As the first episode of Inside Man begins, a boy harasses Beth Davenport (Lydia West) on the bus. A woman takes a picture of him. He forces the woman to give him her phone so he can delete the picture. He throws her phone behind her before telling her to go fetch it. Janice Fife (Dolly Wells) gets involved. She pretends to be live streaming the man on Facebook to get him to stop. Once they get off the bus, Beth makes sure to thank Janice for her help. Janice admits she doesn’t have Facebook on her phone since she barely knows how to use it. Beth wants to do an interview with her, but Janice doesn’t think she has anything interesting to say. Beth gives her a card so they can chat if she changes her mind. Before the conversation ends, they agree to get together for coffee sometime.

At a prison in the United States, Jefferson Grieff (Stanley Tucci) and Dillon Kempton (Atkins Estimond) get a visitor who is warned that Dillon killed 15 women. Dillon claims it was 14 since one of the women died due to an infection in the hospital. Claude Kreiner (Simon Delaney) is left alone with them. Jefferson confirms he has made no attempt to appeal his sentence because he is guilty. Dillon is Jefferson’s recorder since he has a photographic memory. Claude was accused of sexually assaulting two women in college thirty years ago and he is a senator from Arizona. Claude says he was accused three decades after it happened and he was found innocent. That isn’t why he is here though. They discuss one woman who refused to accuse him and she is now working in his office. Claude says a sum of money has been paid into his bank account for the last three months.

The amount is the same every time. It is $253.55. The deposits are made every time Claude has sex with his wife. It usually takes two or three days for the payments to reach his account. Jefferson begins laughing before saying he has a very obvious guess. Any case he takes has to meet certain criteria so Jefferson isn’t going to take his case. He tells him that he raped at least one of those women and mentions the amount again. As they go back to their cells, Jefferson tells Dillon that Selena is doing lots of stuff in the senator’s office including bill pay. He encourages him to think about it because everything makes sense when you think about it long enough. Harry Watling (David Tennant) says goodbye to the members of his church after the session ends for the day. When he returns to his office, Edgar (Mark Quartley) interrupts to ask if he can hide the porn on his flash drive.

His mom is coming and she will end up searching his stuff because she is really strict. Harry notices cuts on Edgar’s wrists as he takes the flash drive, but warns him that he might just throw it away. Hilda (Tilly Vosburgh) joins them moments later. Before he leaves, he lets Hilda know that Edgar is doing very well. Once they’re alone, Hilda asks her son where the flash drive went since she saw him take something out of the computer. When he says he doesn’t have anything, Hilda begins slapping him. She says she’ll just keep looking until she finds them before she slaps him again. She asks if it was the usual. Hilda calls it sinful and taking it away is for his good. Dillon knows that Selena started working for Claude two years, twelve months, and six days ago. Jefferson says they should imagine that Mrs. Kreiner has a private conversation with her a few months ago. During that conversation, she learns that her husband is a rapist. Jefferson suggests you’d consider some form of therapy after that.

When the Warden arrives, Jefferson tells him that the senator’s case didn’t meet his criteria. He thinks the Warden let him through because he is a vocal opponent of the death penalty. Then, he learns that a journalist named Beth Davenport wants to interview him. Jefferson has pled guilty and accepted his punishment so he has nothing else to say. The Warden warns him that she’ll write the article anyway so he might as well make her like him. When they begin talking about how Jefferson ended up in there, he says everyone is a murderer and you have to meet the right person. When Harry picks up Janice, they begin talking about Ben (Louis Oliver) who is described as clever and lazy. She gets a text from Beth arranging to get a coffee together before Harry begins complaining about young people.

They reach Harry’s home where they say hello to his wife Mary (Lyndsey Marshal). Ben offers to do work around the house so he can earn 70 pounds because he wants to go to a music festival. He even wants to cancel the session with Janice even though she is already there. As they continue talking, Harry throws Edgar’s flash drive into the bowl with his keys. Ben finds the flash drive and hands it to Janice. When Harry finds out, Ben offers to cover up for him in exchange for 70 pounds so he can go to the music festival. Ben tries to get it back from Janice who has already inserted it into the computer’s port. Janice wants to talk to Harry in private. Once Ben leaves, Janie explains that the files contain child pornography. Harry insists it isn’t Ben’s since he was just trying to protect him. He will only say that a very troubled man at the church gave it to him.

Janice refuses to let it go. Harry argues there is a possible suicide risk. Since he doesn’t think she believes him, Harry blurts out that the porn belongs to him. Janice makes him swear before God that it belongs to him. Janice suggests Ben is developing an interest in pedophilia and sacrificing himself won’t save him. She wants to leave, but Harry wants to know what she is going to do first. When she reaches the front door, Harry pushes it shut. He tries to get her to think about how this could impact Ben. Janice uses her phone to pretend she is streaming him on Facebook even though he knows she doesn’t have the app. He ends up breaking her phone. Janice runs away from him but falls into the chair in the kitchen and injures her face. Harry yells to let Ben know that everything is fine while Janice tends to the cut on her face.

