Ray Shoesmith makes a living ending lives, but the real trick is keeping his own together.

Mr Inbetween wastes nothing—not time, not words, not bullets. Every scene serves a purpose, every exchange matters, and every action has weight.

Scott Ryan, who created and stars in the series, plays Ray with the kind of quiet control that makes him more dangerous than any loudmouth gangster. He doesn’t threaten. He doesn’t show off. He just does what needs to be done.

The show doesn’t ask you to love Ray or hate him. It just presents him as he is—a father, a friend, a man with a code, and a contract killer who sees his work as nothing more than a job.

One moment, he’s putting a bullet in someone. The next, he’s making his daughter laugh. The contrast isn’t forced, and it isn’t romanticized. It’s life, and life doesn’t separate the good from the bad so cleanly.

The violence, when it happens, is fast, ugly, and real. No drawn-out fight scenes, no dramatic last words. Just action and consequence.

The world Ray moves through isn’t filled with masterminds or criminal empires. It’s small-time crooks, men who think they’re tougher than they are, guys who talk too much and don’t know when to shut up. Ray knows when to shut up. He knows when to act. That’s what keeps him alive.

There’s humor in Mr Inbetween, but it comes from the silences as much as the words. The dialogue is sharp, but it never feels scripted. The jokes land because they come from real people in real situations. Ray can be terrifying in one moment and deadpan hilarious in the next, and neither feels forced. The writing doesn’t waste lines.

The direction is as lean as the script. No flashy shots, no unnecessary cuts, no swelling music telling you what to feel. The camera stays close, letting the weight of a look or a pause do the work. It knows that sometimes the quiet is more dangerous than the noise.

But as much as Mr. Inbetween is about Ray, it doesn’t work without the people around him. Damon Herriman plays Freddy, Ray’s boss and middleman, a man who thinks he has more control than he does. He talks big, but he depends on Ray to keep things running. Then there’s Gary, played by Justin Rosniak, Ray’s best friend, a lovable screw-up who doesn’t always realize how close he is to disaster. Gary is the kind of friend Ray should probably cut loose, but he doesn’t, because even in his line of work, loyalty still matters.

More than anyone, though, Ray cares about his daughter, Brittany, played by Chika Yasumura. She’s the one thing in his life that’s pure. He never lets his world touch her. He picks her up from school, he jokes with her, he makes sure she knows she’s loved. In those moments, he’s not a hitman. He’s just a dad.

The weakness of the series is its brevity—a problem that could have been solved with a little more strategy. But maybe that was the point.

And that’s the heart of Mr. Inbetween—a man trying to keep his world from falling apart while doing the one job that makes it inevitable.