Santa Monica, Calif. ? The original concept for “The Inside” was something akin to “21 Jump Street.”

But it’s turned out to be more like “‘The Silence of the Lambs’ for TV,” said executive producer Tim Minear, who was brought in to revamp the Fox network’s Wednesday night series.

In the pilot, Rachel Nichols played undercover policewoman Elizabeth Worth, who used her youth and beauty to work in places like high schools or clubs. Fox ended up scrapping the concept, yet wanted to keep Nichols.

“I looked at Rachel and I thought she had a kind of a little bit of a Jodie Foster thing going on,” Minear said, explaining how he hit on the idea of a young FBI agent investigating particularly heinous crimes.

Now called Rebecca Locke, she’s a survivor of a childhood kidnapping, and she brought along emotional baggage when she joined the FBI’s Los Angeles-based Violent Crimes Unit.

“It’s based on, you know, things I’ve seen on other shows,” said Minear, with the throwaway humor he injects into both his conversation and the writing he does for “The Inside.”

Minear says his characters all have “dark secrets we learn about as the series unfolds.”

“I’m more interested in trying to create some kind of mood, less interested in twisty crime plot, though I try to give plenty of that, too,” said Minear, 41. “The thing I try to come up with is a narrative that will somehow metaphorically say something about the characters. If you can clearly define who the characters are, then you can take them and put them in any situation, and they will be a machine that functions.”

The story lines are lurid, but Minear insists: “I don’t think we are any more gratuitous about it than anyone else, though I will say that our stuff, by virtue of some of our stories, is more graphic in narrative.”

It’s character-driven structure differentiates it from procedural crime franchises such as “CSI” and “Law & Order.”

On Wednesday, two back-to-back episodes air beginning 7 p.m. CDT – one about the link between a suicide and several murders, the other about a serial killer who removed his victims’ hearts.

Fox is hoping the double exposure may boost the ratings for the show, which has been attracting only some 3.9 million viewers each week.