| The Inside (2005–) | |
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Rating: 8.1/10 (953 votes) Director: N/A Writer: Howard Gordon, Tim Minear Stars: Rachel Nichols, Adam Baldwin, Katie Finneran, Nelsan Ellis Runtime: 42 min Rated: TV-14 Genre: Crime, Drama, Mystery Released: 08 Jun 2005 |
| Plot: A rookie FBI agent is recruited as the new violent crimes task force profiler to solve murder cases. | |
This show was created by Tim Minear, who’d also worked on another short-lived Fox series, Firefly. That’s where the similarities end, pretty much, because The Inside is a dark and twisted crime procedural. Seriously, it makes Criminal Minds look fluffy and happy – and somehow the gore is extra-gruesome, making me feel actively nauseous several times. So why did I just re-watch it in its entirety?
Because there was potential. First of all, the procedural elements work as stand-alone stories, but there’s always more to it than that. We always learn more about the characters, most of all Rebecca Locke, who understands killers and victims but not people, but we get enough of the others to grow attached. I like that we see the characters and their relationships grow and change over the course of those 13 episodes. They go some very dark places (sometimes seemingly gratuitously so, which I don’t like), and at times one wonders how different Virgil Webster is from the killers he’s hunting, but it all mostly works.
If the show had gone on, we probably would have had the chance to learn more about the rest of the team – I would have liked that.
Dark and twisted procedural
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The Inside (2005)
Summary
Legendary FBI profiler Virgil “Web” Webster heads up a team of agents who all serve distinct purposes for him. This is true most of all of newbie Rebecca Locke, whose traumatic childhood experience as a kidnap victim Web uses over and over to solve horrific murders. The show only got 13 episodes, but most of them are solid, not just as procedural stand-alones but making me want to see where the characters are going, even if that’s some pretty dark places.