When the cops visit Ray Shoesmith’s home in season 2 episode 2 of Mr Inbetween to ask him about threatening one of the other parents at his child’s school, all Ray will say is, “I don’t answer questions”.
He repeats the same phrase in response to any question the police ask him until, utterly bamboozled and getting nowhere, they leave. “It’s just weird”, one officer says to the other as they walk back to the car, completely defeated.
That moment is the quintessence of Mr Inbetween – Ray is a bundle of contradictions that leaves you intrigued, yet never getting the answers you’re looking for, because for you, the viewer, there are no answers. Remember, Mr Inbetween doesn’t answer questions.
Ray Shoesmith is played by the show’s creator and writer Scott Ryan, who gives us probably the finest depiction of an emotionally-repressed, violent-but-likable, anti-hero you’re likely to see since we were first introduced to Tony Soprano in one of the best Max shows The Sopranos. Ray has a job working security for his friend’s night club, but it’s really a cover for his true vocation as a hit man for hire who has to balance his underground criminal activity with the rhythms of daily life, of being a father, a friend, a brother and a lover.
Australian TV shows often take the edge off their male characters with somebody like Bryan Brown playing a version of a laconic Australian male, or go completely over the top in the sort of otherwordly insanity you see in the Mad Max films. Mr Inbetween is neither. Ray feels authentic, almost like someone you might know in your real life, but he’s also somebody who comfortably steps outside of society’s conventions and lives by his own moral code. In Ray’s world actions have consequences, and he’s not afraid to hand out a quick headbutt to anybody who needs one. He has a smile that can go from please-to-meet-you to shark bite in a moment’s notice, but at the same time you can see the abysmal loneliness and repressed emotions buried deep within.
While the original 2005 feature film, The Magician, on which the series is based, offered only the faintest outline sketch of the younger hit man, here we see the fully fleshed-out version of Ray. He’s older, he has a daughter, he has an ex, he has a brother with motor neurone disease and he’s in a relationship. Each episode of Mr Inbetween lifts the cover of Ray’s life and lets us peep inside.
It’s sometimes mundane, sometimes funny, usually shocking, but often heartbreaking and profoundly meaningful. You never quite know where an episode is going to go at any moment, which is why it’s one of the best Disney Plus shows in the UK (the series is streaming on Hulu in the US and Binge in Australia).
Ray’s brother Bruce, played in an acting masterclass by Nicholas Cassim, eloquently shows us what the final stages of his illness look like, and how it affects the people who love him. Chika Yasumura’s, Brittany, Ray’s daughter, perfectly captures the moment when you change from being the center of your child’s world to being a mild embarrassment, worthy of only the occasional teenage side-eye. And his girlfriend Ally, played effortlessly by Brooke Satchwell, skillfully shows how Ray’s choice to embrace violence affects the people around him, even if that violence would never be directed at them.
Rarely do we feel such affection for a volcanic personality who isn’t in some Hollywood revenge movie, but Ray is not one of the good guys. If somebody paid him enough to kill you, he’d probably do it, and without asking too many questions, either. But for most of the time the people he kills deserve it. Throughout all three series Ray remains the beating heart of the show. We see his efforts to hang on to those around him despite the danger his occupation frequently puts them in contrast against his efforts to move forward and let go of his terrible past, particularly his unhappy childhood and abusive father. Unlike Tony Soprano, Ray doesn’t enter therapy at any point, but he is sent to anger management class (for bashing a couple of guys, who deserved it), with hilarious results.
Mr Inbetween is perhaps the finest mediation on violence to have graced our TV screens in recent memory. It asks the tough questions like, when is violence acceptable in society? What happens when the legal system fails us and there’s nowhere left to turn? Is anger always a bad thing? But don’t expect any easy answers. Remember, Ray doesn’t answer questions.
I keep recommending Mr Inbetween to friends who have never heard of it before (I’m sure it might be different in the US and Australia, though), only to have them come back a few days later saying they had to binge the whole first series, and now there are only two series left to watch, and what are they going to do with their lives when the show ends?
Oh, and if you’re worried about the ending, particularly given the phenomena of channels canceling TV shows before the story really plays out, then don’t worry – Mr Inbetween has a proper ending, and it’s perhaps one of the better endings of any TV show on the best streaming services you’ll see.