REVIEW: Based on a True Story – Season One [2023]

Rating: TV-MA | Episodes: 8 | Runtime: 30 minutes
Release Date: June 8th, 2023 (USA)
Studio: Peacock
Creator(s): Craig Rosenberg

Maybe you’re a dad who won’t finish Goblet of Fire.

While obviously reductive, I couldn’t help thinking Craig Rosenberg’s pitch for “Based on a True Story” was probably along the lines of: What if “Breaking Bad”, but a sitcom? The earmarks are there. Ava (Kaley Cuoco) and Nathan Bartlett (Chris Messina) aren’t dying of cancer, but their marriage is definitely on the rocks with both fantasizing about other people while desperately hoping their impending new baby might somehow right the ship. Things only get worse once her real estate agent’s one shot at a huge commission fails, pushing her back to the prospect of selling apartments again, and his former tennis pro’s assumedly permanent position as head coach of a palatial club evaporates in favor of a younger, gimmicky replacement. With nowhere to turn for help (because asking their rich friends admits failure), they decide to embrace the financial potential of a booming market: murder …

Podcasts. Murder podcasts. Sorry. That’s an important detail. Because neither Ava nor Nathan kills anyone. At least not yet. But one must understand a hard truth about the effect true crime mania has on society. It’s a topic that inevitably comes up during the show because the enterprise that the Bartletts embark upon with the help of their plumber Matt (Tom Bateman) exists in a very gray area of moral complicity. Once you start monetizing another’s trauma, you become an exploiter of pain. Maybe you can mitigate that reality by donating proceeds to funds in the victims’ names or by compensating family members, but being for-profit in any way automatically marries you to the crime itself. Because you need that body count. If serial killers the world over stopped, your gravy train is done. So, maybe you start getting cavalier about it. Maybe you start provoking these mystery men and women to do more. Go bigger. It’s an ecosystem wherein no one involved (listeners too) is innocent.

That’s Rosenberg’s motive. To call the ambulance-chasing public out for fostering a culture where homicidal maniacs earn followings similar to sports stars and Hollywood celebrities. One episode even takes place at a murder convention. Comic-con for serial killer fanatics. You can’t therefore help but agree with Ava’s sister Tory (Liana Liberato) when she in turn calls out the anonymous podcast the Bartletts have created for voluntarily platforming a serial killer. Because while Ava and Nathan’s idea is ingenious in a capitalist sense wherein someone is simply meeting demand (wanting to hear from real killers) with an exclusive supply (the local “West Side Ripper”), what are the consequences? Whether the podcast is real or not doesn’t even matter since you’re still profiting off the deaths of young women. You’re still normalizing a heinous act of violence by pretending. When do people who should know better become as bad as the psychopaths who can’t stop?

This last question is where the show gets really interesting because the answer is easy: instantly. Coming up with the idea is the moment you lose the benefit of the doubt because a sane, well-adjusted person should laugh. They should smile and joke about how wild it would be to team-up with a real murderer and make millions of dollars before admitting they’d call the police and turn him/her in instead. By letting Ava and Nathan jump into the deep-end, Rosenberg and company make it so all bets are off. As is often said throughout this first season, they might as well go all-in if they’re risking ruining their lives anyway. Go big or go home. Double-down. Turn complicity into partnership. Numb yourself to the reality that your conscience has already been shut off and admit everything is fair game. Why not just kill someone yourself too?

Add that attitude to a dog-eat-dog world of vanity and jealousy (there’s a joke that Ava and Nathan are the only married couple too stupid not to be having affairs) and everything becomes possible to the point where each episode earns its shocking surprise revelation. What happens if someone close to the couple discovers what’s going on? What happens when Ava and Nathan decide things have gone too far? Or if only one does and the other coaxes them back to the ledge? In many respects this show isn’t about murder at all. It’s about the adrenaline rush of spontaneity. How impulsiveness and gambling can suddenly make this boring couple that lost their way sexy again in the other’s eyes. If everyone else is having fun, why can’t they? Ruby (Priscilla Quintana) might be having too much. But appearances can be deceiving. What looks like happiness can just be a mask hiding the same depression Ava and Nathan wear on their sleeves.

I’m not sure how long this concept can go on, but “Based on a True Story” definitely has the juice for these fast-paced and darkly hilarious eight episodes averaging around thirty minutes a pop. And Cuoco and Messina carry each one since they’re the only characters who know everything that’s really happening (even if they might not be fully in control). The cold feet. The exhilaration. The rejuvenation. And, of course, the realization of who they’ve become. It’s a complex mix of emotions that hit home a lot heavier than you might expect considering the absurdity of the concept. Add Bateman’s scene-stealing devil on their shoulder and you can catch the glint in their eyes as they push themselves further and further from the human beings they must be to raise the unborn child listening from the womb. Because those fantasies that play out on-screen eventually prove much tamer than the reality. Don’t therefore be surprised when something wild occurs without someone suddenly waking up. Truth is crazier than fiction.