Podcasts. There’s a guarantee that you know someone who listens to one. There’s a variety to choose from, and it’s also a guarantee that you’ll find one that suits your needs. Even If you want to take a look at another ‘Bodkin‘ review, there’s a podcast somewhere out there that features one. ‘Bodkin‘ focuses on the nature of podcasts, specifically true crime podcasts, and I personally agreed with a lot of what this show had to say about them.
‘Bodkin’ follows Dove (Siobhán Cullen), an investigative journalist for the Guardian who is forced to aid Gilbert Power (Will Forte) and Emmy (Robyn Cara), a crew of podcasters who are investigating the nefarious goings-ons that swirl beneath the seemingly idyllic veneer of the titular small town in Ireland, where three people mysteriously went missing 25 years ago.
Dove is a character who takes her job seriously, and you realise sooner rather than later that she’ll do whatever it takes to get a story. The show tries to make the point that investigative journalists aren’t too far from the people who work on True Crime podcasts, but Dove disagrees with that, and before even watching the show, so did I. ‘Bodkin’ shows how invasive True Crime Podcasters can be, coming to a relatively “quiet” small town and unearthing bad blood that has been long forgotten, and though this is the reality of those podcasters who reopen old wounds for the victims involved in these stories, it was the most interesting part of this show as you start to realise that this town isn’t as quiet as everyone thought.
The show starts by showing how people feel about True Crime Podcasters and questioning if anyone listens to them, this is a very valid question but unfortunately in this day and age, we already know the answer to that question and it’s yes, people do listen to them. This is such a good question because it links back to Gilbert’s character and the story they’re telling with him.
When watching ‘Bodkin‘, it does feel like we’re watching through the eyes of Dove, as you end up agreeing with a lot of the things she says and falling into the same mindset as her. When you first meet Gilbert and Emmy, they’re kind of unbearable, and I find it hard to find myself liking these characters, which I believe the show does on purpose. As it goes on, you eventually grow to like them, just like Dove, and I would happily love to see this trio once again, with them tackling a new mystery from a whole new angle that isn’t revolved around a podcast. Some might see that as taking away the identity of the show, but I truly believe that it’s the best way to move forward if they choose to.
The show starts slow and can stay that way for a while, but that doesn’t mean that the show was boring in any way; it was simply taking its time to tell the audience all about this fictional town, the way they think, and the mystery they’re trying to unfold, and it’s all for a reason. Halfway through ‘Bodkin‘, it takes a massive dive once you believe they’ve solved the mystery, and it starts to spiral into just batshit craziness, and that’s what I liked most about this show; it gives off more than you expect and it comes completely out of nowhere, so even if you are bored with the slow start, the real mystery doesn’t even begin until they solve it. The co-showrunner and executive producer, Alex Metcalf, said that the true-crime podcast “S-Town” was a major inspiration for this show, as you expect it to be one thing but completely spiral into something that you wouldn’t expect, and I believe that they achieved that with this show.
For a show set in a fictional town, it doesn’t fail to celebrate Irish culture; it does a really good job of it, especially by incorporating the Samhain festival, a Gaelic festival that is celebrated. As Dove, Gilbert, and Emmy go around the town to get information, we get to learn about the people of the town, which also adds to the effectiveness of how they celebrate Irish culture. If the show were set in a big town, it wouldn’t hold the same weight that it currently does. Setting the story in a small fictional town works better as it doesn’t lead to offending any real people by possibly creating a story that could relate to a real one, and it also allows for a real connection between all the characters and the stories being told with them, making them hit harder with certain revelations that come towards the end of the series.
‘Bodkin‘ is a show that just gets right into the hard truths of true crime podcasts, how they can affect people involved in the stories, and how journalists will do anything to get the story that they want to tell. It’s a show that might take a while to get started for some, but it’s funny, entertaining, gripping, and has a cast that you grow to love by the final episode. A few of the beginner episodes unfortunately hold it back, but once it gets going, it doesn’t stop until that final second and the credits roll.
Bodkin is streaming now on Netflix.
