Mr. Inbetween initially aired in Australia back in 2018. Even then, it had some dust on it: the series, which ended up spanning three seasons, was based on a 2005 flick called The Magician, which I am now tracking down to buy.
The series focuses on the life of Ray Shoesmith a criminal-for-hire that'll do damn near anything for money, murder included. Ray spends a lot of his time in a way that a Fox TV show of the era demands: threatening people, hurting people, surviving insane situations and long, soulful stares into the void he's been standing on the edge of, for years. But damn. As the series moves forward, you're ambushed by a character study in isolation, loss and being trapped in a history that can't be redeemed. The losses that Ray, in his life outside of work, are staggering and, they stack up quickly. If it weren't for the black-as-a-bag-of-assholes humor that Mr. Inbetween is steeped in, it'd be a damn hard thing to watch. Fortunately, it's frequently funny as hell, allowing Scott Ryan, who stars as Ray, to show a wide spectrum of emotion.
I liked it so much that I ended up buying the series so I can binge it at will—I don't use streaming services (but you can find it on Hulu). The one thing I don't dig about it was Fox's decision to break the series down into half-hour episodes, which, when commercials are removed only amount to around 20 minutes a pop. I found the ending of each episode jarring, and not in a way that made it feel like a cliffhanger. More of an awkward edit sort of thing.
If you're looking for something new to watch, I recommend it. It's not a huge time commitment but man, it'll get its hooks into you.
Previously:
• Enjoying the melancholy undercurrent of Charlie Brown television specials
• Here's how to see evidence of the Big Bang on television
