It’s hard to watch Peacock’s Based on a True Story series without comparing it to Hulu’s Only Murders in the Building. Both series deal with people obsessed with true-crime podcasts who find themselves involved too closesly with a real murder. The gag of Murders was how it seemed their insistence that a reported suicide was a murder brought out the best and worst of the central three characters and those around them.
Murders was co-created by Steven Martin, who also stars with Martin Short and Selena Gomez, and they had wonderful chemistry together that it made every episode of the last two seasons hard to resist. Set mostly in an expensive residential apartment complex in Manhattan, the people around them had their own problems that anyone could be the killer. And despite annoying performances by Tina Fey, who has exhausted her talents playing the same character for that last 20 years, and Jaboukie Young-White, who thinks giggling and smiling is acting, the show has a lot of twists well-earned thanks to the complex plot devices.
True Story has a great set-up and moves to the southern California world of people living beyond their means. Nathan Bartlett (Chris Messina) was once a promising and rising professional tennis player before he tore his ACL and had to drop out. He’s been reduced to the role of tennis pro as an exclusive club but finds himself demoted for a younger man. His wife, Ava (Kaley Cuoco), a realtor is pregnant with their first child but fantasizes about having sex with one of her male customers. Her younger sister, Tory Thompson (Liana Liberato) also lives with them. They are struggling both in their marriage and financially.
Then, one day, they need some plumbing work done. Enter Matt Pierce (Tom Bateman), who seems like your typical blue-collar guy. He recognizes Nathan from his pro days and when he tells them they’re going to need extra work done, Nathan offers to give him lessons in lieu of payment. Matt accepts and the two become chummy. Then, they go out to a bar where one of the bartenders, Chloe Lake (Natalia Dyer) catches the eyes of both Nathan and Matt.
But Chloe is fatally stabbed in her residence. Police suspect she is the latest victim of what’s been dubbed the “Westside Ripper,” a killer targeting young women. But Ava notices from a news report law enforcement found a disposable shoe cover at Chloe’s crime scenes. She remembers that Matt wore those when he first arrived at their house and suspects he may be the killer. After approaching him with an offer to do a podcast, he initially denies but then agrees if he can have a very creative hand in it.
This would’ve been a great premises but Craig Rosenberg (of The Boys and Preacher fame) can’t do much more with this idea. I almost expected for a twist that Matt was full of it and just a true-crime junkie like the rest of the people around him. It doesn’t help that Bateman’s performance is too generic and wooden from the same type of psychopaths we’ve seen before too many times to count. I got kinda annoyed every time he became to scowl by the halfway mark of the eight-episode show whenever someone says something or something happens he doesn’t like.
What’s worse is Cuoco’s performance consists of her being surprised or shocked by every other thing she sees. That’s it. By the second episode where she shows surprises by having wide eyes and a gaping mouth, I realized it was going to be the range of her role in this show. I guess they thought since this was a dark comedy, her constant expression would be comical.
There’s a lot of serious topics this show touches on such as how we’ve gotten to the point in our society where we have to decide where our morals and ethics stand. People are profitting off vicious murders at an alarming rate now more than ever. Nathan and Ava think their partnership with Matt will help them out financially and it does but at the cost that a supposed survivor of the “Ripper” dies mysteriously. But Murders in the Building already dealth with this in a better way.
I think our fascination with true-crime comes with our fascination with bad things that happen to other people. Mel Brooks once said: “Tragedy is when I cut my finger. Comedy is when you fall in an open sewer and die.” You slow down on the highway to see a car wreck. Hundreds lined the streets of New York City to watch the World Trade Center towers. It’s even been reported that when the FBI and other law enforcement had a shoot-out with Ma Barker and her son, Fred, people had picnics and watched from a safe distance.
There are some good ideas as their podcast initially isn’t a success until Matt uses a special way to adverstise at CrimeCon, a convention in Las Vegas. But then, there’s a pushback when celebrities criticize it. This is actually a wonderful statement on celebrity culture, influencers and our digital age. And this could’ve been a far better premise for a TV show.
Instead, we get some mediocre subplot as Nathan and Ava compete with Ruby Gale (Priscilla Quintana) an affluent friend of Ava’s, who’s married to the gullible but very rich, Paul (Brandon Keener). There’s a little commentary on how people want to live affluent lives and show it off to each other. You get the feeling that the younger Ava may have been more drawn to the older Nathan because she thought he was rich and famous. Quintana gives off a sultry performance as a woman who knows her younger days are fleeting and she has to do what she has to do to stay in the lifestyle she’s in.
Nathan is upset because they had to give away their dog to Ruby and Paul because they didn’t have a big enough yard. And there’s a comical scene where Dale and Nathan try to vie for the dog’s attention. But in a tasteless act, Paul shoots the dog after getting in a fight with Ruby. So, I have many big issues with TV shows and movies that incorporate animals into plots just to kill them off. If this is the best you can do for the plot, you need to give it up.
Since most of the episodes aren’t even a half hour with credits, there could’ve been some meatier characters more fleshed out. Maybe it was the budget or Rosenberg’s unwillingness to accept help from other writers, as he’s credited at the sole writer of each episode. You can watch the entire series in under four hours but it still feels like you’re only seeing half of what could’ve been a great series.
Peacock hasn’t announced any plans to renew or cancel the series and it ends on a cliffhanger that really doesn’t work. That being said, the second season could be an improvement with a bigger budget and more fleshed out scripts. They hardly give Tory much to do except pop up for a few scenes.
What do you think? Please comment.
Zane Says 