‘Mr. Inbetween’ And How It Handled An Aging Child Actor

As the production of television programs shifts into the era of streaming, shows are running into a problem with their child actors. Storytelling has moved from sitcom-based to something a bit longer where stories pick up just after the previous season left off. This means that child actors from one season to the next can age drastically. This can become awkward for the audience when a character looks like they aged five years in the span of one. Series on network television that have twenty-episode seasons for many years don’t necessarily have this problem. Child actors grow over the course of time with the show, so their aging makes sense. But for shows such as The Witcher and Stranger Things, their child actors jump in age despite the stories taking place in a relatively short span of time. FX’s Mr. Inbetween got around this problem in a fairly simple way.

The series is about a hitman named Ray (Scott Ryan) in Australia who has a tendency to solve every problem with violence. Nevertheless, he’s still a loving boyfriend and father and never use his violence against them. His relationship with his daughter, Brittany (Chika Yasumura), is a very important part of the show as there is a certain contrast between the man he is at work and the man he is at home. He’s constantly trying to shield and protect his daughter from the violence he often has to see in life. And when Mr. Inbetween reached its third season, rather than pick up where the second season left off, the show jumps in time three years to account for the age gap the young actor player his daughter experienced in between production blocks.

This was done for practical reasons as Yasumura aged quite significantly between seasons. But it also makes sense from a storytelling standpoint. When Brittany was young, Ray was able to talk away a lot of the things she would see. But now that she’s older, she’s become a lot wiser to her father’s behavior, such as toying around with his gun. This time jump allowed the show to explore a totally different side of Ray’s life that otherwise wasn’t covered in earlier seasons. Season three dealt heavily with how he rectifies his violent lifestyle with his aging daughter. Of course, a lot of shows aren’t able to be this flexible with their storytelling, but Mr. Inbetween handles the issue of its child actor growing up very smartly.

Mr. Inbetween is now streaming on Hulu.