Inside Man is a 2022 BBC crime thriller miniseries, created and written by Steven Moffat.
In Arizona, criminology expert Jefferson Grieff (Stanley Tucci) awaits his execution for killing his wife, while in England, seemingly-average vicar Harry Watling (David Tennant) meets his son's feisty maths tutor, Janice Fife (Dolly Wells). Soon, she will be trapped in the cellar under their house, and all of their lives will be set on a collision course.
No relation to the Spike Lee film.
Tropes:
- An Aesop: Being a criminal, even a murderer, doesn't mean a person is a monster. Anyone, given the right (or rather, the wrong) set of circumstances, can find themselves doing monstrous things that are otherwise unimaginable.
- All for Nothing: By the end, Mary is dead and Harry is in prison. If Harry had just given Edgar up and gone with Janice to report him, his wife would not have died and he would still be free. Also, Harry trying to protect Edgar over fears that he would kill himself were he to be arrested are this, as Edgar kills himself anyway.
- Affably Evil: Jefferson Grieff is a convicted murderer and, by his own description, "an evil piece of shit", but he's undeniably pleasant company and possessed of a sharp wit that him very enjoyable to watch, helped in no small part by being played by the absurdly charismatic Stanley Tucci. His sidekick Dillon is an unrepentant serial killer (and cannibal), but similarly pleasant and charming. A guard says his female victims voluntarily went back to his apartment, and it's not hard to see why.
- Arc Words: Harry is a fucking vicar!
- As You Know: Jefferson Grieff's backstory is told to him by a potential client. Grieff responds, "I know," to all of these observations.
- The Atoner: Jefferson Grieff. He refuses to take any measures to stop or delay his execution and is determined to simply do as much good as he can in his remaining time.
- Blatant Lies: Most of the characters tell these. Mary and Beth's meeting at Janice's home is a case in point, as neither believes the other's claimed connection with Janice (Beth that knows Mary's lying about being Janice's friend because she knows that Janice doesn't have any friends, while Mary knows that Beth's lying about being Janice's housemate because she knows that Janice lives alone).
- Brain Bleach: The plot kicks off when Janice innocently puts a USB stick into a laptop ... and sees images of child porn.
- Consulting a Convicted Killer: Jefferson Grieff, a convicted murderer on Death Row, gets consulted by a lot of people looking to solve various mysteries (strange payments, disappeared relatives, etc). Dillon, who acts as his assistant, is also a convicted murderer on Death Row.
- "Could Have Avoided This!" Plot: The whole story could have been prevented if Harry had just given Ed up to Janice. Or just left the USB stick in a desk drawer at the church or his pocket. Or Ben didn't just assume a random USB drive had the Wifi profile on it. Or if Janice had actually believed Harry when he told her the truth.
- Double Standard: Abuse, Female on Male: Pointedly averted. Ed's mum is much smaller than him, and is nice to Harry (like many abusers can be), but drops the facade the second she's alone with Ed, and starts beating him so he gives up the flash drive. Between that and his presumable guilt over looking at kiddie porn, it's no wonder he's been cutting himself.
- Establishing Character Moment: Beth and Janice are introduced in the first sequence. Beth tolerates the boorish behavior of a subway passenger, while Janice's quick thinking allows the crowd to defeat the oaf. Beth tries to form a friendship with Janice and write a story about her, but Janice is resistant. This establishes Janice as a cunning but slightly misanthropic person who will stand up for what's right (without actually thinking things through), while Beth is established as a rather meek but friendly journalist in search of good stories.
- Even Evil Has Standards: Dillon, who killed 14 people, is said to have killed 15 by the guards of his prison, but refuses to take credit for the death of his 15th victim — they were hospitalised by him, but died of an infection picked up in the hospital. We also have a situation whereby two convicted murderers (Jefferson and Dillon) are disgusted by a politician who has had several rape allegations made against him.
- Extremely Short Timespan: Aside from a prologue set six months before and two epilogues set a few days or weeks after, the entire series takes place over a couple of days.
- Good Shepherd: Harry, a Church of England vicar whose regular congregation includes at least one out-and-out atheist. The whole plot is set in motion thanks to him trying to protect Edgar (a member of his congregation) from being arrested for child pornography, fearing that he will commit suicide if caught.
- Heroic Sacrifice: Harry is entirely willing to take the fall for Edgar's paedophilia and get himself arrested for possessing child pornography. He later attempts a murder-suicide with Janice to save Mary from damnation and when Ben seemingly murders Janice, Harry gets his fingerprints on the murder weapon, calls the police and confesses to murder.
- Honor Before Reason: Harry refuses to name Edgar as the real paedophile who owns the USB stick with the child porn on it. He'd rather take the blame himself, knowing full well that he would be utterly ruined as a result. His martyr complex, definitely inspired by a certain guy he works with as a churchman, actually always ends up making things worse for everyone he tries to save with his self-sacrificing.
- Ignored Epiphany: Implied. While having a friendly chat with the deliveryman Harry suddenly screams at him to fuck off, pulls the tape off the basement door and barges into the basement, seemingly to save Janice. He is met with Ben standing over Janice's what-seems-to-be corpse. He decides to take the blame for Janice's murder, and when he learns Janice isn't dead, decides to actually murder her.
