Life in prison, or make a podcast?
Swifty Heist, Reddit Drama, and "Based on a True Story" Review
The Idol is getting dragged for Sunday’s episode which featured what’s said to be one of the worst sex scenes ever. Here are some candidates for people I think could have done a more convincing job than Jocelyn and Tedros:
Paul and Prue
The Love Island narrator and anyone
Ken Jennings and James Holzhauer
The Low-Brow Lowdown
Kanye West hosts off-kilter birthday party. The disgraced rapper served sushi off of a naked woman at his 46th birthday party in what looked like the back of an abandoned Chili’s. Chloe Bailey was the most famous person there outside of North West.
A French bandit steals Taylor Swift albums. The modern day Jean Valjean stole ten copies of Speak Now (Taylor’s Version) from the French warehouse where he worked, then sold them online. He’s no in jail for 8 months, but I feel bad because apparently he had “significant debts.” Not a good criminal, though! He only sold them for 25 Euros and left a huge paper trail — take that shit to the streets!
The people of Reddit are on strike! The go-to platform for questions about SSRI side effects made the controversial decision to start charging third-party developers astronomical fees, effectively shutting down an app called Apollo, which apparently a lot of these nerds liked to use because it made the Reddit interface more user-friendly.
In protest, many of the site’s most popular subpages, housing years of UGC, have locked down and gone dark — so if you find yourself unable to engage in Bush Did 9/11 discourse in the next couple of weeks, that’s why.
Pat Sajak to take the Wheel of Fortune for a final spin. The longtime host will retire at the end of the upcoming season, after more than 40 years with the series. I was trying to think of who they could replace him with and unfortunately the first name that came to mind was Quiz Daddy Scott Rogowsky.
Keke Palmer feuds with Houston airport. The actress said the airport threatened to throw out 16oz of breast milk. Who knows, fake breast milk could be the ultimate explosive attack. You can’t bring a Yoohoo through security so why is this any different?
Based on a True Story: Only Murders in the Building’s Snarkier, Sexier Cousin
“Life in prison, or make a podcast?” is the very real, unironic question that washed up tennis star Nathan (Chris Messina) asks his murderous plumber in Peacock’s new comedy Based on a True Story.
And honestly, you probably do need life or death leverage to get people on your pod these days. Nathan himself didn’t event want to make this podcast in the first place, but if he wants to stop his true crime junkie wife Ava (Kaley Cuoco) from fantasizing about her younger, hotter real estate clients, he needs to take some drastic measures.
The problem is, while Ava might be a great detective (she was the one who found out Matt The Plumber was the terrifying West Side Ripper) she and Nathan aren’t exactly industry pros when it comes to commercial audio. And Matt (Tom Bateman), a literal psychopath serial killer, has a lot of creative input, quickly winning back the upper hand.
Nathan and Ava must contend with marketing a podcast with their loose canon co-host, while also praying that he doesn’t end up murdering them if he decides he wants more equity.
All of that said, there’s actually not much pod humor for a show with “podcast” in the logline. I was expecting to see more recording sessions with the trio, opening banter, ads for SimpliSafe, etc. which would create a more challenging dynamic of: shit, what if I actually enjoy spending time and doing business with this murderer? Instead, it’s mostly Matt monologuing, and the couple just happens to be in the room, which feels like sort of an underdeliver on the entire premise.
If anything, Based on a True Story is more focused on satirizing the true crime industry at large, notably with the introduction of Sisters in Crime, two sometimes glib, sometimes saccharine celebrity podcasters headlining CrimeCon. One moment they’re hyping the crowd up for West Side Ripper content like he’s Prince coming back from the grave, the next they’re singing a painful rendition of “I Will Remember You” to “honor” his fallen victims.
Despite taking the backseat when it comes to driving the pod, it’s not surprising that Chris Messina and Kaley Cuoco have great chemistry. But when it comes to fleshing out the side characters, the show falls a little flat. Ava’s best friend is a fitness influencer who cheats on her wealthy husband and is therefore vapid and annoying? It feels like a plug-and-play, when they could have taken more of a page from the You playbook, where yes, the secondary characters were mostly used to illustrate stereotypes about different types of wealth in America, but they never felt like lazy composites.
The show also relies a lot on fantasy and dream sequences, which I personally find annoying. It’s clever the first time we see Ava executing a steamy hookup in the bedroom of a rental property, but it gets repetitive and Boy Who Cried Wolfy the second, third, and, fourth time.
Despite its flaws, the show is still a fast-paced, low commitment watch the features lots of hot, funny people. It’s the sexier, snarkier (albeit less charming) cousin to Only Murders in the Building. I don’t think it’ll win any Emmy’s, but there’s always the Golden Globes.
Watch If You Like: The Flight Attendant, Dead to Me
★★★☆☆
Prekend Wrapped
Watching: Take Care of Maya (Netflix)
Reading: “If You Post a Delicious Bagel Sandwich on the Internet, Do You Have to Say Where You Got It?” (GQ)
Listening: I’ve gotta give another plug for the Scamanda podcast. They publish every Monday and every time I remember a new one is out it gives me the same dopamine boost as a large iced coffee.
