Nine Lives Kat

Oh dear..... Just when I thought this episode was cliched, you know, hardened female cop, who the men wont listen to as she's a woman who's smarter than them etc, predictable....but.. It turns it on it's head... so the first half is interesting..... But then they couldnt think of an ending so went bizarre...... A case of overthinking methinks..... more bizarre than good.

The third episode of this season of "Inside Number Nine" is a clever, if perhaps slightly too meta for its own good addition to the series.

Katrina (Sophie Okonedo) is a hard boiled, no nonsense, Police Detective. Downing Vodka with her Coco pops for breakfast, she's joined by Ezra (Steve Pemberton) who helps her go over the details of her latest case, the disappearance of a young boy. If that all sound a little cliché the writers are way ahead of you.

I don't put spoilers in my reviews, so this might need to be carefully danced around, as saying pretty much anything else about the plot of the episode is a spoiler. I will say that, thematically, it harks back to the "League of Gentlemen's Apocalypse" in some of its ideas, though the execution is very different. That a twist from that initial conceit is coming won't be a surprise - the way that the twists were built on worked for me, to a point, but the ending didn't work that well, and calling out the ending not working very well within said ending doesn't make up for it.

The three guest stars are all good though, and Okonedo, Siobhan Redmond and Robin Weaver all get to show a couple of different sides to their characters before their stories end.

It's a humorous, clever episodes, with some horror moments, but crucially not perhaps strong enough of any one of those three aspects to make this anything more than a standard episode.

Nine Lives Kat (Inside No.9 S7 E3, 2022) follows a troubled woman who is set on solving a missing child's case on her own without assistance. I loved this one! It was super unique and incredibly mindbending, also very creepy!

This episode is once again carrying on the amazing cinematography for this season and it really added to the atmosphere! The colour palettes were dark and ominous, however the shots were also very well lit and clear which I appreciated!

The characters were all written well and in-depth, and this was definitely a strong episode in terms of dialogue and acting! Sophie Okonedo was amazing as Kat and super captivating, I loved every second she was on screen! The humour worked well in this episode too and the lines were delivered well!

The editing was very reminiscent of ITV crime dramas and instantly recognisable. The editing also created a blur between reality and fiction which added deeper meaning and tension.

Alongside this, the score was very similar to those of crime shows too, and really helped to set the tone. The sound design was effective and had me on edge and pretty spooked!

This was a super creepy episode and I was genuinely scared watching it, parts really reminded me of Insidious (2010)! I have a lot of dreams where it's constantly dark and this really got to me when watching the episode. In addition, the shot in the credits made me jump and I absolutely loved it.

Lastly, the structure was very interesting and I liked how the story built up and unfolded, adding new layers to the plot. The episode, as with most inside no.9 episodes, had so many twists and turns, which never fail to shock me and have an impact.

The story of a missing boy, told from different angles.

Multi layered, complex, very zany, it seems that every series has one episode, where you need to each several times to understand what's going on, this is such an episode, I watched it a second time before reviewing, as I came away scratching my head after watching it live.

I felt as though Shearsmith and Pemberton were poking fun at the absurdities of some of the recent intense, heavy crime dramas, where the plots are often absurdly complex, and near impossible to follow.

No laughs here, it's all about the mystery and intrigue, not my favourite of this series, but still enjoyable and entertaining, 7/10.

This episode reminds me of the Emma Thompson/Will Ferrell film "Stranger than Fiction", similar concept but this is obviously done in Inside No.9 fashion and I'm sure it won't let fans down!

This had more twists than all M. Night Shamalan movies! Had great social commentary as many of the episodes do, where tv/streaming is at nowadays. But thank goodness we still have strokes of genius like this left on regular TV programming.

After 7/8 years they are still pulling out the stops, this season is much better than their last so far in my opinion. Keep em coming!