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vagueeyes · 8 days ago

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alright here goes, my in9 journey & self-reflection post.

warning: this is longgg and rambly. and personal.

i'd like to start off by detailing how i got to this point - so here's a timeline!

-the first time i heard of in9 was likely during one of my random wikipedia deep dives. i was definitely one of those people who thought a show called INSIDE NO. 9 was about politics, perhaps something like THE THICK OF IT?

-the first time i actually watched it, was in january 2021. the month before, i had started watching NO MORE JOCKEYS, which was recommended by the TASKMASTER subreddit, shortly after s10 had finished airing. and, well, i basically became obsessed with tim key - he's such a scamp!! after catching up on NMJ and also watching TM s1, i was looking into his filmography and noticed INSIDE NO. 9. from what i read about him, his performance in this was a recommended watch - so i looked online, found the show, and gave SARDINES a go.

-i don't actually remember much about the first watch other than thinking tim was great, and i did go ohhh at the twist.

-since i had nothing else to watch at the time, i also gave A QUIET NIGHT IN and TOM & GERRI a go. the former i remember liking because it appealed to my interest in silent film/comedy. the latter i was really engrossed in, but that final image of migg in the bathtub really haunted me - to the point where i took a break and figured i'd come back to the show when i was ready.

-well. i moved house that summer and promptly forgot to pick it up again.

-around this time i was watching BAKE OFF regularly and always tuned in to the celebrity episodes. when reece was announced as part of the line up, i definitely remember reading people being excited to watch him, because this wasn't something he normally does? i did watch his episode, having known/recognised him from in9, but i don't think i had any particular thought/opinion on him. (oh boy...)

-iirc steve was a guest on wilty in 2022 - this was also a show i regularly watched (and still do, unlike BAKE OFF). very much like reece on BAKE OFF, i tuned in to this episode recognising/knowing steve from in9, but again i did not have any actual opinion on him. the only thing i remember reading were people's comments about one of his anecdotes, saying "anyone who knows anything about steve and reece will know that story about pretending to be dead was true".

-now let's jump to late 2023! i read spoilers on who was going to be on TM s17, and at the time i remember thinking, "ah i recognise steve & john robbins, heard of nick mohammed because of TED LASSO, maybe i know who joanne mcnally is? never seen or heard of sophie willan".

-cut to april 2024 - i tuned in to s17 and basically instantly liked steve. this clever and deeply strange man!! by this time, i had already planned to come to the UK in may for a vacation.

-during my vacation - on may 8 at 9:58pm, i was about to go to bed in my hotel, but i decided to quickly scan the tv guide and happened to see that INSIDE NO. 9 was going to be on in 2 minutes. looking at the episode info, i googled and saw that this was the first episode of the ninth series, and apparently this was their last one! so i quickly decided to tune in to BOO TO A GOOSE.

-i remember my first watch of this ep - delighted to see susan wokoma, whom i loved in TM s16. really loved steve as wilma. funnily enough, was not paying much attention to reece, other than laughing at his funny lines. i had forgotten the show had "twists", so the twist in this one caught me by surprise!

-because i was vacationing for 2 weeks, i decided i would tune in to the next episode the following week. again because of TM, my first watch of THE TROLLEY PROBLEM was mainly thinking "wow steve is so good in this", but part way through, during the bathroom/mirror scene (you know the one), i sort of looked at reece a bit and thought "wait a second..."

-about two weeks after returning home, i decided to check when the last episode was airing, and figured i should catch up on episodes 3 and 4. MULBERRY CLOSE i instantly loved because of the static camera/hitchcock homage, and here is where my reece obsession started to creep up on me. what's really funny is it took me a while to realise who he was in this episode? for the first few minutes i legit thought damon was being played by stephen graham!! anyway, i was drawn in by that gruff but not mean-spirited aspect of the character (does that make sense?), and the way reece played him - i was especially impressed because you don't even really see him for like 80% of the time!

-over the next week following watching this episode, i started to look up reece on youtube (which is what i often do when i want to know more about someone), and saw this video (highly recommend all of misc.mp4's reece/steve/pembersmith vids):

youtube

and hellooo i instantly fell in love. i realise this is a persona and he plays it up, but he's just so funny and like, adorable??

-so then i decided to pick in9 back up from where i left off in 2021 - starting with LAST GASP, whilst waiting for the last two s9 episodes to air. and the rest is history!!

-the order in which i watched was basically: started bingeing in9 > paused at s5 to watch PSYCHOVILLE (whilst reading the wiki i decided i wanted to know the context before getting to DEATH BE NOT PROUD) > tuned in to CURSE OF THE NINTH > finished PSYCHOVILLE and in9 s5 > tuned in to PLODDING ON (you can imagine how many references i missed) > finished in9 and rewatched s9 > watched back the episodes i liked > binged TLOG

in terms of tumblr:

-during my teen years i was on Livejournal and mainly made icons, sometimes did those episode recap posts (featuring screencaps throughout - lmk if you know what i'm talking about!!). when that site went down and tumblr was a place to migrate to, i had a blog for a while in 2011, couldn't figure out what to do with it, deleted, came back a bit in 2014 to do screencaps posts - then i lost access to photoshop CS2, and basically didn't do any blogging or fandom-related stuff for a long time. i attempted to write stuff now and then (mostly "reviews" pfft), but couldn't really commit or keep it going. i always tried to come back to tumblr to do this, but never saw this as a place for text-heavy posts. (oh boy again...)

