Global conspiracy comedy Inside Job sabotages its own ambitions
Shion Takeuchi and Alex Hirsch take Gravity Falls’ penchant for mysteries and conspiracy to the adult animation realm
TV Reviews Inside Job
In 2019, when Netflix announced Inside Job, its first in-house animated series, there was only a vague sense that our national perspective toward conspiracy theories and disinformation/misinformation would have degraded to the point that it since has. Space Force, The President Show, The Activist, even the brilliant Veep couldn’t keep up with the sheer speed at which “politics” deteriorated.
Creator Shion Takeuchi, former writer for Gravity Falls, does her best to navigate this change. Along with executive producer Alex Hirsch, you can tell Inside Job wants to sink its teeth into the sheer insanity and chaos of wholly invented tales, whether it’s folk legends about Sasquatch or global conspiracies like 9/11 “truthism” and fake moon landings.
Funny jokes and premises about all those concepts fly fast and furious, but even with such a talented creative team, you can’t help but get the sense that Takeuchi and Hirsch have had to limit themselves in terms of how far they take things. It’s an understandable impulse, but ultimately, it keeps Inside Job from being the kind of show it wants to be.
Reagan Ridley (an absolutely game Lizzy Caplan) is a brilliant yet dysfunctional and insecure scientist at Cognito Inc., which carries out the will of a shadow government that secretly controls the world. She’s on her way to leading a team of talented but often incompetent coworkers: horny biochemist Andre (Bobby Lee), sassy shit-talking media manipulator Gigi (Tisha Campbell), man-dolphin hybrid/supersoldier Glenn (John DiMaggio), and hypocritical, psychic mushroom creature Myc (Brett Gelman).
But J.R. (Andy Daly), Cognito’s CEO, appoints a clueless, go-getting, white sycophant named Brett Hand (Clark Duke) to co-lead the team with Reagan. Inside Job makes it clear that Brett’s promotion is based entirely on him being a white, confident, straight dude (on paper, he’s still an unpaid intern). The series does put in the work to show that Brett’s outgoing, friendly personality is an asset that curmudgeon Reagan lacks. Reagan is also burdened with baggage brought on by her mother, Tamiko (Suzy Nakamura), and, particularly, her father, Rand Ridley (Christian Slater), who was forced out of Cognito Inc. after getting drunk and wanting to blow up the sun.
Jokes like that hint at all of the potential ideas cooking in Inside Job’s premise—perhaps too many. In practice, it takes a lot of cues from American Dad!, BoJack Horseman, Rick And Morty, Venture Bros., Archer, and even Crazy Ex-Girlfriend. These comparisons point to the series’ central struggle—a lot of its themes and character development choices are meaningful and relatable, but also a bit played out. Reagan is a ball of neuroses and trauma, and Inside Job approaches its lead character in much the same way its high-concept predecessors have.
In the third episode, Reagan reacts violently when asked to hug someone, so she creates a machine that provides hugs for her, which then malfunctions and nearly causes a war with the lizard-people elite. In another episode, she struggles with romantic relationships, so she builds a robot boyfriend to practice on but soon becomes toxically attached to it just before the robot develops sentience.
As bizarre as these stories are, they feel like retreads, which makes the much bigger surprises and twists later in the season seem more random than organically revealed. Myc, the character through which most of the show’s self-aware jokes are filtered, lampshades some of these twists, literally calling “bullshit” on one of them, but it doesn’t quite elevate the show to new heights.
It’s disappointing because, premise-wise, Inside Job has so much more narrative than character development potential. Not to say the show shouldn’t develop its characters, but having the core group oversee every single conspiracy ever should provide a Venture Bros. level of intensity and reach–and the first two episodes do step up to the plate. The premiere involves replacing the “incompetent” president with a robot version that Cognito Inc. can actually control, which also malfunctions, natch–but the action escalates into a silly but exciting Terminator-meets-Manchurian-Candidate romp.
The second episode sees Reagan and Brett figuring out who to fire for budget reasons, and while it mostly involves Reagan enjoying all the brown-nosing heaped upon her by her coworkers, it ends with an Akira-esque, body-horror monster attack, a grotesque but incredible bit of animation. Inside Job’s later episodes also have ambitious premises, including dealing with a utopian moon colony and handling a literal evil lair on a hidden island, but they rarely dig into their outlandish possibilities.
