Inside Man

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.

This show sets up some contrived circumstances, in the first episode, somewhat rapidly in succession. Without going into details it requires a fair bit of suspension of belief, because literally none of those events would occur anything like that.

There's language that people don't really use in real life, that are somewhat more common in niche circles - and I notice this is for some reason common in British, and in particular BBC television series. I'm not really sure what it is about the BBC, but they have a way of creating TV that is particularly out of touch with reality.

On the positive side the acting is fine, the characters would be fairly compelling if in slightly less contrived scenarios and it isn't boring by any means, it just has a persistent distracting quality about it.

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".

A prisoner on death row works with a British journalist, the ultimate mission is to discover a missing teacher.

This is a hugely original, imaginative drama, it serves to ask the question, what lengths with a normal, everyday, caring person go to to protect someone that they loved.

If you're a fan of writer Stephen Moffat, as I am, you'll know he's capable of writing some incredible stuff, Sherlock and Doctor Who, you'll also know he's capable of writing some trash ......Sherlock and Doctor Who for example. This is a mix of both, some elements are amazing, some are quite poor.

If you're prepared to accept that reality is abandoned early on in episode one, you may just enjoy this, Part four is insane, it's wild and over the top, I loved it.

David Tennant is awesome (when isn't he,) Stanley Tucci was just phenomenal. The acting was perhaps the best thing about it, the two were captivating, but everyone played their part.

It's full of holes, so many times you'll be scratching your head, wondering what's going on. How thick were those walls??

7/10.

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.