-one thing that's been constant though, was whenever i became hyperfixated on something (or someone), i always knew there would be people who felt the same & there would be posts about this on tumblr.

-so while i was watching in9, i did look at the sub but it seemed...inactive? then i looked at tumblr and quickly found blogs like @local-blog-for-local-people and basically started regularly checking it.

-and thennn when @in9-character-tournament started coming up in various blogs i was dipping in & out of (i could @ some of you but i don't wanna be a weirdo, or do i?), i thought "well i'd like to get in on this". so i officially created this blog on reece's birthday (LOL this was intentional but also easy to remember in terms of blog anniversaries 😉)!

-however, even then, i was too nervous/scared to really post anything. and i didn't even know what to post about! i got the scriptbooks in september and started reading them, at one point thinking "oh maybe i can talk about this". but what would i talk about? surely everyone knows everything and can articulate it better than i ever could?

-then in december when i read that r&s said they had no plans to record S/F, i panicked a bit. i had counted on them recording it and never even thought of going to see it live. the dates were weird imo and in past experience, winter/early spring might not be a great time to visit the UK, weather-wise. after mulling it over a bit, i checked the tickets website, saw it was nearly sold out, and decided to do some quick planning. the latest possible date & seat/price that seemed to be alright was march 27, 2025. well, i thought, "early spring in the UK could be nice?" i previously planned on coming in may, but decided to move everything up and take the plunge. this seemed like a once in a lifetime chance and i didn't want to miss out!

-when i bought the ticket and got the vacation planning started, a week or two later i saw @unreesonable rb the DEVIL OF CHRISTMAS commentary post where reece tells the story of where "you can almost see the pound signs in his eyes!" comes from. i had rewatched the episode on christmas with the scriptbook out to read along, and i remembered that that line wasn't scripted. so seeing the post i thought, "maybe i could rb and write this in the tags?" and there was the start of my blogging!

-my initial approach was to treat this as a media diary/stream of consciousness process thing, where i'd look up posts related to whatever i had just watched or was thinking about & rb that, putting any thoughts in the tags (and i guess that's what i'm still doing!). i wasn't completely sure i'd ever do "original" posts. at the beginning of the year i had started to read scriptbook 3, and had some ideas of what i could say. @insideno9bracket bracket was a terrific find - i followed what everyone was doing in terms of rb'ing to explain their vote/thought process, and here i feel is where i started to ease myself into the fandom. with @donotbelasagne's first stats post calling for propaganda posts in round 2, i thought, "well hey i can do some of that!"

-often i fluctuated between "should i post this? does anyone care? am i too boring or analytical about this?" and "wait why should i worry! this is my blog and i can do whatever i please, who cares if this gets 0 notes!" and other times i lurched from "please perceive me 🥺" and "oh god i'm being perceived, what do i do now!!"

-during the countdown to S/F i sometimes gave myself anxiety wondering whether i'd meet anyone in the fandom or whether i'd do stage door & what that would be like. in hindsight this was (reece voice/chuckle) ridiculous, given how calm & collected i ended up being on the day/days??

-S/F was not only an experience of seeing reece & steve live, it was also a chance to meet like-minded people irl. this was not something i ever thought i'd do! what's lovely is even meeting people i hadn't really interacted with much online (or even at all), it's like we all became friends the moment we saw each other!

i love how international this fandom is and that we were all brought together through our love of in9 + universe. everyone is so passionate and creative and funny!! i love (and am still a bit surprised) that steve being on tm/s9/S/F is what seemed to get people to create accounts and start blogging!

i feel like this is getting too long so i'll jump to the thanks (keeping it short tbh):

-i'd like to thank @silverview for being my first mutual (did i ever tell you you were?). reading about you meeting up with others in the fandom for S/F, i basically see you as our ambassador lol.

-huge thanks to @wintersoulwitch for running @unreesonable, what a treasure trove of a blog & i love all the digging & digital dumpster diving!!

-thank you to @local-blog-for-local-people, your blog is so organised and long-standing. i love looking through the tags/archive to see what people had posted in the past. (also i'm very flattered to see some of my own posts appear there!) sorry for spamming your activity with likes/rb's - but you know, i WILL keep doing this loll!!

-thank you again to everyone i met on april 5!! you guys are all so nice and beautiful!!! (i'm not @ing again so hopefully some of you see this lol)

and lastly, big big thanks to everyone who has ever read &/or interacted with my posts. S/F might mean the end of my journey in terms of experiencing in9-related things (& extended universe) for the first time, but i am NOT done posting about the show! as ken plume said in his pods with reece (which i highly recommend btw, if you haven't heard them - it's the most "as himself" as i've heard of reece):

ken: but, you know, there's still plenty of people that haven't discovered PSYCHOVILLE and INSIDE NO. 9 and should (reece: yeah, true) - so maybe that's it, maybe it's just building an awareness campaign for the stuff that already exists. reece: yeah. you set me thinking about the fact that it doesn't mean it's the end. it exists for people to find.

it's exciting that S/F is going on tour and that more people will get to see & experience the show. i hope this will bring more newcomers - either draw in people who have never seen in9 or the back catalogue to watch them, or even come to tumblr!

because if anything can harvest or keep a hyperfixation alive, it's tumblr. so i WILL keep posting about the show, reece & steve, the extended universe (whenever possible), until...i dunno, i run out of ideas? but i'm not even done yapping about guillem, and i've barely started on christian henson & yves. and the other directors! louise hooper, al campbell, george kane —