This points to a fear to really commit to Inside Job’s shadow government premise due to real-world concerns, which ends up leaving the purpose of Cognito Inc. too vague. It’s cute to watch the show play coy with whether the work they do is “evil” or not (and the ambiguity is a fun running joke), but more often than not, the lack of clarity leaves viewers wanting more. There’s a lot of hate-talk toward the city and people of Atlantis; later on, it’s revealed that the Illuminati is a rival group to Cognito Inc.’s whole… thing, and these quick asides seem so much more interesting than the personal squabbles on which the show mainly fixates.
It’s also strange that Cognito Inc., with near-limitless resources, would struggle with a small group of Flat-Earthers (let alone be surprised by the fact they exist since the company’s mission is about manipulating everything in the world); later, the team is shocked that NASA has kept the existence of dangerous moon worms secret, all of which raises questions about the extent of Cognito Inc.’s influence, and more pressingly, what these people as individuals want. Reagan, at least, tries to surpass her father’s legacy at the company, but everyone else seems like they exist just for comedy schtick.
A second season might really delve into the nitty-gritty of Cognito Inc.’s capabilities, but the debut mostly revolves around Reagan’s (and to a slightly lesser extent, Brett’s) emotional damage and conflicts with her parents, where the personal interactions and role of the company overall is more intriguing. Reagan’s fight for respect and power in an absurd, chaotic bureaucracy becomes secondary to the roller coaster push-and-pull between father and daughter, which feels like a waste of a show brimming with so much nonsensical potential.
Watching Caplan’s and Slater’s characters trade barbs in a commonplace narrative about dysfunctional families is very entertaining, but again, it all feels so very familiar, even with so much here to work with. At one point, the team visits a town stuck in the ’80s, an episode ripe for sharp satire about the weird and creepy nostalgia for that era, including a Ghostbusters joke that’s both perfect and couldn’t have come at a more appropriate time.
But Inside Job still feels hesitant with its reach, opting for a kind of “both sides” acceptance of something so unhealthy and strange. The series’ foray into the world of secrets, lies, and pulled strings of shadow governments should have fun with everything around it, and when it does, it’s fantastic. Using all that potential to mine soap operatic daddy issues in this day and age is as overdone as a false flag claim.
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Every one of these new animated series looks worse than the next
There’s been a lot of poor ones this year but I really liked Ten Year Old Tom, the HBO Max show from the creator of The Life And Times Of Tim.
I love how similar Ten Year Old Tom is to Life and Times of Tim, its basically the exact same kind of humor and horrible escalating situations except at a school with a dumb kid instead of at a corporation with dumb adult. I’m still mad at HBO cancelling Tim considering a whole season probably cost less than a week’s worth of catering for Game of Thrones. At least the desperate need for streaming content meant they went back to Dildarian for this new series. Also I just checked and they are finally streaming Tim on HBO Max! For some reason it wasn’t available to stream for the last few years AND all the decent copies on youtube got taken down (even though that was the only way to watch it). I had to order all 3 seasons on DVD so I could re-watch it a year or two back.
Yeah, whenever I’ve been telling anyone about the show I’ve mentioned that it’s essentially very similar to The Life And Times Of Tim but with a just much younger protagonist. It’s a shame he didn’t call it The Life And Times Of Tom, but I’m guessing HBO might not have gone for that…
Oh, I didn’t know this was a thing. Thanks
In terms of animated programming, Flash-ish animation used to be reserved for the likes of [adult swim] or some cable channel. Now it’s become the norm and that’s sad.
I hate when I see a show that looks Adult Swim but isn’t. Even Archer took a while for me to take a chance on.
Most of these shows use Toon Boom Harmony, which does have the ability to do frame-by-frame animation, along with the rigged puppets that most of these shows use.Despite being long past their prime, it’s The Simpsons and Family Guy that are carrying on the legacy of FBF animation in adult cartoons. The suits must think that big celebrity voice actors bring in a bigger audience than good animation, and they’re probably not even wrong.
There’s a few shows now/coming out that seem to be doing FBF (Animaniacs, the new Harriet the Spy show for Apple), but yeah, the “rigged puppets” method makes me sad. It works for Homestar Runner, but these big companies should be able to do better.
