Boy, Bodkin is the type of series that revels in its own self-importance. The new Netflix mystery series has a great premise, considering how popular true crime podcasts are nowadays. However, the series is a cluttered mess. Bodkin takes so many useless turns that the writers, like McGruff the Crime Dog, begin to chase their own tails, and the plot goes around in circles.
The story follows Dove (The Dry’s Siobhán Cullen), an investigative journalist on the lamb, so to speak. Her editor orders her to travel to the small Irish town of Bodkin to accompany a podcast team looking for a story. The excursion may be good for Dove since she is under investigation for illegally obtaining and publishing classified government information.
Netflix’s Bodkin Season 1 Review and Synopsis
When Dove arrives in Bodkin, she meets Gilbert Power (Will Forte), an American podcaster looking to recover his swing. Gilbert’s marriage is on the rocks because he put his wife’s cancer diagnosis and treatment on a true crime podcast that many responded to. Gilbert brings his assistant, Emmy (Trying’s Robyn Cara), who is still learning the ropes of the format.
Power’s desire to discover his Irish roots dissipates, and Dove’s past—she grew up in an orphanage in Bodkin—comes home to roost. It’s good that they have a crazy bunch of characters to distract them. From a Romanian driver (Chris Walley), an illegal exporter with a checkered past (David Wilmot), an ornery Inn manager, and a bunch of nuns who know how to make a buck.
Netflix’s Bodkin Is Too Cluttered and Overwrought
Jez Scharf’s series is too cluttered and overwrought to the point of exhaustion for such an underwhelming payoff. While the team does create an even ominous Irish morose tone, that’s just a generic stereotype. Even when the series attempts to show some levity, like a bunch of nuns who left the church to open up a woke recreational retreat, they cannot escape the dreary undertones.
The other issue is the mystery of who the story of a missing girl is, and the viewer’s interest slowly begins to circle in the apathetic territory. Yes, the illegal trading of Eels is unusual, and a small-time coroner putting aggressive moves on Dove is fun, but this all seems to be a distraction for a mystery that could have been summed up by episode four or five at the most.
Is Netflix’s Bodkin Worth Watching?
By far, the most fascinating part of Bodkin is the great Siobhán Cullen, who owns every scene she’s in. Cullen commands the screen in a way that makes you unable to take your eyes off her because her performance is so magnetic. That also goes for David Wimot’s turn, which is like an Irish stick of dynamite. It’s explosive and offers the series’ best comic relief, but that’s far and few between.
Bodkin is only worth watching if you are a die-hard fan of the mystery genre. Even with majestic settings and crazy characters, the “mystery” reveals are just ordinary. That even goes for the big payoff the series works towards. The series can be quirky, but it’s not nearly as funny or smart as it thinks it is. On top of that, Will Forte, you know, does “dramedy” things.
Which brings me back to my point: Who cares?
You can watch Bodkin now only on Netflix.
5/10
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