If you are like me, first of all, sorry. Second of all, you're probably pretty excited for the new season of Black Mirror, and have been gently underwhelmed by the Twilight Zone reboot's offerings so far. If this all sounds about right, I have good news: Inside No. 9 is another pitch-black high-concept anthology series out there right now, and it might just be the best of them all.
Inside No. 9 is accessible yet weird. It's simple until it isn't. Every episode is a new puzzle box to investigate. Some episodes border on high farce, others are straight-up horror movies. What ties them all together is small, but clever: Each episode takes place within Number 9, be that a house, an apartment building, a train carriage, a karaoke room, or even an office cubicle.
The show, created by The League of Gentlemen and Psychoville's Reece Shearsmith and Steve Pemberton, is a warped funhouse that lays out its mission statement in its very first episode, "Sardines". Ostensibly a weirdo farce, the half-hour segment follows a group of people at an engagement party playing a game of sardines in a closet. As it slowly fills up with participants, the conversation turns from charmingly uncomfortable to darkly ominous, before a twist ending that will make you want to rewatch the whole thing.
This is a running theme with Inside No. 9: The majority of episodes trick you into thinking you're watching one thing, then hit you with a gut punch at the end. It's rewarding not only to watch it all unfold, but to rewatch each episode and gather all the clues they gave you about the true nature of the episode the first time around. A brilliant use of this is in the season two episode "The Twelve Days of Christine," which teases everything from a ghost story to a time travel narrative before delivering a desperately inventive, sad reveal about what we've been watching. Later episodes "Diddle Diddle Dumpling" and "Bernie Clifton's Dressing Room" pull similarly excellent, somber feats.
If Black Mirror is about the dangers of unchecked technology, Inside No. 9's villain is a little more abstract, but certainly scarier: Human nature. Be it spite, jealousy, revenge, or even simply depression, each episode tells a distinctly emotional story within even its most ambitiously over-the-top episodes (The season four premiere, "Zanzibar," is a modern-day Shakespearean parody delivered entirely in iambic pentameter.)
Alongside Inside No. 9's more brutal, dramatic episodes are feats of comedy and misdirection and horror, each more inventive than the last. This is anthology storytelling at its very best, and it's time to give this underrated show the audience it deserves.
Inside No. 9's first two seasons are streaming on Hulu now. All four seasons, including a 2018 Halloween special, are currently on BritBox. Season 5 is coming soon.
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