How "Bodkin" Went From Interesting To "Badkin."
A little failure analysis on the Netflix series.
If you haven’t seen “Bodkin,” the sentiment here is that you probably shouldn’t waste your time but, still, I make an effort to avoid major spoilers so that you can at least read about where things go wrong, which is vastly more interesting than the series itself, I think.
If you’re new around here, and there are a number of mostly new (and mostly free) subscribers who are filing in, then you probably aren’t aware that very little bloodletting and beat-downs happen.
I did enough of that in my earlier critic days and it’s just much, much more preferable these days in our Platinum Age of Television to focus on all the very good to great content out there and not just jack-stomp some series for the dopamine thrills of it.
As tantalizing as that prospect sometimes can be.
We are a peaceful people, meaning little to no harm in most posts.
However, if a television series starts out well and is intriguing and manages to show potential and then you invest all your time into it and it goes completely sideways in the process, well, all bets are off.
“Bodkin,” the Netflix series about, well, lets see, it’s a mess of a story actually and we’ll get to that, but if we must give it a premise then it’s about an American podcaster named Gilbert Power (Will Forte) who is in Ireland on behalf of a British newspaper (heavy sigh) who wants to look into a series of unexplained deaths which might become his Next Big Thing of a podcast.
“Bodkin” is the first scripted series from Barack and Michelle Obama’s Higher Ground production company and there’s a very real possibility that some inexperience there (combined with Netflix or other producing partners not stepping in) may have lead to the problems that are minor at first before becoming egregious and frequent.
“Bodkin” initially catches interest because A) It might be a story about a true crime podcaster that sends up the very ripe target that is true crime podcasts, B) Has an enjoyable, effective cast (for the most part) with both likable and complex characters C) is shot in Ireland, despite Bodkin itself being fictional, and international locales are always a bonus.
That’s a useful surplus of potential. And I never would have made it to the fourth episode (of seven) if there wasn’t at least some grand entertainment afoot.
The lead up and the downfall are essentially two different shows, however.
If “Bodkin” had managed to cash in on its better parts I think the end result would have been, at worst, a fun little romp. Instead, “Bodkin” makes a series of ever-worsening decisions and those dramatic turns, poorly executed at first and then wince-inducing as they pile up, ultimately becomes a case study on A Story Gone Wrong.
For the most part, the early episodes of any series are essentially asking viewers to come along for a ride. In this stage, the writers are building both a world and the characters who populate that world. As characters and story bob along, viewers ask themselves a series of questions such as:
“Do I like this story and these people?” “Do I believe this invention?” “Should I keep going?” “Am I being entertained?”
A certain amount of leeway, based on the answers to those questions, is then given from viewers to the writers and directors. “OK then, let’s go on this journey.”
A critic, or at least a good one, is going to have a different tolerance level than most viewers, though some viewers, not necessarily being more savvy than other viewers, will nonetheless just tolerate less bullshit and align closer to a critic.
In “Bodkin,” the early difficulty was that it was good but uneven — inspired in some scenes while red flags began to raise slowly in others; this unevenness tends to lull viewers into more episodes, as happened with me.
But eventually this balance really tripped toward those flags as they began to snap and whip like they were fluttering off the Irish coast.
And as “Bodkin” sped into “Badkin,” I found myself much more intrigued with the implosion and how it could have happened (based off the early episode potential). Because the unraveling of “Bodkin” was no mere creative spiral — it ended up being a mystery and a masterclass in how so much can go so wrong so quickly.
There’s no lack of irony in “Bodkin” forever talking about “the power of the story” and how “stories define us” — ostensibly part of the early material that was spoofing Gilbert and his podcast, then later embracing the sentiment to have some kind of saccharine ending.
“Bodkin” at first seems to want to differentiate being a journalist from being a podcaster, and the gulf between the two. We meet Dubheasa “Dove” Maloney (Siobhán Cullen), a tough Irish born journalist now working at a major newspaper in London, who cracks a major story only to have the name of her protected source leaked; he hangs himself and Dove is the one who finds him (and steals his laptop once she does, the first indication she’s maybe not as morally superior as she claims when she meets Gilbert and disdains that he’s a true crime podcaster).
While it’s never properly explained why a British newspaper would hire an American podcaster to go to Ireland to investigate three unsolved deaths that happened on Samhain (pronounced saw-win), vaguely akin to Halloween or Dio de los Muertos, or later why Gilbert believes the podcast series that comes from it would get him out of debt when that money is likely going to the newspaper, but anyway whatever, Dove is ordered to essentially take a leave and babysit Gilbert and his research assistant, Emmy (Robyn Cara) over in her country of origin.
In the beginning, that’s the hook — and, again, it’s not a bad one if “Bodkin” was going to be a send up of over-cooked, earnest podcasts, and adding in a layer of “journalism or not?” is also tasty. Forte has a sad-sack earnestness to him and he’s funny when needed here, an offset to Cullen’s brash Dove character and Cara’s mousy Emma.
