Bodkin: Will Forte is a Podcaster Investigating a Cold Case in Rural Ireland in new Netflix Series

By Karen Gordon

Rating: A

Just when I’d intended to get outside for some time in the sun, Netflix has released some fabulous new series, keeping me on the couch.

After watching the terrific, intense Baby Reindeer, which is every bit as good as its hype, I was looking for something much lighter. 

I found it with the entertaining. compulsively bingeable Bodkin.

The seven-episode series, led by SNL alumus Will Forte (MacGruber)  starts as a fairly light comedy/thriller that becomes a dark comedy that becomes, a mystery/thriller. 

Siobhan Cullen, Will Forte and Robyn Cara are a trio on the trail of a pagan mystery.

Forte stars as Gilbert Power, a Peabody Award-winning American podcaster specializing in true crime investigations, who is on a roll.  He’s a sweet natured, open person, who is drawn to the storytelling aspect of what he can do with podcasts, and is clearly not a “gotcha” sort of journalist. 

 He’s partnered with the Guardian newspaper to do an investigation of a 25-year-old mystery in the Irish town of Bodkin: On the night of the Samhain festival in town, three people with no apparent connection to paganism disappeared. Their disappearance was never solved.

Gilbert isn’t going alone. The Guardian has assigned, Emmy (Robyn Cara), a young, energetic, slightly naive researcher from the digital department to work with him.   

And then there’s Dove, (Siobhán Cullen) an investigative reporter. Originally from Dublin, Dove is smart, direct, has a chip on her shoulder and some barely concealed anger. 

She’s not a fan of podcasts, but is assigned to go along to get her out of town because of some serious problems she’s run into on a story she’s been working on and her editor wants her out of the way while things cool down.

The three hit Bodkin and immediately run into the reality of how much more complicated things are going to be in a town that puts on a friendly face, more or less, but isn’t big on strangers asking questions.

For the first episode or two, the series feels a bit like Local Hero or Northern Exposure, a  slightly goofy setting, a small town with a lot of seemingly quirky residents. They’re people with established relationships and a general tendency to talk around issues.   

Gilbert’s technique is to get to know people. He gives them space to tell their stories, and to record himself doing the kind of atmospheric scene-setting, music, and verbal thought bubbles that are part of the style of many true crime mystery podcasts.   He’s also aiming to capture a romantic vision of what he thinks of Ireland, a place of stories and myths and a belief in things like fairies.  

Dove, on the other hand, is direct, tough and a bit of a bull in a china shop.  If there was a crime, she wants to cut to the chase. Emmy, being new is more cautious. 

But the three of them, each with differing tendencies, start to ask questions. And soon, they’ve stepped into something much bigger and much darker. Having roiled seemingly calm waters, each of them, individually, is pulled into a vortex of problems they have created for themselves. On top of it Dove is seeing things, mostly of a wolf.

The series is filled with terrific performances, and great characters, and as it goes on there’s a real sense of jeopardy. 

But what’s most interesting is how the process of doing the podcast brings out the issues that Gilbert, Dove and Emmy are going through in their own lives, and can’t run away from. 

Over the course of the series their personal issues—and they all have something they’re dealing with—start to factor into how each one of them approaches the work and their relationships with each other.  

And given that they’re aiming to tell other people’s stories, to get people to talk openly, in ways that are intimate and personal for the good of the podcast, it also asks questions about the way certain kinds of media handles information.  

It’s wonderfully written, with an ear for smalltown life, and a plot that is intriguing, and intelligent, as well as highly entertaining. Some of these seven-part series feel padded out but every moment in Bodkin feels purposeful.  

Bodkin. Created by Jez Scharf Starring Will Forte, Siobhan Cullen and Robyn Cara. Now streaming on Netflix.