The follks at www.teevee.org devoted an article to a compare/contrast of The Closer and The Inside, and The Inside definitely came off better. Not an over-the-top glowing review, but good points all around (including a restatement of the First Impression Strategy from upthread!).

[Teevee]

I understand I've been more than a little, "The Inside likes carrots," for a long time, too.

For one thing, Agent Locke is seriously damaged goods -- the survivor of an eighteen-month abduction when she was 10. Her hallucinatory flashbacks of her abductor, a leering slimeball with a cowboy shirt and an ice cream cone, are skin-crawling. And what seem at first glance to be signs of Nichols' utter inability to act -- her stiff body language, wide Bambi eyes and robotic line delivery -- make perfect sense in the context of her character. The cool, lovely professional profiler is a thin porcelain shell Rebecca's built to protect herself. In her character's very worst moments, Nichols lets us see the outlines of something truly horrible fluttering underneath, trying to break through.

Hey, someone gets it! Cool.

The Inside is light-years better than the we're-not-even-trying conformity of The Closer, but it's hardly fun summer viewing. In his superb scripts for Angel, Minear could confront real evils under a protective layer of horror-movie tropes. Here, the abyss does a little too much staring back.

Ooh. Overall, a very good review.

Agreed on the Becky vs the viewers thing -- unlike most of whom I've talked about the show, I see her in the same way I saw George on Dead Like Me in the beginning minus a hell of a lot of the snark. She behaves like I would assumed someone with her background would behave.

Other bizarre things are that people can't look past the surface. Still, after these three episodes they bring up comparisons to police proceduals -- which seems wrong to me. The show's focus is on the characters, and very little is really about the case. It's much closer to the Angel detectives on a new adventure than CSI or Homicide.

Oh, the the thing I just Don't Get At All(tm): some people hate the Peter Cayote character because he "has no humour" and they want to know more about his background right now. Me, I think we've seen a lot of things that indicate a shady past and present, it's just never been spelled out. That might be the big problem, you have to really watch it closely and listen and think about certain things.

Still, after these three episodes they bring up comparisons to police proceduals -- which seems wrong to me. The show's focus is on the characters, and very little is really about the case. It's much closer to the Angel detectives on a new adventure than CSI or Homicide.

Yes, but Angel was never supposed to be a member of a well-recognized real life organization. The Inside is a character show, but those characters are FBI agents, so fair or not there is going to be a certain expectation as to how they will handle a case. It's the price you pay. I'm not saying there should be comparisons to other procedurals, but it's hard to avoid, especially when you have a show like Numb3rs ostensibly set in the exact same FBI office.

To answer Allyson's question, it's not my show for a couple of reasons. I didn't like or care about any of the characters, particularly Rebecca (or the actress who plays her). (I stopped watching when she knocked on Hart Bockner's door. I was seriously hoping she'd be the next victim at that point. Sorry.) The show is also too gruesome for me, and I'm not even really talking about the on-screen gore, but more things like the spoken description of how the orginal agent committed suicide. That was more likely to give me nightmares than any visual, just because it forced me to imagine it. There was no way to avert my eyes. I don't watch horror pics for a reason. Silence of the Lambs I could get through, but not watching it every week.

I finally saw episode 3, but haven't had a chance to post about it.

I'm starting to like Web, I'm not sure what about the character that makes me like him more, he's still the same, but ... I like him more.

Loved Danny's silent exchange with the kid.

And the wife was really good, especially when she broke down and confessed she'd had suspcions.

When I first saw the Dad running out with his kids, my thought was "shit! the prefiler's going to go after some kid!" because that would definitly be pre emptive killing. I wasn't thinking about how he'd know about a kid, or how he knew about the others. But my mind jumped there and then it jumped back.

I want to know more about what happened to Becky, but not right away, but eventually.

REally liked it, but now I have standing plans for Wednesday so I'll be on tape delay from now on.

I liked the first episode well enough. I didn't fall in love, but I kept the TiVo season pass programmed. I didn't watch the second episode, because of the rape, and because the general subject matter was something I didn't want to watch or think about. I was going to watch the third episode. When I read through here and saw one of the victims was into child prn, I just couldn't. There's stuff I don't like to have in my head. I keep reading here, waiting for my chance to jump into the show. I will watch episode 9, regardless of content, though.

I didn't like or care about any of the characters, particularly Rebecca (or the actress who plays her). (I stopped watching when she knocked on Hart Bockner's door. I was seriously hoping she'd be the next victim at that point. Sorry.)

What makes them all unlikeable for you?

It's the price you pay. I'm not saying there should be comparisons to other procedurals, but it's hard to avoid, especially when you have a show like Numb3rs ostensibly set in the exact same FBI office.

I understand that, but most people seem to only see the similarities with other proceduals. They still don't see the character drama and for me it's like they're watching an entire other show.

I liked Mel's "Was that a joke, Sir?" They in the team don't know Web either and then he works closely with them on a daily basis. It made me wonder just how much he will freak out if someone turned up and knew more about him than he'd like to.

What makes them all unlikeable for you?

Because I just don't like them? More important, I don't care what happens to a single one of them.