Harry pleads with Janice to sit down and have a cup of tea with him so they can chat about Ben until she begins screaming. He covers her mouth and ends up pushing her down the stairs to the basement. Harry locks the door so she can’t get out and sticks the keys in his pocket. Faisel (Malek Alkoni) arrives at the house to pick up Ben so they can go to the music festival. Harry makes sure they leave while Janice tries to find a way to escape the basement. He contemplates what to do. Dillon and Jefferson go to the interview room where Beth is waiting for them. They discuss the possibility of Beth recording their conversation before they begin talking about Jefferson’s history and crime. She calls him the death row detective since he often helps solve cases. She claims she is a serious journalist with a track record. Beth questions why people are bringing their problems to a man who brutally murdered his wife.

She wonders if those people find it exciting to talk to someone like him. He says she doesn’t, but she thinks her readers might. Jefferson suggests that are a lot of people she feels superior to. Beth asks about the criteria he uses to decide which cases to take. Jefferson warns her that she’ll be unable to answer that interview if he answers that question. When she asks why, he says it is because she is a decent human being. He thinks she is decent because of the contempt in her face when she looks at him. Jefferson admits the only criteria he has is moral worth. He’d like to do whatever good he can during the time he has left. It isn’t atonement because that won’t come until he is executed. He admits he is begging her not to write the article. Jefferson asks her to read the details of his case. It would be appalling if her article somehow made him seem forgivable.

Jefferson refuses to say why he killed her and will only say that it was personal. He explains he didn’t have any intention of murdering any of the people he loved. Jefferson doesn’t think she’ll write the article because there would be no moral worth in doing so. While they walk back to their cells, Dillon says Jefferson liked her because he was talking a lot. Once they get there, Dillon tries to figure out if $253.55 is some type of number code. Jefferson says no before encouraging him to focus on the therapy. As Beth leaves, she notices that she has a text message from Janice. At home, Harry and Mary discuss the possibility of feeding Janice. Harry thinks he can get Edgar to confess to her, but Mary isn’t sure he’d confess to having child porn. He contemplates going to the police. Mary argues that isn’t a good idea either because he is a man who assaulted a woman and locked her in his cellar.

They begin worrying about Janice finding something to escape or yelling and alerting someone. Mary asks him to go down there and ask Janice what she wants to eat. Mary asks about the phone and if she might’ve phoned someone. Beth looks at the picture Janice sent her. It shows Harry’s bottom half during the scuffle. Harry approaches Janice who has a hammer so she can defend herself. He insists this has gotten out of hand. She is convinced that he’ll always believe she is going to go to the police the moment she is free. She lays out the evidence that will be used to track her to his house. Janice cut herself and peed everywhere so detectives will be able to find traces of her. She promises him hell because she isn’t going to make this easy for him. Beth tries getting in touch with her again. Then, she begins reading about Jefferson’s case. Jefferson tells Dillon that Mrs. Kreiner is likely sick because of what her husband did.

Every time she has sex with him, it drives her a little mad so she goes to a therapist. She has to pay the therapist, but the money can’t come out of the usual account since her husband would see it. Instead, she asks Selena to pay the therapist out of some secret account. He doesn’t understand why Selena does it every time. He suggests she should expand the size of her cellphone screen. Jefferson shows Dillon what it might look like using a drawing. The therapist doesn’t get paid so Selena gets a reminder and pays it again. Dillon thinks it is funny that Selena thinks it says “pay the rapist” instead of “pay therapist”. The Warden arrives to tell Jefferson that Beth might have a case for him. He agrees to let Jefferson see her since she is already on her way. Dillon says he likes her. Jefferson thinks they’re just fascinated with her because she is still alive. He doesn’t think they are because they’re living the same day over and over again until someone switches them off.

Dillon says he makes this place depressing sometimes. Jefferson admits she was interesting though. He thinks she detests him.

 

Inside Man Review

The first episode of Inside Man set up the season’s story pretty well. Beth Davenport has found a new friend in Janice Fife who stopped her from being harassed by a stranger. She may be able to come to Janice’s aid now that Harry has locked her in his cellar after she found the child porn flash drive that was given to him by a man named Edgar.

Beth may receive assistance from a wife murderer on death row and his friend who has murdered 15 women. On the surface, the story sounds fascinating and it could work with this cast since it is full of reliable actors and actresses. There are some interesting ideas in Inside Man, but there are far too many eye-rolling moments. Right from the very beginning, Inside Man was an irritating, unrealistic mess thanks to the silly harassment scene in the beginning.

The first episode had so many moments that were so far out of left field that it was difficult to take anything seriously. The series had a sarcastic tone at times, especially the prison scenes in which Dillon and Jefferson were joking about prison, murder, and other things. It felt like the writers thought they were being clever, but most of the dialogue at the prison was either humorless or cringey.

The characters are shallow at this point so it isn’t going to be easy to care about any of them. Everything that happened between Harry and Janice could’ve been avoided if Harry would’ve just kept the flash drive or told Janice about Edgar. It was just forced drama to try to create an interesting story but ultimately fell flat.

It is hard to be excited after the first episode because it was so stupid at times. Nothing about it gives me the impression that it is going to improve over the next few episodes either. The opening episode scores a 4.5 out of 10. Recaps of Inside Man can be found on Reel Mockery here. Find out how to support our work by following this link.