Inside Man

Are you watching this?

Jake texted me about it, I immediately went to Rotten Tomatoes. The numbers were less than 80, not by a minor amount, so...I wrote it down, but did not put it at the top of the list.

But last night, wanting to start a new show, I pulled up "Endeavour," which had amazing ratings, and Felice rather quickly said she thought she'd seen it, after all it was on Masterpiece Theatre, and all that English stuff on PBS gets a ton of press.

Now in truth I've got a list. Quite lengthy. But it's on my phone. And my phone was in the other room. And I'm lying on the bed, icing my knees after hiking (works really well if you've got tendinitis, do it for 20 minutes, no more, and I recommend frozen peas instead of frozen water) and I really didn't want to get up. And I was worn out and not in the best mood anyway.

So, I pushed the Netflix button on the Roku. Netflix has the best interface, and they list the shows in terms of popularity and I wasn't sure I'd find anything I wanted to watch but what came up immediately was "Inside Man."

But it wasn't Jake's recommendation that made me decide to watch it. It was David Tennant, you could see him right there in the picture. And Tennant is an amazing actor, with a snide intensity, who I knew from "Broadchurch" and so much more. Anything with David Tennant is worth checking out.

So I pushed play.

And what I got was a scene on the train that was very intense, but wholly up to date. Male toxicity mixed with technology. I don't want to give anything away, but I love shows that reflect modern life. We live in the internet world, can we acknowledge it?

And the interaction between the two women when they got off the train was interesting, there was a subtext that I couldn't quite read, but it was intriguing.

Then the show flipped to a jail in the U.S.

And we were in a room with a guy playing a Senator, a large Black man who was jovial but had committed heinous crimes, and Stanley Tucci.

Stanley Tucci. He's been getting a lot of ink recently. For those CNN shows about eating in Italy. They're pretty good, but does Stanley really eat anything, he's so skinny!

And there's banter amongst the three and...

Tucci evidences this charisma. Based on intelligence. You don't see him acting, unlike with Meryl Streep, he seems to be the character.

And he's not sycophantic, actually he's a modern day hero, the kind that went out with the war on men, you know, the strong male individual, like Paul Newman, but with a harder edge. A guy's guy.

But that's not who Tucci really is. He's a criminal law professor. An egghead, and teachers are supposed to be wimpy with no soul.

But believe me, Tucci has soul.

Now unlike Tucci I'm anxious having written about the war on males, but it's a hot topic right now, there's pushback, and I'm not saying men have been neutered, but I will say that exactly what the media complains about men is oftentimes what women like most about them. They all say they want someone warm and fuzzy, who listens to them, and then they pick the edgy hunk and now...I've dug an even deeper hole for myself.

And then the show jumps back to the U.K., and what transpires...is not wholly believable. It just would never go down this way. And I'm wondering whether I can endure this show, my time is valuable, and then...

They go back to the jail.

Tucci is eating up the screen without asking for attention. He's smart, and distant, and confident in his opinions and actions and you're just marveling how damn good he is.

But he's not a traditional movie hunk. He's got a very short haircut, he's essentially bald. And he wears glasses. And I don't know, I'm straight, but I can see a woman going for him, it's just something he radiates, from inside.

Now Tucci has truly been a member of the firmament since "Big Night," a movie you couldn't make today, and if you did almost no one would see it. And despite all the hoopla about the young and the superheroes, he's a real star.

So, in truth, I've only watched one episode of "Inside Man." But I'm eager to fire up the flat screen again tonight, just to see Tucci.

This is what I live for. Excellence, the edge, and Stanley delivers.


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