On Bo Burnham’s 'Inside' and 'The Inside Outtakes'

Burnham spends the entirety of the special “inside” the one-room guesthouse of 1428 North Genesee. That’s sort of the whole gimmick, the implication being that, because of the pandemic and its attendant lockdowns, he can’t leave. (The opening song, “Content,” is about being “locked inside of my home.”) But over the course of Inside, it becomes increasingly clear that while the pandemic may have sent Burnham to the guesthouse, it isn’t what keeps him there. I wanted to see 1428 North Genesee for the same reason one might go see Finca Vigía or Shaw’s Corner or La Casa Azul: I was drawn to this place that I felt had gestated genius. My admiration tallied with the critical consensus; upon its release, Inside was met with near universal acclaim, though critics diverged on exactly why they found it so good.