Does Netflix's 'Bodkin' Get Any Better? Not Really. Here's How It Ends

By Dustin Rowles | TV | May 16, 2024 |

By Dustin Rowles | TV | May 16, 2024 |

Released to Netflix, Bodkin is a show designed to appeal to our collective interests in true crime, podcasts, and the Irish countryside. It stars Will Forte as Gilbert Power, a podcaster who hasn’t had a hit since the podcast that documented his wife’s battle with cancer (and cost him his marriage); Siobhán Cullen as Dove Maloney, a hardnosed Irish investigative journalist who is working with Gilbert against her wishes while lying low because one of her sources took his own life; and Robyn Cara as Emmy Sizergh, Gilbert’s earnest podcast assistant who looks up to Dove.

The three travel to the Irish coastal town of Bodkin to investigate the mysterious disappearance of three people two decades prior. Initially, they are embraced by the friendly community, but soon they are pushed away by some who do not want certain secrets to resurface. One of those characters is Seamus (David Wilmot), who operates an eel smuggling operation. He moved to Bodkin soon after the disappearances.

While investigating the mystery, Gilbert, Dove, and Emmy stay at the home of Mrs. O’Shea (Pom Boyd). She has a son she adopted from Romania named Sean, who drives the threesome around.

That’s the setup, and I wish I could say that it all unspools in a thoughtful, wildly entertaining fashion that satirizes podcasts and subverts all those murder mysteries that take place in the Irish countryside. It is neither. It makes the occasional nod toward satire, and there is an occasional scene designed to elicit laughter, but for the most part, it is straightforward and plays right into all the tropes of the genre. It is basic.

The series comes from British writer Jez Scharf and the Obamas’ production company, but there’s not much here to latch on to. While Will Forte’s Gilbert is annoying but likable, Siobhán Cullen’s Dove is sullen but likable, and Robyn Cara’s Emmy is generic but likable, the series overall is barely compelling enough to keep Netflix viewers hitting “next” after each episode. It’s decent background viewing, but there are better things to watch while making dinner.

The Ending

Here’s where we briefly spoil the ending for those who stopped watching after two or three episodes and told yourself you’d go back someday but you know you never actually will: Three people disappeared after the Samhain festival in Bodkin over 20 years prior: Teddy, Malachy, and Fiona. However, Teddy resurfaced only a few days later, and his Dad, Sergeant Power (Denis Conway), covered up Teddy’s involvement. Teddy himself had little to no memory of the circumstances.

That leaves only two missing people: Malachy and Fiona. Their bodies are soon discovered in the trunk of a car dredged from a pond belonging to Sergeant Power. Did Sergeant Power kill them? No. In fact, the second body in the car ultimately did not belong to Fiona but to another woman completely unrelated to anyone involved in the story named Greta.

So, what happened? Around the time of the Samhain festival, Seamus ran into trouble with the McArdles family. Seamus sent Malachy and Fiona into hiding. Before they could leave, however, Teddy — who had feelings for Fiona — killed Malachy in a murder witnessed by Teddy’s father, Sergeant Powers. Powers wanted to protect his son, Teddy, so he put Malachy’s body in the trunk of his car with plans to drive it into the pond. On the way, however, he ran into and accidentally killed Greta and put her body in the trunk, as well.

Fiona, meanwhile, did manage to escape. She went into hiding in a monastery. There, she gave birth to a boy but died in childbirth. It turns out, her baby is Sean, the Romanian boy thought to have been adopted by Mrs. O’Shea. She had been raising him and was so hellbent on keeping his identity a secret from both himself and his father — who it turns out was Seamus — that she was the one who tried to scare Gilbert and Dove away.

That’s the mystery. In the end, there’s also some hullabaloo, as Seamus tries to run from the McArdles and blow up the festival. Dove and Emmy manage to move the festivalgoers before the bomb goes off, and Gilbert also narrowly escapes.

In the epilogue, Gilbert decides that he doesn’t want to air the town of Bodkin’s dirty laundry so he tosses his voice recorder and the podcast into the water and leaves his future up in the air. Emmy goes to London and takes Dove’s job, while Dove returns to the convent where she was raised to make a podcast about one of the nuns.