Literally the only digital cartoon that I’ve seen that makes the medium look good – that was clearly designed with digital animation in mind (and not “Let’s try, try to make it look it was hand-drawn” or, like this show, “Fuck it, who gives a shit? We’re saving money on Koreans”) is Bluey.It’s digital. But Ludo leaned into that, and worked within the limitations of the medium – you know, like artists are supposed to. Also, it’s worth pointing out that the guy singing in the following clip is Bluey’s dad:Why? Because Brisbane is fucking awesome.
I think those new Mickey Mouse shorts they’ve been doing use the technology well enough too. I guess it might have to do with the fact that those are a fraction of the running time of a regular TV show episode, so they can put a little more time and effort into it. They’re also hyper stylized, compared to the same-y look of this.
True, and Disney’s got a shitload of cash as well as genuine respect for the medium, unlike these sorts of shows where it’s “They’ll never let us make this unless it’s animated, and IDGAF about animation.”
They’re so flat and washed! Garbage! Surely Netflix is doing better in the live-action department *looks at still for The Harder They Fall directly above this* ugh, never mind.
I’m actually really excited about this. What about this looks bad? And what in your eyes is good animation supposed to look like? (Please don’t say anime.)
there’s a distinct lack of shading, the character models look exactly the same as many, many other ‘adult animation’ shows and there’s a genuine lack of directing in these shows, too.when i was a kid things like batman: tas looked completely different to something like aeon flux which looked completely different to futurama, etc. obviously it helps when someone like brad bird is in charge of your cartoon, but the average simpsons episode from 25 years ago has more dynamic animation, more depth, more camera movements, more interesting angles and actual performances from the characters than anything i’ve seen recently, even what’s considered the top tier stuff like rick & morty.
Eh, Chicago Aunt or whatever it’s called still looks the most dire.
“We should legalise drugs!”“All of them? Even cocaine?”“Yes!”“Sir, perhaps you should watch this cartoon. It’s called Chicago Party Aunt and it was based on a novelty twitter account.” *rolls video*“Ok. Maybe not cocaine.”
I did not laugh once during the first episode. From the trite “characters” to the wasted conspiracy theory lore to the BS, pedantic and tired feminazi propaganda talking points It was bafflingly banal and unfunny.Hard pass. Anyone who likes this show is likely a mouth-breather with the I.Q. of a kumquat.
I thought this show was about Star Trek!
The premise of this sounds good, and the vocal and writing talent hints this could be good. I’m hoping it’s a season 2 show like Parks and Rec or even my beloved Venture Bros, which clearly got better as the show went along.
That top screenshot looks just like a Rick & Morty scene in one of the President’s bunker rooms.
The final screenshot looks just like the conference room where Rick used the pooping fart machine on his toilet buddy.
That’s what I’m finding tiresome and lazy in newer animated shows. Rapid-fire sight gags that escalate into an all out frenzy but lack any real wit or payoff.
I feel after that finale it’s hard to argue Rick and Morty isn’t interested in payoff, or are you just referencing all the other anonymous adult shows that do this?
Mostly the newer shows that try to recreate the Rick & Morty formula.Tbh, though, I tapped out of R&M by season 3.
For me, that approach works better in Solar Opposites because for the most part it’s straight comedy and it doesn’t try to give the characters any meaningful character development.
a literal evil lair
Maybe like the Cave player role from “Vast: Crystal Caverns”.
The cave isn’t evil. The cave just wants to collapse and kill everyone inside before they complete their victory condition. It’s just like us!
“her mother, Tamiko (Suzy Nakamura)“I’m not trolling here…but does this mean the show is going to get cancelled or recast as Caplan doesn’t have an Asian parent?
It sounds slightly trolling, but if this show gets popular enough there will undoubtedly be several articles, blog posts and Twitter posts about it being problematic.
They’re currently trying to get Emma Stone for the part.
Yeah I was apprehensive about this too. The showrunner, Shion Takeuchi, is half-Japanese herself so if she oversaw the casting, then I guess she is cool with it? I’m a white-passing Eurasian myself so I have mixed feelings about all this.
Shion Takeuchi, is half-Japanese herselfGoddamn you half-Japanese girls.
