In a time and a world where conspiracy theories have run amok, Inside Job pokes fun at the notion and conjured a whole series.
Imagine a shadow government that’s quietly enacting all of the world’s craziest and most unrealistic conspiracies. Now picture a team of dysfunctional misfits tasked with seeing it all through; that is Inside Job.
The main character is Reagan Ridley (Lizzy Caplan), a socially awkward super genius whose dedication and love of science occasionally stifles her rapport with the team. For them, conspiracy theories aren’t just theories, they’re facts. Tasked with keeping those theories and crazy ideas relevant, each episode comes with it’s own creative mission and secret to keep. Other voices you might recognize are Tisha Campbell (Gigi), Christian Slater (Randy Ridley), and John DiMaggio (Glenn Dolphman).
Once the characters fully take shape, the fun truly begins. The series pokes fun at everything from symbols that are supposed to be meaningful (the different symbols you see on a dollar bill) to beliefs (the Mayan calendar), and even people. Flat-earthers, UFO enthusiasts, and QAnon followers get their fair share of shtick. Even Joe Rogan and Jeff Bezos get caught up in the conspiracy mix. Nothing is off limits.
Adult animation is a difficult thing to balance. You can’t just hock a clad of sexual references together and think it’s going to be funny. Having extraneous cussing from various characters paired with the aforementioned references isn’t a formula for success either. This project fell victim to that more than a few times… But thankfully, once the season takes off around Episode 5, “The Brettfast Club”, it finally starts becoming a series of its own and the characters start looking and sounding better fit for their setting. There’s a difference between characters relying on vulgarity for comedy and characters being comical on their own that “just so happen” to be vulgar.
Like I said, it takes a few episodes to grow into its own, but Inside Job is an adult animated comedy that audiences will grow to enjoy and ask for more. It’s slow start may turn off some, but I assure you, they eventually get it right. I give Inside Job 7 out of 10.
Inside Job is available now on Netflix.
-Jon Jones