Bodkin, an Irish series, was released on Netflix on May 9, 2024, and immediately gained a huge following for its perfect blend of humor and mystery. The black comedy thriller series is set against the backdrop of a serene coastal town in Ireland.
The show follows Gilbert Power, a podcaster, who teams up with investigative journalist Dove and aspiring journalist Emmy Sizergh to uncover multiple mysterious disappearances in the town of Bodkin over several years.
The trio aims to find the perfect story for their podcast by investigating the cases. The show revolves around a true-crime podcast, but is Bodkin based on a true story? The answer is no. The plot and the town seen in the series are completely fictional.
Is Bodkin based on a true story?
Bodkin is not based on a real story. Though the show tells the story of true-crime podcasters, it is a fictional creation of series creator Jez Scharf and co-showrunner Alex Metcalf.
The confusion around the show being adapted from real events began when the promotional material of the series, including the trailer and poster, featured the tagline, ‘Based on a True Story.’
However, the footnote following the statement read, ‘Overheard in a pub,’ confirming that the makers were trying to mock the true-crime obsession of the world, and used the tagline as a satire.
Metcalf confirmed that the show is based on a fictional story set in a fictional town in his official statement to Netflix. He added that the team tried their best to not relate the mystery in the narrative to any real-world case. He said:
“Not a real story, not a real place. 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.”
However, Scharf added that while the world and story of Bodkin are imaginary, he was inspired to create the series after listening to some popular true-crime podcasts like Serial and S-Town. Serial is an investigative journalism podcast by Sarah Koenig, which has been on air since 2014.
Similarly, S-Town is hosted by Brian Reed and released seven episodes in 2017. Scharf got the idea for the show after watching several crime documentaries and podcasts. He said in his statement:
“I was thinking a lot about the morality of true crime. They’re often very tragic stories but are parceled up into neat episodes with a good hook at the end. Actually, of all the true crime podcasts, the one that was most inspiring to us was S-Town.”
“That’s one where you come in thinking it’s going to be about a murder, but then the story just spins out in ways that you don’t expect. That was the kind of journey that we were trying to map ourselves against — that the truth is always kind of unexpected.”
Hence, Bodkin is not based on a real story, and the characters of Gilbert, Dove, and Emmy are the creations of Scharf and Metcalf. However, the showrunners got inspired to create the series after consuming some real-life true-crime content.
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The show stars Will Forte as Gilbert Power, Siobhán Cullen as Dove Maloney, and Robyn Cara as Emmy Sizergh. The cast also includes David Wilmot, Chris Walley, Seán Óg Cairns, Charlie Kemp, Ger Kelly, Pom Boyd, Amy Conroy, David Pearse, Kerri McLean, Denis Conway, Peter Bankolé, and Fionnula Flanagan.
All seven episodes of Bodkin are available to stream on Netflix.
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