Inside Job Season 1 Review – A decent start for a promising adult sitcom

Episode Guide

Unpresidented
Clone Gunman
Blue Bloods
Sex Maxhina
The Brettfast Club
My Big Flat Earth Wedding
Ghost Protocol
Buzzkill
Mole Hunt
Inside Reagan

It’s always difficult for a new adult animation to break through the crowd and stand out. Ricky & Morty is one of the more prolific examples of one with serious lasting power, while shows like Family Guy & The Simpsons have proven that even the best can slip from the top and fail to capture what made it so great.

There are exceptions – like the excellent Aggretsuko or Bojack Horseman – but these generally tap into the emotional core and themes that make them so endearing.

Inside Job then feels like a show that’s trying to have its cake and eat it. On the one hand, the show’s wacky premise surrounding conspiracy theories and big world-ending plots lean in hard to what makes Rick & Morty and Final Space such fantastical sci-fi treats. At the same time, it also tries to harness emotional subplots, with character arcs for its lead characters Reagan and Brett. And it’s here where the show slips up.

To backtrack a bit, the series centers on Cognito, Inc. a shadowy company that runs the world while being overlooked by the mysterious and deadly Shadow Board. Basically, this place is responsible for every conspiracy theory ever. Bigfoot, Elvis being kept in cryogenic storage and the President actually an AI-controlled robot; you name it, it’s real.

At the center of this is Reagan Ridley, a genius and next-in-line to take over Cognito following her father Rand’s fall from grace. While he’s generally relegated to a lay about drunk, Reagan lacks the people skills needed to run the team. So naturally, conflict arises.

That conflict comes in the form of clueless Brett Hand, who’s brought in to help steer things in the right direction – and he doesn’t have a clue. Of course as one may expect, tensions arise between Reagan and Brett as they try to navigate the co-leadership role together.

Joining them in the office are a whole host of different creatures, including a sentient mushroom called Magic Myc and a dolphin-human hybrid by the name of Glenn Dolphman. It’s a pretty crazy bunch of characters, and in a way feels quite reminiscent of that oddball-team feel of something like Harley Quinn.

The episodes do have a larger story woven throughout though, namely in regards to Reagan and Brett’s relations, the future of Cognito Inc. and the usual individual character drama for the rest of the supporting cast. It’s all pretty formulaic stuff in truth and unfortunately falls by the wayside compared to the much more colourful episodic romps.

It’s here where Inside Job is at its strongest, namely with its wacky ideas surrounding conspiracies. The show does a great job squeezing everything out of this premise, ranging from a trip back to the 80’s, hopping across to a reptilian world and even a first-contact with a colony on the moon. It’s all pretty good stuff and the episodes are visually striking and well-animated.

Along with its cliched character arcs, Inside Job is a little too trigger-happy with its pop-culture references, which it rapidly fires off right the way through the show. Depending on your level of knowledge with TV, movies, celebrities and world events, some – or even a lot – of these may go right over your head.

If you’re taken with Inside Job though, the ending leaves things wide open for a second season to follow. While the balance here is a little off in regards to its comedy and emotional core, there’s enough to like from its main cast and amusing premise to stick with until the end. Some of the jokes are genuinely funny – like Brett mistaking a tampon for the Neuralyzer from Men In Black – and there’s enough to sustain a solid 10 episode run.

Out of all the animated sitcoms to drop on Netflix, this is definitely one of the more promising and it certainly poses well if this is renewed for a second season.

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