When they get to Ireland there’s not only a fine culture clash to be had but the effective “and people will listen to that, will they?” callback joke about podcasts that, like all good callbacks, gets funnier the more its used.
Also in Ireland they meet up with the potentially sinister Seamus Gallagher (the wonderful actor David Wilmot), and get the first signs of menace — Seamus and others in tiny Bodkin are not much for the podcast idea as it pokes around the tragedy of the long ago Samhain deaths, bringing up unwanted memories and dark truths.
At this point you might be thinking, “I don’t know, sounds intriguing, actually.” You wouldn’t be wrong, which is part of the point. And let me add this — through all seven episodes, even the worst of them near the end, there are patches of writing that leap into your ears; it’s the hit and miss rate that’s perplexing.
Part of the issue is that “Bodkin” seems like it was constructed by a committee; it was created by British writer Jez Scharf but Scharf only writes the first episode and the “story” for the finale, the “teleplay” is by someone else, which, even in the best of hands (think “Mad Men”) is tricky.
That means that there are seven different writers for the seven episodes, and it shows.
Nash Edgerton (“Mr Inbetween”) directs the first two episodes but the three other directors who round out the final five episodes don’t seem to stick to his template, another problem.
And yet, the refrain in “Bodkin” is all stories this and stories that; viewers are to be swept up in the vagueness of Gilbert’s heartfelt love for storytelling even while the one under his nose is ever-changing and surprising him (which is the point). It’s frustrating to see that one of the main aims is delineating Gilbert’s romanticized notion of podcasting and the real life events he’s covering, and that awareness in the writing room leads to a number of good jokes and the insightfulness is encouraging. But that promise is soon dashed in how the story of “Bodkin” is actually told, which is ultimately not well and confusing for no reason.
Let’s take a look at more of the issues.
In an effort to build mystery, the use of red herrings is excessive to the point of irritation. A small crime, given its prevalence in the industry; but, noted.
One minor character barely seen in an earlier episode becomes a key player in the whole mystery — an amateurish cheat. In fact, so many side characters are introduced (sometimes called by their first names, sometimes last names or by a title), that it feels difficult to follow. This kind of thing is best left to David Simon, because at least then you know he’s doing it because he doesn’t want you to be a passive viewer, not because he’s unsure of what he’s doing or fond of pointless detours, but because he wants to challenge you with ambition. This is not that.
I watched “Bodkin” in a combination of two episodes one night, one, one, and one on consecutive nights, then two to close it out. Meaning, this was not quite a binge and not really a “slow binge,” but fairly dedicated viewing and I still had a hard time remember who was who and why so many random side stories were being inserted.
By the fourth episodes, characters who behaved one way were acting completely differently. Good traits went to the dark side. Moral compasses were dropped. Seamus went from bad to good to bad and worse and few decisions aligned.
People talked on phones surreptitiously to create suspense because no person on the other end was shown. This often (no, always) led nowhere except confusion and faux surprise.
Gilbert has a wife; eventually we learn he made a podcast about her story and it helped lots of other listeners in their own lives but alienated her. She apparently lives in the United States, but shows up in Ireland in a later episode to deliver divorce papers to Gilbert, on a remote island. Their connection is never believable. She leaves.
There are two scenes where I said, “Well, at least the Irish sweaters look amazing.”
Dove sees a wolf. This is supposed to be ominous, but it’s not. There are scenes that suggest a paranormal vibe. There’s a dream sequence. There’s a drugged out on mushrooms experience played as paranormal. The wolf is explained, but you wish it wouldn’t have.
Like all shows that descend into mediocrity, people with information to share don’t, even when they should. Or when any normal person would.
There is a lesbian secondary (fifthdary?) storyline here between Dove and a local mortician that’s annoying for several reasons: It goes nowhere. It wants to be a lesbian story with some passion but there’s always a call that interrupts intimacy. Always. It wants two women to be attracted to each other without having them do anything of substance about it. Oh, and the other lesbian, despite maybe being one of the most interesting people in Bodkin proper, is never developed — she’s a diversion to other events. More time wasting.
There’s a whole scene built on one woman throwing another woman’s coat way up into a tree (there’s a piece of this that’s very funny and well done after it gets stuck up there, to be fair). Later the woman who owns the coat falls from the tree. She’s fine. This is done very badly and the entirety of both scenes is pointless. A new director changes the tone of the series in this episode and I wanted to quit but I was too near the end.
A thumb is shot off. It could have been given back to the person needing it, or to the arriving ambulance to be sewn back on, but instead it’s carried around in a pocket for no discernible reason.
Characters not only make bad decisions, they make bad decisions we know they wouldn’t make. Again, not excusable.
