It’s a universally acknowledged truth that – when exposed to enough podcasts – you begin to believe you can make a successful one of your own. So that’s exactly what becomes of Kaley Cuoco’s Ava, a true crime fanatic who believes the ultimate selling point has fallen right into her lap. Pregnant with her first child with her husband Nathan (Chris Messina) harboring all sorts of anger over a promising tennis career that was stopped in its tracks.
Ava finds solace over day drinking with her friends as they discuss the latest true crime podcasts. Then a serial killer arrives on her doorstep, and with money running low, she comes up with the ultimate plan. All she needs to do is convince the killer to start a podcast with her, detailing everything he’s done and why The Westside Ripper is already active around her area, with several brutal killings of young women and seemingly no trace.
But soon Ava and Nathan find themselves in over there heads as, it turns out, trying to blackmail a serial killer to do a podcast with you comes with its consequences. Based On A True Story comes at a point that Only Murders In The Building is at the height of its success, but it seems a little derivative to compare the two as viewers are taken on completely different rides. The concept of the show is whimsical fun, and there’s some pretty good twists, but it’s hard not to notice the massive plot holes the show tries to brush over.
For example, Ava and Nathan, in their desperation to make money to fix their home, seem to think this anonymous podcast is their way out. They don’t seem to stop and think for a second that if it’s anonymous, they can’t be traced. If they are, then they’re accessories to a killer. The project, which was written before Cuoco’s pregnancy, seems to ignore the pregnancy completely when they don’t want to mess with the plan of the show too much. At points, this includes drinking and recreational drugs.
These oversights and string of nonsensical decision-making on the part of our leads make the characters at points severely unlikeable, and while having an unlikeable protagonist isn’t a complete buzzkill, in this situation you have to be somewhat rooting for them. But you’re not, they just come across at times as complete idiots.
Cuoco and Messina make quite the team though with the material that they’ve been given. Messina’s slowly burning rage over a life that could have been matched with Cuoco’s simmering unhappiness into a life she didn’t sign up for provide some weight for them both even in the most bizarre moments.
You buy them as a couple, and while their thought process is extremely flawed, their motivations do make a lot of sense.