3 by 3

Inside No. 9 - S8E5 - 3 by 3

Three teams of three compete in a TV knowledge quiz for cash prizes. The whole episode gives the impression of a real TV quiz, and only the final twist puts it in the context of the "Inside No. 9" series.

The episode is about as entertaining as mediocre TV quizzes get, and the twist at the end is pretty predictable if you've been watching carefully. For viewers who, like me, didn't watch it in its original telecast, this is a mediocre episode at best, maybe even one of the worst. But we missed its essence.

For this occasion, a fake advertisement and trailer for the non-existent episode that will be aired were filmed. People who, in anticipation of the new work of Pemberton and Shearsmith, sat down in front of their TVs were unpleasantly surprised by the fact that instead of a new episode of "Inside No. 9" a TV quiz was being broadcast. "3 by 3" does not have the usual opening credits and, for the first time in eight seasons, none of its authors act in it, so the audience had no way of knowing that it is a new episode and not a real quiz. Many gave up watching after a few minutes, but those who stayed in front of the small screens were in for a rather shocking surprise at the end. When you know what you're watching, that final twist is nothing special, but if you believe you're watching a live TV quiz, the finale is complete madness.

Taken out of context, this episode is a six or less, but I believe that if I had watched it when it originally aired, I would have given it at least an eight or even nine.

6/10.

Unfortunately, because I downloaded this episode rather than watching it live, some of the meta messing with the audience that this episode did to real time viewers was a bit lost on me. So unlike with the earlier "Dead Line" I knew what this episode was (or perhaps what it wasn't) before I saw it. In and of itself, I'm afraid it's a second episode where I caught on to what was happening to quickly for my own good and guessed from the film references what would happen at the end.

Lee Mack's brand-new BBC quiz show sees 3 teams of 3 players compete against each other for a chance to win a cash prize. The three teams, a choir, two parents and their daughter and a man, his girlfriend and his ex, answer general knowledge questions and win cash. But within one of the teams the tension is palpable.

I generally write my reviews without spoilers and will try to do so again here. I do remember really really enjoying the "Dead Line" twist, including the real world tweets that played into the episode. I didn't get a chance to participate in that this time, which was unfortunate. Also, I thought that the sexist humour of 70's shows like "On The Buses" would be rife for a post-modern appraisal and that Pemberton and Shearsmith would be ideally placed to have their cake and eat it too in that world, but alas that's not to be. What I did get to see was a well-produced episode with Lee Mack performing admirably as the quiz show host, he's so natural you have to wonder whether it was all scripted or he was adlibbing much of it. It didn't perhaps feel quite like a real quiz show though, it was a little slower and less professional than they appear, and I struggled to imagine that anyone was genuinely thinking that the show would be real.

Unfortunately, as with last week, I zeroed in on what they were doing pretty quickly and was left waiting and hoping for a bit more than the episode actually provided. "Oh, they're doing ....." a movie I can't tell you without giving it away, I thought, and indeed they were. It wasn't bad, Lee Mack provided some good comedy moments to it, but I'm again left with an episode that doesn't quite meet my lofty expectations for the series.

There are a few things I have come to expect from an episode of Inside No. 9:

1. Creativity (and the unexpected)

2. Brilliant performances

3. Clever writing full of misdirection, red herrings and subtle foreshadowing to pick up on a rewatch

4. Building tension

5. Immaculate production design

6. Story and characters I'll think about long after the end credits

...and '3 By 3' had it all.

The story of the Oakwoods is fixed in my head now and the performances of Saskia Wakefield and Gemma Page are among the show's most enjoyable (not to mention a brilliantly natural Lee Mack!)

There's so much to unpick and all within a realistic game show framework - itself a wonderful parody of dreary daytime television (with music, graphics and camera work spot on). A thing of beauty, I love it.

Lee Mack hosts a brand new gameshow, in which three trios compete against one another, answering General Knowledge questions to win a cash prize.

The first thing I'll say, totally original, as soon as the station announcer said that where was going to be a change, I expected some sort of shenanigans going on, similar to the live Halloween episode, I expected the episode on the buses, this was something very different.

A slow burner, but I have a strong feeling that this is going to become one of those that improves with age, personally I thought that last week's was the far superior episode, but I still really did enjoy this one, especially that totally unexpected shock at the end.

Lee Mack was great, and what a cracking idea for a game show, a better format than most of the ones running now.

Not a cast I'm hugely familiar with, apart from Lee Mack that is, Gemma Page, who played Margaret is perhaps the most well known face, she recently appeared in The Raoul Moat dramatisation.

8/10.

In my opinion, this is the best episode they've ever done. The ending absolutely blew my mind! You would think that after eight seasons, Reece & Steve would struggle to find more ways in which to surprise and shock the audience, but they've done it again. I was also a big fan of the guest actor in this episode - he was not a choice I had expected, but I was wowed nontheless.

Viewers have also long been anticipating an episode featuring a bus as the 'number 9' location - some of which may find the artistic choices made in this episode somewhat controversial, but then again, it's not Inside No. 9 if it isn't just a little bit divisive.