Mr Inbetween
2018
Original language: English
- crime
- drama
The story
Ray Shoesmith is a father, ex-husband, boyfriend and best friend: tough roles to juggle in the modern age. Even harder when you’re a criminal for hire.
What it’s like
Flat, handheld-leaning Australian suburban frames, with much of the action in parked cars, beige kitchens, and dim pubs lit by sodium streetlight and the blue wash of phone screens. The palette is muted and grubby, browns, greys and sun-faded Sydney-outer-suburb yellows, with the occasional jolt of violent colour when things go wrong. Scenes often sit a beat too long on awkward silences, and the soundtrack leans on tinny pop and sudden silence rather than a swelling score. The vibe is bleak, deadpan and darkly funny, the kind of show that feels queasy and self-conscious at once, best suited to a late night alone or a bingeing weekend when you want something sour and sharp. Pacing is brisk in the crime beats and loose in the domestic ones, and the emotional register swings between gallows humour and raw, uncomfortable tenderness. Its central figure is a hired fixer slowly splitting himself between the men who pay him and the people he loves, and the arc is one of self-deception cracking under pressure. Violence is frequent and sometimes brutal, with blunt, bloody confrontations and some sexual content and strong language throughout; it is not gentle. It is made for viewers who like morally compromised antiheroes, black comedy with an edge, and character-driven crime that does not look away.
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