Bodkin is a new Netflix thriller in which “a ragtag crew of podcasters set out to investigate mysterious disappearances from decades earlier in a charming Irish town with dark, dreadful secrets”.
The seven-part series comes from Barack and Michelle Obama’s Higher Ground production company, with the former president and first lady serving as executive producers on the show.
Speaking about the series, creator Jez Scharf said the show is “a commentary on stories of violence” and “the stories that we tell in general, and the stories that we tell ourselves and what violence we can do to ourselves and others”.
Set in the picturesque landscape of Ireland’s County Cork, Bodkin features more twists and turns than a corkscrew roller coaster.
Is Bodkin a true story?
Bodkin concerns the investigation into the alleged disappearance of three people who vanished without trace during a small Irish town’s annual Samhain celebration – a traditional Gaelic festival that celebrates the end of the harvest season – 25 years previously.
The poster promoting the series claims that the thriller is based on a true story, but includes a footnote which adds that said story has been “overheard in a pub”.
In short, Bodkin is not a true story.
Co-showrunner and executive producer Alex Metcalf told Tudum: “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.”
Schar added that his inspiration for the show was “absurdity”. He said: “My personal interest as a writer is always in absurdity, really – in the idea that life is broadly absurd. Things that are sad are often funny, and vice versa. I think, having spent a lot of time in Ireland, there’s a certain acceptance of that kind of tone [there].”
The seemingly unceasing appetite for true crime content – films, podcasts and documentaries – was also something the team behind Bodkin had in mind.
Scharf called the Bodkin a “post-Serial story” – a reference to the award-winning true crime podcast that paved the way for a whole host of other true crime podcasts.
In fact, Scharf’s initial idea for the show was more of a reaction to his own consumption of true crime documentaries and podcasts.
“At the time, I was thinking a lot about the morality of true crime,” he said. “They’re often very tragic stories, but are parcelled up into neat episodes with a good hook at the end.”
But after the genre went viral, Scharf felt that creators would “just take any crime-ridden, tragic event, and story-ize it to make it palatable and make it an easy- and fun-to-digest drama”.
He added that his intention when creating Bodkin was the sense that “the truth is always kind of unexpected”.
Will there be a Bodkin season 2?
Bodkin is currently ranked as number five in Netflix’s top 10 most viewed shows, with 3.3 million people tuning in to date.
Its popularity has prompted some viewers to ask whether a second season of the show will be forthcoming.
At this stage, however, Netflix have not confirmed whether a second season is in the works.
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