Bodkin (Netflix series, 2024)
Bodkin is an intriguing mystery series about a trio of podcasters who try to investigate a cold case in a small Irish town filled with secrets.
‘Are you making the kind of show where you say it’s about one thing, but it’s really about something else?’, American podcaster Gilbert Power (Will Forte) is asked early on while visiting a traditional Irish pub. ‘That’s not really my thing’, he replies, and he may be speaking the truth.
But of course this particular podcast - an attempt to revive his flagging career - will turn out to be different, as Bodkin is the kind of mystery series that looks like it’s about one thing, but it is about many other things as well.
On the surface it’s about something that happened in 1999: the disappearance of three Bodkin residents on Samhain, the Irish precursor of Halloween.
Gilbert is accompanied on his trip from Chicago to the Irish west coast by wide-eyed research assistant Emmy (Robyn Cara), who adores everything he does.
And then there is Irish-Born but London-based Dove (Siobhan Cullen), a hard nosed reporter who is sent back to the old country by her boss at the Guardian because she’s been compromised while undercover on another story.
Dove makes it abundantly clear she doesn’t want to be in Bodkin, especially since Gilbert and Emmy act like they are in a Disneyfied version of Ireland, where people talk about fairies all the time and everything looks amazingly green. Of course, they also order large pints of Guinness, while Gilbert, who has some Irish roots, treats everyone he meets as a possible relative.
Main directors Nash Edgerton and Bronwen Hughes make excellent use of the West-Cork locations, so if you like your series to have more color than usual you have come to the right place.
This seven part series - created by Jez Scharf for Barack and Michelle Obama’s Higher Ground company - mixes delightful dark comedy with more European-oriented mystery thrills and can also be viewed as a sly commentary on the way podcasts tend to use the tragic stories behind true crime drama for monetary gain.
But to begin with, the local residents aren’t all that easily impressed. ‘Will anyone listen to your show,’ the podcasters are snarkily asked multiple times. Still, even though the tone of the series may sometimes be deceptively light, there are some decent twists and turns on the long and winding road ahead. Some even have to do with nuns…
Bodkin also works as an acting treat. The main trio all get plenty of opportunity to shine: comedian Forte (of Saturday Night Live) plays it straight most of the time, and Gilbert’s apparent naïveté makes him more endearing than otherwise may have been the case. Cara’s Emmy grows in confidence as the story progresses, while Dove is clearly the most complicated character, with a lot of backstory to be uncovered, and Cullen is simply stunning in every scene.
Additionally, there is a murderers row of supporting actors, including but not limited to Chris Walley as the group’s driver Shean O’Shea, David Wilmot as fisherman Sheamus Gallagher and Ger Kelly as singing barfly Teddy. They are all more multi-layered than you may expect when we first meet them.
After the first couple of episodes I was definitely into Bodkin, so I’m hoping you will follow suit and check it out.