Every Inside No. 9 Episode Ranked From Worst To Best
35. The Understudy
Plot: In a loose retelling of Macbeth, an understudy (Shearsmith) is encouraged by his fiancee (Lyndsey Marshal) to get the main role in a production of Macbeth. The episode is, via title cards, divided into five acts.
Location: A theatre dressing room.
The weakest episode of season one had one of the best premises in the show's history, so this was an undeniably disappointing episode.
It's entertaining and watchable enough. The division into acts works nicely and the cast are as good as you'd expect - especially Pemberton, who's a hoot as an actor who gets incredibly drunk during a performance - but the script is uncharacteristically hit-or-miss. There are some very good moments and ideas, but there are also various plot-lines that go nowhere and it all just feels a bit underfed.
As for the inevitable twist ending, it's one of the weakest Inside No. 9 have ever delivered and it doesn't feel earned or meaningful at all.
An OK episode, but definitely one of the weakest Inside No. 9 episodes and certainly the most disappointing considering the stratospheric potential of the concept.