By: Zoe Rodriguez
What is Inside?
On May 30, 2021, Netflix released a new musical comedy special: Inside. The special was created by Bo Burnam, a popular comedian known for his use of satire and comedy in his songs to discuss important topics. This was also Bo’s first and only production after a five year hiatus. The special is a sort of documentary that talks about the pandemic raging on at the time, and dives deep into the effect it takes on one’s sense of morality and self. How well does the special do at depicting the lockdown? And more interestingly, how does it hold up today nearly four years later?
What’s the message?
The main purpose of Inside is to depict the mental health struggles that many people faced during the pandemic. During the pandemic conditions like depression and anxiety increased significantly as everyone felt more isolated than ever. Due to being produced during lockdown, Inside was not able to be filmed on a stage or in front of a live audience (in contrast to typical Netflix comedy specials). This led to Bo opting to shoot the entire special inside of a single small shed. More than the shed representing the homes that everyone was forced to stay in, the shed is a metaphor for being stuck in your own mind, becoming both bored and overwhelmed with the same monotonous routine day after day with no end in sight and unable to leave. It’s an effective visualization of what went on in everyone’s minds at the time.
How good are the songs?
While listening to the Inside soundtrack you may notice a very important shift in tone throughout the songs. The first half is quite cheerful and lighthearted, with songs like “Content” and “White Woman’s Instagram” reflecting that. But as the special goes on the tone becomes more depressing and dreadful, with songs like “That Funny Feeling” and “Goodbye” following suit. The result is a spiraling feeling as the weight of the situation slowly dawns on our protagonist.
On top of that, the songs are just really good. They have a kind of early YouTube sh*tpost feel to them, which makes sense since Bo Burnham got his start on Youtube in 2006. Some even became viral online, such as “Bezos” or “Welcome to the Internet”. They inevitably won’t be everybody’s cup of tea, but they have their audience and do their job of expressing the tone well.
How does it relate to today?
Despite being so closely tied to pandemic, how does Inside hold up today? Strangely enough, it relates just as much today as it did three years ago. And that’s because the world honestly hasn’t changed much since the pandemic. Even though the virus is gone, the world didn’t go back to normal after our doors opened. We all still feel isolated from each other, mental health rates are still going down, and the world still feels like it’s crumbling around us.
The only difference is, we can go outside again. The pandemic made all of us feel isolated and alone, but unlike in Inside, it’s now more possible for us to connect with each other again. We just have to work on tearing down the metaphorical walls between us, the ones that didn’t go away once we were able to escape the literal walls of our homes. Healing takes a long time, but we can now work on doing it together.
