A crime podcast goes to Ireland, with mediocre results

True crime podcasts are such a phenomenon that they have become a starting point for scripted, fictional TV shows. After ‘Only Murders in the Building’ (Hulu), ‘Based on a True Story’ (Peacock) and ‘Truth Be Told’ (Apple TV+), we can add ‘Bodkin’, a seven-episode thriller to Netflix about a trio that arrives in the sleepy Irish town of the title to investigate the disappearance of three strangers who went missing twenty years earlier.

(If Hollywood is so eager to greenlight shows that reflect our world, why haven’t we seen much about union organizing? But I digress. True crime podcasters are.)

Saturday Night Live alum Will Forte (the only American in the cast) plays Gilbert, whose first podcast made him a minor star. He has not been able to repeat his initial success and, like a one-hit wonder, he is driven by professional desperation. Siobhán Cullen plays Dove, an Irish newspaper journalist based in London. When a story she is working on proves too dangerous, her boss gives her a new assignment to work with Gilbert, and she reluctantly agrees. They go to Bodkin with a young and inexperienced assistant named Emmy (Robyn Cara). Her job description is unclear, but that’s the least of the problems holding back the series. Too bad, because it starts off promisingly enough.

The show isn’t so much a satire as it is a foggy, dark thriller that (at least initially) drives quite a sardonic energy. Every time they explain the podcast to someone else, there’s a running joke: “And people will listen to it?” comes the amused but dubious reply. The show also pokes fun at clichés about Ireland’s beauty while also capturing that beauty. “Is it raining? I don’t know,” Gilberts asks at one point. “Is it just some kind of wet breeze?” Emmy wonders. A local interrupts their conversation: “It keeps raining in Ireland. Even when you think it’s dry, it’s still raining, just very small droplets.”

When he sees a nun in a pub, Gilbert is simply excited: “I love this country!” He’s open-faced and goofy, but he also takes a patient and thoughtful approach to his work: “Journalism isn’t just about squeezing people for information, we’re here to build relationships.” Pigeon mocks. She is callous, has a hard face and struggles with a number of childhood traumas that make her constantly suspicious of everyone. She doesn’t want to be here! Emmy is caught in the middle, between these two more experienced investigators, who try to keep the peace.

As they make the rounds, they encounter a lot of resistance. “Let go of the past,” someone pleads. “It didn’t do anything to you.” Emotions run high, bodies are found in the trunk of a car and money is stapled to a man’s forehead (don’t ask). But the mystery of who’s missing, and why, is too gritty, too complicated, and too twisty to make any sense or keep you locked up. Mysteries should be complicated, but not difficult to follow.

I kept waiting for the series (from Jez Scharf, who serves as showrunner with Alex Metcalf) to find its narrative footing, but it lacks the kind of methodical unraveling necessary to maintain interest. The cast of characters remains undeveloped beyond their superficial tropes. There’s not even a clue what this podcast will sound like.

“Bodkin” is the first scripted series from Higher Ground, the production company founded by Barack and Michelle Obama “to tell powerful stories that entertain.” It’s a piece of cake and probably not what most audiences would expect from a two-term former American president who would leave his name and energy behind him. Higher Ground doesn’t necessarily need to make more important-seeming or creatively substantial scripts, but it should care Good TV if it wants to be taken seriously.

“Bodkin” – 2 stars (out of 4)

Where to watch: Netflix

Nina Metz is a Tribune critic.