The character is based on a lot of Shion Takeuchi herself. She created the show. She wouldn’t have cast Lizzy Caplan if she weren’t OK with it.
A show about a crazy world with lots of lore and backstory to explore 100% will (and probably should and must) “ground” itself by making the protagonists neurotic weirdos distracted by their mommy/daddy issues, just like the people who write them, and spending lots and lots of time on that. There is no scripted TV comedy that’s just “look at all this crazy interesting shit”, there’s got to be a couple falling in love or something that a network executive imagines chunky-part-of-the-bell-curve Middle Americans can “relate to.”
For some reason I was thinking of Cheers while reading this review, and of course that’s the ur-”couple falling in love” show, but it’s also a damn workplace comedy about adults doing work (and getting into shenanigans). Parents are guest stars for an episode, if that, because there’s plenty of other things going on. And that’s at a bar! Not a fucking secret society. The daddy issues shit is so fucking tired and like you and Kevin say, so unnecessary.
This shows description reminds me of Better Off Ted, which managed to be like 90% crazy funny shit and only occasionally felt the need to will they/won’t they the leads. Even stuff with Ted’s daughter generally didn’t drag the show too far into normalcy.
This is true, but don’t forget that both Lem and Veronica were mined for family drama, two hilarious and compelling characters who had plenty of other fun stuff to be doing. (And maybe they should have done more, because that show only lasted 2 brilliant seasons.)
Oh, I miss that show. It’s hard to pinpoint a favorite quote in a show that has so many good ones, but I think Veronica’s “It’s not my fault I don’t listen when you talk” has to be it.I also love the Veridian Dynamics ads.
Diversity. Good for us.
Another great quote, in reference to Blobby the “meat” product:“What does it taste like?”“….despair?”
“I’m gonna say no to the meat blob getting a mouth. Mostly because I don’t want to hear what it has to say.”
Hey! Who are you calling chunky?!
It’s true, Middle Americans are nothing if not chunky and curvy!
This is one of those 7 years too late gimmick shows.
This is the first animated show since Midnight gospel that I’ve been super excited for. I have high hopes that this review does dampen just a bit, but I’m still super ready to be blown away by this (hopefully)
The review in a nutshell: ha ha, everyone’s a gullible goober but me/us!Netflix: How many damn illuminati shows per year can get away with? Hmm… Viewers: Wuh? Too much thinking. PASS.
You’d think with the Gravity Falls people behind it they wouldn’t make it look like Rick and Morty.
you’d think with the Gravity Falls reference the ghostdad behind it would know that gruncle stan literally loses his mug to a portal that opens as army rick runs by 🤔
you’d think with the Gravity Falls reference the ghostdad behind it would know that gruncle stan literally loses his mug to a portal that opens as army rick runs by 🤔
Given that Christian Slater is involved, however, it’s probably been canceled already
This is a review that seems to be primarily concerned with what the show is not.
When you actually glean out the few mentions of what the show is, then it sounds pretty complimentary.
Was hopeful for this because Hirsch was involved but man, it just feels like a slog. Got halfway through the second episode and just feel about as interested as I am in random American Dad reruns. I’ll look to see the gags, and stuff’s happening which is nice, but nothing all that funny or engaging.Animated adult sitcoms have gotten so derivative it’s wild, especially given how much cool stuff is going on in anime and younger/family animation.
American Dad is one of the best animated shows currently airing.
You’ve got your own opinion and I love that about you
Better Off Ted did the whole evil company thing better, honestly
before anyone makes another lazy rick and morty comment: HIRSCH: There was a time when Justin and I were both working in the same tiny office for the Disney Channel. We both dreamed one day of having our own weird TV shows, and we would talk about ways in which we would childishly abuse this power. For some reason, the universe has blessed us with our mad wishes, and it occurred to us — let’s start doing things that nobody else does, that maybe you’re not supposed to do. We started putting little easter eggs in our shows that sort of connected the two. Our motivation for that is primarily to freak people out and blow their minds. The impression of a grand brilliant design is probably more something that the fans have invented.— entertainment, 2015
incidentally, if you have watched gravity falls, rick and morty and inside job and have an abundance of time on your hands and want to come up with fan theories, i stan
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I dunno, it’s an enjoyable binge for me.