Inside Job (2021 TV series)

Inside Job (stylized in lowercase) is an American adult animated science fiction sitcom created by Shion Takeuchi for Netflix. The series premiered on October 22, 2021. Takeuchi, a former Gravity Falls writer, acts as showrunner and is an executive producer alongside Gravity Falls creator Alex Hirsch and BoJack Horseman director Mike Hollingsworth.

The series received positive reviews for its writing, humor, animation, voice acting and social commentary. The series' ten-episode first part was released on October 22, 2021, with an eight-episode second part released the following year on November 18, 2022. In June 2022, the series was renewed for a second season consisting of 20 episodes; however, in January 2023, Takeuchi announced that Netflix had cancelled the series following the release of Part 2, ending it with a cliffhanger.

Premise

Inside Job is a workplace comedy set in a world where many conspiracy theories are real. It is centered on an American shadow government organization named Cognito, Inc. in Washington, D.C., which is one of 6 organizations that control Earth (the others being the Illuminati, the Atlantians, the Reptoids, the Catholic Church and the Juggalos). The series follows a team led by a tech genius and her new partner as they work in the organization alongside reptilian shapeshifters, a human-dolphin hybrid, and a sapient mushroom from Hollow Earth.

Some episodes' central plots revolved around these conspiracy theories: JFK's assassination (Episode 2), reptilian shapeshifters (Episode 3), flat Earth (Episode 6), the Moon landing (Episode 8), the stoned ape theory (Episode 13), and the Mandela effect (Episode 17). Several other conspiracies were included in the series but were not the main subject of episodes.

Cast

Main

Lizzy Caplan as Dr. Reagan Ridley; a brilliant yet socially awkward robotics engineer who works at Cognito, Inc. only through her steadfast belief that society itself can be improved while managing her irresponsible coworkers while seeking out a coveted promotion along the way. Takeuchi described Reagan as an aspring leader who "wants to make the world a better place despite herself." It is frequently suggested by her friends, family, and co-workers that she has Asperger's, which she, in turn, denies. At the end of Part 2, she is made CEO of Cognito, Inc. after her father was sent to Shadow Prison X. Reagan is Half-Japanese and went to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where she graduated summa cum laude at age 13.
Christian Slater as Randall "Rand" Ridley; Reagan's father, and Tamiko's ex-husband. former CEO and co-founder of Cognito, Inc. who was fired after nearly exposing the Deep State and trying to blow up the Sun as his "solution" to cure skin cancer. He lives with his Reagan, drinking copious amounts of alcohol and plotting revenge against his former employers. He is reinstated as Cognito, Inc. CEO by the Shadow Board at the end of Part 1, as he holds the most shares in the company. However, in Part 2, he is arrested and imprisoned at Shadow Prison X after nearly destroying the universe with a reality-altering machine called Project Reboot. Rand went to Harvard University.
Clark Duke as Brett Hand; a White-American Yes-Man from Virginia, who has a front as a frat boy but is actually a sensitive and caring person who strives to bring out the best in his friends and colleagues. It is implied that he was hired partly because his handsome yet generic appearance made him undetectable to facial recognition software. His dream is to be a Puppet Designer. Like Reagan, Brett had an unhappy childhood due to being ignored and rejected by his own family, and as a result, has his fair share of bouts of social anxiety despite his cheerful and good-natured demeanor. Brett went to Yale University.
Tisha Campbell as Gisele "Gigi" Thompson; an African-American public relations officer from Atlanta, Georgia. She is the fast-talking, fashion-conscious Head of Media Manipulation and Subliminal Messages at Cognito, Inc. Gigi is also a big flirt who is shown to have a romantic interest in Brett all the while often remarking on her looks. As they are both highly ambitious, blunt, opinionated women (and the only female members of the team), she and Reagan get along surprisingly well.
John DiMaggio as Glenn Dolphman; Cognito's jingoistic military advisor and armory chief who volunteered for a failed supersoldier experiment which transformed him from a handsome White-American military veteran into an ugly human-dolphin hybrid. He is also divorced from his human wife Dolores, and has a daughter.
Bobby Lee as Dr. Andre Lee; a free-spirited yet anxious Korean-American biochemist who experiments with a range of unusual narcotics, and is also addicted to some of the very same drugs he creates.
Brett Gelman as Myc Cellium; a psychic mushroom-like organism from a hive mind deep inside Hollow Earth with a dry, sarcastic demeanor and the ability to read minds. The show's opening sequence implies that his species inadvertently brought about the evolution of humanity when their spores were consumed by ancient apes, which was confirmed to be true in the episode "Reagan & Mychelle's Hive School Reunion". Myc also provides pure bio sorbitrate, a chemical the company uses for their memory eraser guns, which they have to literally milk him for.
Andy Daly as Julius Reginald "J.R." Scheimpough; the former CEO and co-founder of Cognito, Inc. He is a crafty conversationalist who can talk his way out of potentially compromising predicaments. He is sent to Shadow Prison X via tube at the end of Part 1 after attempting to embezzle the company pension fund to purchase a volcano island lair. He later escaped and rejoined Cognito, Inc., albeit as an intern. He was rearrested and returned to Shadow Prison X for almost destroying the universe with Project Reboot near the end of Part 2.
Chris Diamantopoulos as Alpha-Beta, a sentient robot originally designed to serve as the "ROBOTUS" (robotic replacement of the President of the United States). Reagan keeps him locked up in the Cognito, Inc. basement after he attempts to take over the world, bribing him with Friends episodes so that he will help her with various schemes. He evolves into an empathic Artificial Intelligence upon briefly dating Reagan's mother Tamiko in Part 2.

