Inspector K is held back by amateur acting, a dead plot, lazy writing

I had high hopes for the web series

I even wrote an article about it. I was optimistic that Inspector K would be one of the few web series that would be more substance than hype. After watching season 1 (five episodes) let's just say my hopes were dashed. I was wrong.

The Red TV backed series tells the story of the quirky Inspector K (Koye Kekere-Ekun) who tries to solve the murder of a top female blogger at a house party- which is a whodunit story.

A whodunit story is a complex plot-driven narrative that follows an eccentric detective as he tries to solve a murder or crime. Agatha Christie is a classic example of a whodunit writer with her crime novels.

Inspector K lacks all the great qualities of a whodunit story. The plot fails to leave the station as it is dead on arrival. After the death of the blogger, the plot drags itself through the passage of boredom and finishes in an untidy manner.

The below basic plot is further dragged back by the sub-par acting of the cast. Made up of mostly newbies trying to crack the movie industry, the cast of Inspector K does not have the skill to make the series intriguing. What we see are a bunch of actors with raw talent that can't take their game to the next level.

The lead actor Koye Kekere-Ekun is the biggest culprit in the acting department. K-10 might be an Instagram star with his funny clips but he is far from ready to carry a series on his shoulders. His brand of humour doesn't fit the big camera for now. Comedy is all about pacing and timing, and Koye doesn't have both yet. Funny monologues in front of his smart phone is one thing, being a lead actor in a comedy series is another.

In Inspector K, there is no intimate connection between us the viewers and the story. We are meant to be guessing who the killer is or at least who the real suspects are, the hallmark of a whodunit story. The audience is also meant to be a detective as it tries to unravel the intricate plot of deceit and lies to know who the criminal is.

This web series does not do this. We are left clueless and confused about the mess we are watching. To top it all off, the killer literally comes out from nowhere, a cheap trick from a writer who was stuck. The resolution was cheap and lazy.

Inspector K is a waste of potential. With a solid lead actor (Frank Donga), a solid cast and way better writing, this web series could have been dope. Unfortunately, it's not and the biggest mystery remains how this series was approved in the first place.