Netflix Recommendations Thread 3.0

TBH for me Inside is something that uses a few funny songs as a foundation for something much bigger, weirder and melancholic. It’s a disarmingly honest, self-reflective look at the isolating, destabilising effect of lockdown... an artist working to put their personal struggles on screen and into music... and one of the most relatable artistic examinations of digital procrastination, empty diversions and an increasingly chaotic world. It’s also Burnham using confinement in a small space to see how he can experiment with lighting and camerawork - something immensely claustrophobic yet with creative grandeur.

That it uses the basic structure of a comedy special and gag songs to do that if anything makes it more impressive, but as amusing as some of the songs are I think it quickly becomes much more complex than that. Some of the songs aren’t even trying to be particularly funny IMO - Funny Feeling for example is altogether sadder and rawer than Burnham’s silly, crude YouTube videos from a decade ago would ever suggest. For the most part the themes of the more overtly funny songs here fit quite snuggly into the broader tapestry of the thing.

I laughed aloud a handful of times and chuckled here and there, but the lasting impression was much more than a few good jokes.