Recurring

Guest role

Episodes

Production

Development

In April 2019, Netflix ordered 20 episodes of the series. Billed as the first adult animated series produced in-house by Netflix Animation, it was announced in June 2021 that the regular characters in the series would be voiced by Andrew Daly, Bobby Lee, John DiMaggio, Tisha Campbell and Brett Gelman. It is the first series produced as part of a deal Takeuchi made in 2018 with Netflix to "develop new series and other projects exclusively for Netflix." A sneak peek of the series was shown at the Studio Focus Panel for Netflix at the Annecy International Animation Festival in June 2021. The series is the first series created by Shion Takeuchi, part of her deal with Netflix, with Hirsch saying he was inspired by 1990s shows like The X-Files. Hirsch and Takeuchi were also inspired by pages of Weekly World News.

In an interview with Petrana Radulovic of Polygon, Takeuchi said the idea for the show came from her days in college, said there isn't "anything too weird for the show" as long as it develops the characters, saying that there are subject matters which are a "little too adult for all-ages" that people her age deal with, saying it "feels good to be able to talk about" them in the show. She said that doing an adult animation is intimidating.

Release

The series premiered on Netflix on October 22, 2021. Between October 24 to 31 the series was watched for 21,240,000 hours on Netflix globally. The second part of the first season was released on November 18, 2022.

Cancellation

On June 8, 2022, Netflix renewed the series for a second season. On January 8, 2023, Takeuchi stated that Netflix had reversed the second season renewal and cancelled the series. This was confirmed by a representative from Netflix.

Reception

The series received generally positive reviews from critics. Charles Bramesco of The Guardian described the series as hewing close to "the surrealism-of-the-week format" while Nick Schager of The Daily Beast described it as a workplace comedy which "jovially mocks our brain-fried reality" with numerous "sharp jabs at corporate power/gender dynamics" while highlighting absurdity of conspiracy theories and argued that the show shared some similarities with Futurama. Daniel Feinberg of The Hollywood Reporter was more critical, saying that conspiracy theories are played for laughs for "fitful results" and claimed that the show reduced Reagan's problems to issues with her father, but praised Brett for having a "believable" character arc and having a "lot of energy." Similar to Feinberg, Kevin Johnson of The A.V. Club criticized the show for limiting on how far things are taken, influenced by shows like American Dad!, The Venture Bros., Archer, and Akira, but praised the premises and jokes in the series as funny, and the "talented creative team." Chris Vognar of Datebook was more positive, saying that the series is "smart and fast on its feet," and noted it remains in the real world with "office politics, sexism, classism, jingoism, nostalgia" and more, while getting viewers to care about Reagan. Aaron Pruner of Inverse noted similar themes, saying that the series is, at its core, a story about dysfunctional families at work and at home. Tracy Brown of LA Times said the series allows "audiences to laugh at conspiracy theories again" even as they provide a "backdrop to explore the characters and how they navigate the world."

The review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes reported a 79% approval rating with an average rating of 7.2/10, based on 14 critic reviews.