REVIEW: Based on a True Story – Season Two [2024]

Rating: TV-MA | Episodes: 8 | Runtime: 30 minutes
Release Date: November 21st, 2024 (USA)
Studio: Peacock
Creator(s): Craig Rosenberg

Good luck sleeping tonight.

I did not anticipate Craig Rosenberg and company punting everything they did in the first season of Based on a True Story, but the season two premiere pretty much does exactly that. It makes sense logically since the podcast crashed and burned, but the appeal behind Matt Pierce (Tom Bateman) remains the fact that he’s a serial killer. To watch him get neutered as a “recovering addict” in order to alleviate the red flags of Ava (Kaley Cuoco) and Nathan Barlett (Chris Messina) protecting him (without the promise of monetary profit) therefore proves extremely disappointing. Especially since every remaining loose thread must be tied off and excised to do so.

So, for the front half of this season, we’re made to watch a completely different show devoid of any real thrills. Matt is in “recovery.” He’s probably the least important cast member beyond his position to hype Nathan up in a bid for the ex-tennis pro to reclaim his killer instinct and troll Ava when her sights move from West Side Ripper intrigue to a potential new threat to civilization. Matt’s suddenly the boring elephant in the room smiling with New Age rhetoric about rebirth while the Barletts (and Liana Liberato’s Tory) attempt to find normalcy. If normalcy can be found now that they’ve relinquished their morality.

It’s not as much fun since they’re coping with past crimes rather than facing present ones. By covering for Matt for so long, Ava and Nathan are just as guilty in the eyes of the law, but that conflict is old news now. The mutually assured destruction isn’t a quid pro quo anymore. It’s intrinsic to their lives. So, I guess you can say they’re “dealing with it,” but finding solace in new (old) outlets (tennis and amateur sleuthing) feels more like filler distraction than compelling drama. Why? Because it is. Everything that occurs in these first four episodes is either fully dropped or revealed as a means to an end. The show is treading water.

Excitement came from knowing Matt’s identity and not knowing what he might do next. Take that chance for spontaneity away and it’s nothing more than parallel mid-life crises suffered by protagonists who needed that wild card aspect to be interesting. Ava and Nathan are so out of synch that they barely share any screen time during the front half. It’s all just her and new friend Drew (Melissa Fumero) or him and Matt feigning a relapse. Thankfully things change courtesy of a much-needed (unexpected) revelation in episode four. It might be undercut by a second (expected) revelation in episode five, but the propulsive energy that drove the entire first season finally returns.

Does the show stick the landing as a result? More or less. A final reveal arrives without much shock considering how intentional the show is about introducing a new character in a way that ensures we remember them without actually giving them anything to do, but the success of their unmasking is less about the who than the what. Yes, the what holds more intrigue for a third season teased via a mid-credit scene than for what came prior, but it is something. At least Ava and Nathan get to be together (and mad at Matt) during the last trio of episodes so Cuoco and Messina can hit their comedic stride. It will unfortunately just prove too little too late for many watching.

The same can be said for the continuation of the message that we’re the real monsters feeding into the allure of murder and the desire to turn criminals into celebrities and victims into forgettable footnotes. The reason, of course, is that we don’t know this new murderer. Where we got both sides of the equation by having Matt and Ava interact then, now it’s pure speculation. Add the fact that they are actively trying to stop the spree rather than exploit it and you almost find yourself thinking they’re heroes. Maybe that’s an intentional test too, but we don’t really get to the “shame on you” portion of the programming until the finale’s on-the-nose chastisement.

I still enjoyed myself, though. It’s nowhere near as successful as the first season and does often feel like a bridge to more rather than a cohesive narrative of its own, but the acting is solid and the laughs earned (if dumbed down). Whereas the previous eight-episode run utilized a solid three-act structure to fill with satisfying drama and mystery, this one is caught pivoting away from building on the resulting danger to instead set-up a new danger in the background that we can’t care about since the old one remains unresolved. So, now we await news of a renewal to (hopefully) receive solutions for both. I’m invested enough to keep going, but I won’t be holding my breath.