Stream It Or Skip It?
Written by on June 9, 2023
Stream It Or Skip It
More often than we care to admit, we have no idea where a show is going after the first episode. That may seem like a good thing; we all like surprises, right? But in the case of a new Peacock series starring Kaley Cuoco and Chris Messina, it’s more like a “give in to the madness” thing. In this case, though, the show’s leads are holding our attention.
Opening Shot: A young woman is in her apartment, FaceTiming with a friend as she walks out of her bedroom.
The Gist: The woman starts to work out in front of a video mirror, then suddenly someone comes up behind her and stabs her. The assailant continues to stab her, even when she struggles. Finally, we see her bloody body up close after the assailant is done, lifeless.
Two weeks earlier, realtor Ava Bartlett (Kaley Cuoco) and former pro tennis player Nathan Bartlett (Chris Messina) are at a crossroads with their marriage; Ava is pregnant with their first child, and has been feeling the fact that her life is going to change as a new mother. Her sister Tory (Liana Liberato) is staying with them on a break from college, and Ava laments that she never got laid as much as her sister has.
At work, Ava sets up an open house at a high-priced listing that’s languishing, all the while listening to a true crime podcast. The listing is an important one to advance her realty career beyond the one-bedroom rentals and tiny commissions she’s been working with to that point. But what’s been distracting her is the news reports about the “Westside Ripper”, who’s been killing young women in and around their part of Los Angeles.
Nathan goes to work at the country club where he’s the director of tennis and finds out he’s being demoted to working with kids on commission, in favor of a younger pro that has become popular for his lessons where he drinks with the club members who take the classes.
As always happens, Nathan comes home from that bad news to a broken toilet. After shopping for toilets and barely being able to afford a basic one, Nathan tells Ava his idea for a tennis podcast where he tells stories about his time on tour; Ava honestly responds that no one will listen to that, and that murder podcasts like she listens to are what’s popular.
They call in plumber Matt Pierce (Tom Bateman) to install the toilet, and when Ava shows him a leaky kitchen sink, he tells her that fixing that will be a big job. Nathan trades him tennis lessons for the work, and as the lessons go on, the two guys become fast friends, shooting darts after lessons. While at the bar with Tom, Nathan has a slightly flirty time with a bartender named Chloe (Natalia Dyer), but just shrugs it off because he’s married and she’s young.
Meanwhile, Ava meets with a group of friends to discuss the murder podcast they’re all listening to, when she finds out that she’s the only one among them who isn’t having an affair.
The next night, Nathan literally runs into Chloe at the bar; she’s off-duty on a date. In the morning, Ava sees that Nathan’s computer is on Chloe’s Instagram page, but another tab has the news of her brutal murder. After Nate manages to wriggle out of some mild trouble with Ava, she speculates that it was the handiwork of the Westside Ripper.
When a news report indicates evidence that may have put Matt at the scene, Ava immediately drives home and tries to convince Nate that Matt is a serial killer. But then she also comes up with an idea: Make a podcast with Matt in exchange with not reporting him to the police.
What Shows Will It Remind You Of? Take Only Murders In The Building and transfer its setting to suburban Los Angeles, and you’ve got Based On A True Story.
Our Take: On the surface, Based On A True Story, created by Craig Rosenberg (The Boys) seems like a silly idea. This couple puts a person they think is a serial killer on a podcast instead of, you know, turning him in to the police. How does that even work? How would they be able to do it without the murderer killing the two of them just to keep them quiet?
But the series does have two things going for it. One is the fact that, while it seems like Ava and Nate have Matt all figured out, there’s a pretty good chance he’s not the Westside Ripper. For all we know, he may go along with this scheme for reasons we don’t know yet. Or he may be the Ripper and the series is going to be a delicate dance between the couple and their erstwhile plumber to see how long they can put off him killing them.
The second thing the show has going for it, though are its stars. Messina is Messina, playing a guy constantly on the verge of rage who makes up for it by lobbing a barrage of f-bombs. It’s why he’s likely going to be considered a suspect at some point.
Cuoco, not surprisingly, carries the comedic load of this series. She proved during her Emmy-nominated stint on The Flight Attendant that she can do that, and that effort continues here. She does it with her expressions and her ability to do physical comedy — even while she’s presumably pregnant in real life here — but it’s also because her reactions to things feel more natural and less of a put on than other comedic actors can accomplish.
She makes you believe that not only is Ava struggling emotionally as a soon-to-be-mother, but that this podcast scheme of hers is her and Nate’s way to financial independence. Even if the idea is as ridiculous as it seems, she makes the viewers believe it can work because her performance in the scene where she broaches the idea, she has convinced herself that this is a rock-solid plan.
Cuoco can hold our attention until the show figures out where it’s going, and that’s not such a bad thing. We just hope it’s going in a direction that makes sense.
Sex and Skin: None in the first episode.
Parting Shot: On the beach, Nate tells Matt that he knows that Matt is a serial killer and says he has a proposal. From a distance, Ava watches them through binoculars, and a tiny, wry smile comes over her face.
Sleeper Star: Here’s what we’re wondering: Why do you cast Natalia Dyer as some random bartender that becomes a victim of the Westside Ripper if she’s just going to be a bloody corpse twice in the first episode? There’s got to be more to her role than that, right?
Most Pilot-y Line: Tory stares at Matt’s ass while he’s working under the sink and says, “You know, someone once told me, ‘Never trust a plumber with no ass crack.’” Quite the opening line. Makes us wonder if Tory is there to be a potential victim of the Westside Ripper.
Our Call: STREAM IT. The premise of Based On A True Story is definitely absurd and by the end of the first episode, we’re not sure where it’s going to go. But Messina and Cuoco’s performances are more than enough to keep our attention while the show figures itself out.
Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, RollingStone.com, VanityFair.com, Fast Company and elsewhere.
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