3 out of 5

Created by: Reece Shearsmith, Steve Pemberton

Anthology horror comedy?  Totally count me in.  Though from ‘League of Gentlemen’ members and ‘Psychoville’ creators Shearsmith and Pemberton, that means most of our twists and turns are a bit obvious, a la ‘Black Mirror’, the tone and production design are much more desirable than their last TV outing, mostly filtering out the quirk to just leave the ‘dark’ aspect of their style intact.  So no particular episode is wowing, per se, but the six-episode series (not including the online interactive episode, ‘The Inventors’) was always interesting to watch.

Each episode takes place inside a single space (from small to large – a closet to a house) that’s demarcated, in some way, by the number 9 – house address, room number, etc.  And something odd will generally happen, where everyone is gathering in a closet, or there’s a death, or the local homeless man comes to stay.  The idea sprang from Psychoville’s single-room, two-take episode, which was certainly an worthwhile accomplishment (and one of that series better episodes) if a bit too staged.  Thankfully, ‘Inside’ doesn’t try for single takes, just using the isolated setting as a way to streamline the ideas and writing, which it does very well.  All characters and happenings are central to that week’s installment, and the anthology format means that there’s no need for a forced over-arcing mystery.

The tone is also unique, and not just in comparison to other UK shows.  Shearsmith and Pemberton are still always involved, always in costume, and even the darkest episodes have some puns and yuks inserted into the dialogue, making for a pretty slick format where the duo can get away with a sly smile, but still fully commit themselves to an actual story, whether its light or dark or horrific.  Episode 2 is a mostly silent slapstick caper (the episode that actually got me intersted); episode 3 is a bleak examination of how the mind copes with tragedy; episode 6 is a compressed horror film.  And all of these work equally well because of that chosen tone.

Some of the more banter-based episodes (the first episode, ‘Sardines,’ the fourth episode ‘The Last Gasp’) can teeter-totter into the tedious unlikeable-ness of ‘Psychoville’, where no one is particularly interesting or relateable, but again, because we know we’re only in with whichever crowd for an hour, you can move past it and focus on the overall aim of the scripting.

‘Inside No. 9’ is another creative, sharply produced series from the BBC, generally too out-there to capture American audiences but perfectly in line with a history of off-color sketch comedy dating back to Monty Python and before.  While certainly worth the hour of TV time every week, the series never quite manages to push past expected cliches when it comes to twists and turns, or, in some cases, adding a twist unnecessarily, keeping it from pushing past the ‘interesting’ barrier into something that’s required viewing.