tucci or Tennant. If you prefer more realistic writing and decision making by the characters, this might be a hard watch for you. Essentially if you desperately need something to watch, give this a try but there are countless other shows that I would recommend before this one.

I can certainly understand not liking this, but it seems like a lot of the negative takes have come from people expecting it to be something else. I guess because of who was involved in its creation, a lot of people expected something along the lines of Sherlock. Maybe there was also some misleading marketing involved, but if so, I missed it.

What it reminds me of more than anything else (and *far* more than Sherlock) is Fargo, both the movie and the FX series. It's a dark comedy with two main plot lines, one about regular people who get themselves into a criminal misunderstanding, make a series of bad decisions in the ensuing panic and progressively making the situation worse for themselves until it all unravels, and the other about a journalist collaborating with an eccentric, hyper-competent death row inmate to rescue the person who got imprisoned in one of the former group's early bad decisions. I'm not gonna deny that it's implausible and absurd, but I think that's by design.

If you go in expecting Sherlock, you'll probably be disappointed. If you go in expecting Fargo, I think it'll be enjoyable enough.