Being able to record Foxtel shows with the push of a button definitely has its advantages.
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I’m old enough to remember the hassle of having to program a VCR to record something when I was going to be out.
But there are also a disadvantage to it being so easy to record shows; I end up with a stupid amount of stuff sitting in the “recorded” queue waiting for me to watch.
I’ll go through the program schedule and hit the red “record” button and the series link button with far too much abandon.
As a result I have around 100 hours to watch, so it takes a while to get around to watching them sometimes.
Which is why I’ve only now discovered Mr Inbetween, which aired on Showcase.
I use the word “aired” because the final episode ran last week, though I’m sure it’s still available to stream somewhere.
A black comedy about a hitman, it was inspired by the 2005 film The Magician, written and directed by Scott Ryan, who also played the lead role of hitman Ray Shoesmith.
The character of Ray is the centre of Mr Inbetween, as he tries to deal with his private live as a ex-husband, father and boyfriend while occasionally beating people up or killing them.
What is appealing is that the series doesn’t make judgements about Ray’s life – we're not told to see him as a bad guy, or a larrikin or an anti-hero.
He's presented as a three-dimensional figure, with his own moral code and we’re left to work out how we feel about him.
I was totally sucked in by the series – each half-hour episode seemed to fly by.
Admittedly, there were bits that didn’t really ring true – such as his girlfriend (Brooke Satchwell) staying with him after seeing him attack someone and experiencing his detached explanation, broadly speaking the plot hangs together well.
The casting is particularly impressive – I don't think there’s a single actor who doesn’t carry his weight.
A standout was Nicholas Cassim, who plays Ray’s brother Bruce. The character suffers from motor neuron disease, and Cassim is so good I thought he suffered from it as well.
If you can find the series, make sure you’ve got a spare three hours, because you’ll be watching all in one go.