BODKIN

In BODKIN, a seven-episode series now streaming on Netflix, an American podcaster and his assistant travel to a small town in Ireland, where they team up with a sharp-edged investigative journalist to explore an old mystery involving disappearances. The result is charming, comical, and a ton of fun, proving that if you make the effort to develop likeable characters across the board, you can do almost anything with them.

Gilbert comes to Bodkin with his assistant Emmy to do a podcast episode on a cold case in which three people disappeared in the small Irish coastal town of Bodkin on Samhain ten years before. They are teamed with Dove as a fixer, a hard-edged reporter for THE GUARDIAN who needs to get out of the UK for a while, as she’s being investigated by the government after her whistleblower source commits suicide. They get a whole lot more than they bargained for, uncovering smuggling, an ancient gangster feud, and more. The slow, charming, and often comical build pays off in the latter episodes, when all hell breaks loose and the tension and the reveals come to a head.

The three main characters are terrifically strong yet wonderfully flawed in different ways, subtly crafted, and the many colorful people they get to know in Bodkin makes for a good mystery with plenty of light as well dark moments that never get too light or too dark. The result is honestly something special, a true crime drama that throws the true crime drama out the window to stake out its own identity. Honestly, it’s a ton of fun, and I’d happily recommend it to anyone.