Dove is supposed to be from Dublin, but she’s well known in Bodkin because she’s spent time there, as did her mother. It’s unclear if, like, she just grew up and said, “I hate this remote village, I’m going to Dublin for some life.” Maybe it was mentioned?
In the world’s worst spoiler, something very ominous and bad and unknown and fraught with terror happened to a young man many years ago and he’s been mentally damaged for years. What was it? Did he see something he couldn’t unsee? Did he do some horrible things? No, the aforementioned person we barely saw who returns to be an important cog admits, in one of the least rewarding reveals that, no, she just panicked and hit him with a boat oar. That’s why he’s like he is.
“Bodkin” casts, and I will not use names here, two not very good or experienced actors to play medium-important roles. Their combined performance is so bad you think, “Well, clearly they are faking who they are and that makes them suspicious.” No, they are who they say they are. They are just bad at acting. It’s like an accidental red herring.
As I watched the fifth episode, so much of the potential had washed away and I knew I should have walked away. It’s the parable of the blimp master all over again. Once you untie the blimp from its moorings, it rises very quickly. You have to let go of the rope quickly. If you don’t, human nature makes you hold on. But you can’t hold on as it rises higher and higher. And you fall and die. That’s the fifth episode.
The sixth episode was almost wall-to-wall exposition in the most cringe-inducing way. But it signaled a kind of giving up that was like watching a car crash, and that delighted me in a way that put this post you’re reading into focus and gave it life, so I kept watching. It was as if all the diversions, the extra, pointless characters, the changing behavioral patterns of the existing characters, the realization that things needed to be wrapped up quickly necessitated a full episode of telling-not-showing. Egregious exposition almost without shame. I couldn’t look away.
The final episode was not just a full-blown capitulation to the mounting evidence that things had gone sadly astray, it was a moment to pivot and double-down on explaining the meaning of storytelling and how each of us have a story and (whoops, I threw up in my mouth). Anyway, in this episode, everyone got a coda. Most characters got a chance to explain things away; tidy but not. Much saccharine was used in its creation. But, fortuitously, there was a side effect of other stories being completely dropped, completely ignored and left to slip back undetected to the pointless place from which they originated.
The final episode was also something of an endurance test that pleased me greatly when, against all odds, I was able to watch to the Hallmark-adjacent end. I survived it! It was also an episode where the actors just couldn’t conceal it anymore — they did their best with the lines given, but they seemed to be quite aware that the lines did not add up or make much sense, in toto. I love actors who give it all, no matter what.
Imagine your best earnest podcast voice here, as you read along: In the end, what are we meant to take from stories that begin one place and then pivot, with surprise and alacrity, to a different place? These stories are like life — they are not neat or simple. They just are the stories we find about the people who live long enough to help us tell the truth.
I felt like I was being told that; it was the send off message the show was giving.
Yeah, it’s that kind of ugh.
So many other parts of “Bodkin” also trip and fall flat. It’s impossible to keep track. They start as slip-ups you overlook because it feels early on, as if “Bodkin” will find its rhythm and entertain. It tries — moments, as I’ve mentioned, highlight wonderful dialogue. In the end, they seem like outliers, like seven writers had periodic flashes of inspiration; that dialogue gave hope, but the overall guiding vision, the glue, is absent.
And then it all comes tumbling down. “This has taken a turn,” I said, disappointedly, early on. “What is happening to this show?” I muttered, in surprise. And soon I watched only in near disbelief about the lack of oversight, of no one stepping up and fixing the flaws.
“Bodkin” flames out spectacularly in the last two episodes, a litany of bad decisions, bad writing, a story looking to be told well but ending up being merely manufactured; it ends as triage, almost inconceivably, until it becomes the latest example of connected people getting to make something that is, itself, disconnected.
+
Think you are being kind. There is cheating and then there is incompetence.
Spoilers!
One character, a former petty criminal makes a decision a sociopath would envy that could have resulted in the deaths of hundreds of young people. Given concerts ranging from Ariana Grande to the Israel event in 2023 this was completely Bonkers for such a show as this.
Later a an Irish family whose patriarch is wheel chair bound descends from a 30 foot cliff in a ghost costume no less. The fit Interpol are shown, but cannot make the same climb.
Then when the bomb goes off said family is decimated but lead character standing 10 feet away, is unharmed.
Then another lead character escapes a possible death to the same bomb. How? No idea. He does not even say.
Then after this life altering occurrence when all the lives are subsequently ruined the podcaster THEN decides not to tell the story? Not even as an homage to the dead?
Bodkin was not great but in the last 10 minutes went beyond final Games of Thrones season into absolute madness. What were they thinking?
Will Forte was in another show that had an interesting premise started out decent (not great) and then totally went off the rails:
The Last Man on Earth…
(I just looked it up on IMDB THERE WERE FOUR SEASONS!!!)