10/10 would recommend: Inside No. 9

I was recently recommended a show by the name of Inside No. 9 and having little idea what it was about, I jumped straight in there. And boy did I like what I saw.

Now, I've been watching the second series of the show but fortunately, every episode is entirely self contained so you can watch them out of order or skip ones entirely, similar to Black Mirror. And the comparison to Black Mirror is appropriate because this show is master of many things. It may not be trying to talk to the audience about the possibilities of technology but it does have a constant humour and an unexpected mastery of tension. Another shared love is the twist at the end. Black Mirror relied less on this but No. 9 loves it and to it's credit, pulls it off very well, time after time. What's also interesting is how much the episodes vary. Of the four I've seen so far, here's the gist. And don't worry, no spoilers.

The first episode is about six people in a carriage of a night train across France. It features awkwardness, backstabbing and Jack Whitehall holding up a box for a man to take a shit into.

The second episode is easily the best I've seen so far. There's next to no humour there at all but there's constant tension, fear and a gut wrenching twist. It's the first time in a very long time that an episode of TV has made me cry and feel weak inside.

The third episode is a bit slow to start with but get going and there's some enjoyable moments. It's about two with hunters prosecuting a woman for witchcraft despite the evidence against her. A silly episode that gets unexpectedly dark in the last five minutes.

The fourth episode is set in a good Samaritan call center and is best watched knowing as little as possible about it. It's a slow build but as the humour fades out, the tension takes it's place. It'll keep you on the edge of your seat till the last seconds.

That's a brief overview of the show and the episodes, in case you want to pick and choose. My personal advice though? Watch every single episode. It's worth it. They're all (at time of writing) on BBC IPlayer and I do think you should give them a watch. There's two more episodes coming out each Thursday and I await them with baited breath. Do check this show out because at it's worst, it's a well made show that plenty of thought has gone into. But at it's best, it's some of the smartest British TV in years, maybe ever.