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WHAT IT LACKS IN ORIGINALITY,
"THE INSIDE" MAKES UP FOR IN CHILLS
June 24, 2005
It's a darn good thing that Fox threw a heap of talent at "The Inside," the network's creepy new thriller. Without a super-smart showrunner like Tim Minear, and without a capable group of actors like Rachel Nichols and Adam Baldwin and Peter Coyote, there just wouldn't be much here to see - just a dank "Silence of the Lambs" retread retrofitted for the small screen.
Lucky for Fox they snared the people they did, and as a result, "The Inside" makes for an enjoyable summer spook fest, although it may be too formulaic to rise to the next level (or stick around for more than a few months). Way back when this thing was announced, it was supposed to be a "21 Jump Street" for a new generation with Nichols playing an FBI working deep undercover in high school. That idea was scrapped when Minear (who's written for "Angel" and "Firefly") was hired and rebuilt the show's premise from scratch. But Nichols was kept around for "The Inside" 2.0, hinting that Fox execs think she's TV star material.
They might be right. The blonde, waify actress is undeniably attractive, but her face carries a haunted, hallowed-out quality that makes her seem strong and self-assured on the outside, damaged on the inside. It's a perfect fit with her character, special agent Rebecca Locke, an FBI profiler who was kidnapped as a child and held prisoner by her captor for some time. She escaped and eventually changed her name, but agent Virgil Webster (Coyote), her new boss, thinks her past suffering makes her an ideal investigator for special cases.
And by "special," I mean grim, gruesome, and oh so bloody. What I don't mean is surprising. Disappointingly, the cases Locke helps solve have been fairly obvious whodunits. Astute viewers should have easily fingered the retired cop as the murderer-rapist the second he showed up in episode two.
But while the cases haven't intrigued, the interplay between Webster and his team has made "The Inside" better than the average procedural. Webster wouldn't qualify as one of the world's best bosses. He's secretive. He's controlling. And he's not above placing one of his agents in mortal danger just to catch a bad guy. Coyote can take a weasel role like this and swat it out of the park without even trying. But, surprisingly, he seldom gets the chance outside the occasional late-night HBO flick. It's great to see him working his mojo on network TV.
Agent Paul Ryan (Jay Harrington) balances things out as the team's conscience, while Baldwin, playing agent Danny Love, does what he does best - providing the muscle and comic relief at the same time. (It's a cool, unexpected moment in episode three when a young boy pulls a plastic gun on Danny, who, instead of scolding the boy, shows him how to properly hold the fake weapon.)
So far, the team has snatched their villain by episode's end every week, and while the chase is stylish and fun, one can't help but to conclude that we've all seen this before. It's "Seven" meets "CSI" - a favorite TV genre splashed with a bit more blood than usual. Still, it's original television done by an intelligent cast and crew that entertains more often than not. During the dry summer months, that's often all a committed couch potato needs to tune in.
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