Summary
- The thrilling allure of true crime draws millions to investigate, uncover secrets, and solve mysteries from the safety of their screens.
- Bodkin may be a fictional drama, but its engaging plot and complex characters make for a binge-worthy true-crime miniseries experience.
- Despite the show’s fictional nature, the stunning Irish landscapes and intriguing character developments in Bodkin offer a unique viewing experience.
As humans, it is in our very nature to want to uncover secrets and piece things together so that the unknown is not a scary, and potentially harmful, mystery. Even when we are not really active participants in a situation, there is still something completely thrilling about figuring out the truth about a lie or finding the missing puzzle piece that completes the entire picture. With all this in mind, it makes perfect sense as to why we are constantly drawn to anything and everything dealing with true crime. Between TV series, documentaries, podcasts, and the various films that depict horrible situations, millions of people like to play detective alongside those in the field getting the facts.
Netflix’s latest miniseries, Bodkin, puts audiences right in the middle of the creation of a true-crime podcast. The seven-part series follows Gilbert Power (Will Forte), an overzealous podcaster, his research assistant Emmy Sizergh (Robyn Cara), and Dove Maloney (Siobhán Cullen), a cynical woman who would rather be anywhere else in the world, as they take a trip to a small town in Ireland to find the answers to a cold case from 20 years ago. While the characters and plot seem to follow a very realistic pattern, some fans are wondering just how much of Bodkin is actually based on a true story. The answer may surprise you.
What Is Bodkin About?
Bodkin is a story within a story with several side stories all intertwined. This may sound confusing, but like Gilbert even says, there need to be a few red herrings to string along the main plot and a great hook that brings everyone in. The main story focuses on Gilbert and his team traveling to Bodkin, Ireland, and trying to get enough evidence and interviews about three murders that happened 20 years ago to pull together Gilbert’s latest podcast idea. However, while the three of them are getting a lay of the land and finding out that everyone is genuinely surprised that anyone would even be mildly interested in a story of their tiny town, Dove realizes that several of the people around them have been harboring important secrets for two decades.
Secrets Are Revealed, and Hostility Comes Out
When some of the townspeople start to realize that the podcasters are getting closer to discovering the dark truth of their past, they become a lot less welcoming. Dove is threatened after she is nearly run down by a car; Gilbert’s new friend Seamus (David Wilmot) ends up proving that he is not the kind-hearted fellow he’s been portraying; and Emmy learns that everyone within their line of work has a hidden motive. By the end, they each learn a bit about the town as well as how far seemingly nice people are willing to go to protect the ones they love. Most importantly, the trio learns that people who seek out the truth need to be willing to risk their lives if they want to uncover something incredible.
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Bodkin Is Completely Fictional
Though the mysteries that Gilbert, Dove, and Emmy solve seem very realistic, the entire storyline that makes up Bodkin is completely fictional. From the characters to the murders to even the name of the rural town, everything was fabricated by one very creative writer named Jez Scharf. When talking with Netflix, Scharf said, “It’s a fake town, it’s a fake place. It’s all fake people. The mystery itself, we worked very hard to find something that is in no way adjacent to a real true crime story. The fictionality of it was very deliberate.” This allowed Scharf the creative freedom to do whatever he wanted with the characters and storyline without all the limitations and inevitable backlash from people if he had based any aspect on a real case or individual.
A True Story Lies Just Beneath the Surface of Bodkin
While everything within Bodkin was fake, there is the interesting fact that quite a bit of the filming took place in West Cork, a coastal Irish town that had its own team of podcasters running around trying to solve the very real 1996 murder of French film producer Sophie Tuscan du Plantier. A 13-part podcast entitled West Cork was created by Jennifer Forde and Sam Bungey after countless hours of interviews, getting to know the area, and digging into everything they could while remaining respectful to the locals.
Forde told Ireland’s Image magazine that it was incredible to sit down with people and hear their versions of what happened at the time, but actually piecing everything together for listeners to hear was the most frustrating part. Because of her respect for the situation and everyone it affected, it would be nice to think that Scharf did have this way of going about his characters creating a podcast in mind.
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Why You Should Still Watch the Miniseries
Though Bodkin is not based on a true story, everyone who loves a good true-crime plot with questionable characters should still give it a go. The series is only seven episodes long, so you could really just binge it on a Saturday afternoon. The characters are likable in their own ways, and you will likely come to like or respect the fact that they all become aware of their own flaws.
The landscape is also a fantastic reason to try out this new series. When Gilbert and his crew first arrive, he comments that there is nothing quite like seeing the beautiful and lush green lands of Ireland. Dove, on the other hand, is originally from Ireland and cannot stand how much Gilbert and Emmy are fascinated by her homeland. Eventually, she comes to love the Irish way of doing things, and she even has a moment just before the credits roll where she hints at a newfound appreciation for the nuns back at the convent where she grew up.
Could There Be a Bodkin Sequel?
Jez Scharf left an open ending, with Dove narrating and saying that her story has only just begun while sitting in front of a nun who practically raised her after her mother dropped her off and never looked back. Perhaps there will be a season two around the corner where audiences get the inside scoop on Dove’s very difficult upbringing.