- I Need a Freaking Drink: With her husband shielding a paedophile and imprisoning a woman in the basement, Mary can be forgiven for reaching for the whisky. Eventually, she dispenses with the glass and just swigs from the bottle.
- The Internet Is for Porn: Mary, who is well aware that this is all her son uses the Internet for, complains that when she tried to look up how to commit a murder on the Internet, all she could find was porn.
- Irony:
- Harry sets about the whole plot to prevent his son's life from being ruined (as Janice assumes that Ben's telling the truth when he says that the USB stick is his). As as result of Harry's actions, Ben legitimately tries to kill someone and loses both of his parents (one is killed, the other arrested), ruining his life.
- Harry refuses to name Edgar as the real owner of the child porn out of fear that Edgar will try to kill himself again. As a result of Harry's actions, Edgar does kill himself.
- Edgar leaves a note intended to clear Harry. Unfortunately he words it so vaguely that it actually leads to the police becoming suspicious of the vicar instead.
- Harry locks Mary out of the house so she won't be damned for killing Janice. Due to being outside, Mary gets killed by a lorry.
- Meaningful Name: Grieff is filled with grief over killing his wife.
- Mistaken for Paedophile: The entire plot is kicked off by a version of this trope most definitely not played for laughs. Harry takes Edgar's USB stick at his pleading, thinking that it contains regular pornography that he doesn't want his mother to find out about. Janice sees its contents and Ben, thinking the same as his dad, says it's his, thinking he's owning up to having regular porn in order to avoid an awkward moment between Harry and Janice. Unfortunately, unbeknownst to Ben, the drive is filled with child pornography and Janice believes Ben is a paedophile, leading Harry to react as he does. Later, Harry goes to extremes to protect Edgar by bringing this trope upon himself, saving the USB stick's contents to his own laptop and then downloading more child porn and even printing some of it out in order to make it look like he's the real paedo.
- My Beloved Smother: Edgar's mum seems to be this, threatening to search his things and being quite the domineering type, including resorting to physical abuse. She turns out to be justified in this, considering that she's caught him looking at child porn, and is trying to keep him from falling back into it.
- No Good Deed Goes Unpunished: Happens to both Harry and Ben. Harry takes Ed's USB filled with his pornography collection, thinking he's simply sparing him some awkward conversations with his overbearing mother, and Ben later claims it's his, sparing his dad the same with Janice. Unfortunately, the contents of it lead to Ben being mistaken for a paedophile. Harry refuses to expose Ed's secret and takes her hostage to protect Ben. The series ends with him arrested and widowed, with Grief claiming to Harry that they are no different.
- Papa Wolf: Harry imprisons Janice in his cellar because she wrongly suspects his son, Ben, of being a paedophile.
- Pet the Dog: One of the police detectives, who was previously cold and suspicious towards Harry, can be seen sympathetically patting him on the shoulder after his arrest before escorting him out.
- Poisonous Captive: Downplayed. Janice doesn't seem naturally malicious, but she immediately sets about trying to turn Mary and Harry against each other to save her own life. It fails, although she survives anyway.
- Poor Communication Kills:
- The whole mess starts when Janice mistakes Ben for a paedophile and Harry refuses to tell her the truth about where he got the USB stick.
- Harry later accidentally locks his son in the cellar and ignores his and Mary's calls. Ben nearly dies of carbon monoxide poisoning and assaults Janice with a hammer when he realises that Janice was planning to falsely accuse him or his father for child porn possession.
- The Problem with Pen Island: The solution to the mystery of how the politician in the first episode always has the same sum of money paid into his bank account a few days after having sex with his wife. Having come to believe that he raped his secretary, the wife always has to see a therapist after they have sex. Not wanting him to know that she's doing this, she instructs the secretary to "pay therapist", which the secretary mis-reads as "pay the rapist".
- Ripped from the Headlines: The senator in the first episode was accused of raping girls in college, decades earlier, but got acquitted. On top of the obvious Brett Kavanaugh reference, Grieff also name-drops "Harvey (Weinstein)".
- Sequel Hook: Grieff's declaration that he keeps the story of his wife's murder and the fact that he's getting a new case before his execution seem to hint at a possible season 2.
- Staircase Tumble: Janice falls down the stairs of Harry's cellar in the first episode, knocking herself out. Beth later falls down a staircase in episode 4, though it's much less severe in her case.
- The Unreveal: Grieff claims that he's finally going to admit where he hid his wife's head, which will reveal his motivation for killing her, but it turns out to be a con. The head's location and the motives behind the murder remain a mystery.
- The Vicar: The fucking vicar, in Harry's case.
- The Watson: Dillon fills this role in episode one with the puzzle about the senator having a sum of money paid into his account whenever he has sex with his wife. Grieff drop hints to him, and by extension the audience, throughout the episode such as the idea of the senator's wife receiving therapy and then explains the solution to him at the end.
- Tragic Villain: Harry is only imprisoning Janice to avoid her unknowingly falsely accusing his son of paedophilla.
- Villainous Breakdown: After Beth shoves him off Janice, Harry goes apeshit and starts rambling about what a good guy he is and threatens Beth with a hammer screaming that he's a "FUCKING VICAR!"
- Violent Glaswegian: Morag, Grieff's employee. Although we never see her do anything violent (the only crime we actually see her committing is that of impersonating a police officer), she tells a lot of stories about housebreaking and assaulting people.
