With a darkness that’s familiar to “The Boys,” “Based on a True Story” starts showing how true crime isn't fun when you're in the narrative. Instead, it remains gravely self-amused at its wacky premise, which is more cloying than poignantly cynical.īut by episode six in this first season, “Based on a True Story” finally develops into something meaty and noteworthy. They have to play confused and naive here often, and the plotting cannot create robust comedic scenarios about how they're in way over their heads. The series doesn’t initially have the cleverness to get its desired bite, and the comic talents of Cuoco and Messina go largely unused. Such hollowness is part of a glaring tone issue that makes the first few episodes both basic and grueling, even as a striking idea shows glimmers of itself. Splattering her blood during a workout session is unearned and falls into an awkward pit-it’s neither ominous nor funny enough. We see it at the very beginning of the pilot, and then the show jumps back two weeks and humanizes the victim a tiny bit.
The brutal slaying that tips Nathan off to his plumber’s guilt is one such problem. Even though there's plenty to say about true-crime capitalism, Ava and Nathan are too annoying and shallow as the series introduces how they would be more interested in money, popularity, and ratings than having a conscience about murders happening in their orbit. As Nathan presents it to him: “Life in prison, or make a podcast?”Ĭreated by Craig Rosenberg (previously of “The Boys”), the show’s approach is initially too superficial, and the character work suffers for it. Given Ava’s love for true-crime podcasts, the financially struggling couple enters into an agreement with Matt to create a podcast that will allow him to brag about his work while also giving true-crime junkies the side of a story they hardly ever get. Married California couple Ava ( Kaley Cuoco) and Nathan ( Chris Messina) stumble onto a content-creating gold mine when they learn that their charming but imposing plumber Matt ( Tom Bateman) is indeed a trending serial killer known as the West Side Ripper. In the podcasting and docuseries era, murder is insatiable content. “Based on a True Story” is initially not so funny, despite trying to have its fun with pop culture’s fixation on other people’s real-life horror, and our desire to become armchair detectives.
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