NETFLIX – ON DEMAND – SERIES

The premise of Bodkin – a trio of mismatched podcasters attempt to unravel a 20-year-old mystery in a small Irish village – inevitably brings to mind the series Only Murders in the Building (2021-2024). For the first two episodes, the comparison is obvious, and it doesn't work to the advantage of newcomer Jez Scharf's story. Then, the setting takes over and, rather than persist down the path of sophistication, Bodkin turns into a slightly toned-down yet resolutely macabre version of the McDonagh brothers' Celtic black comedies (Calvary [2014] and The Banshees of Inisherin [2022]).

Gilbert Power (Will Forte), winner of a Peabody Award for the Chicago native's podcast about his wife's cancer, arrives in the town of Bodkin 25 years after a triple disappearance on the night of Samhain (the original, firmly pagan version of Halloween). He is accompanied by a team supplied by the London daily newspaper that is co-producing of the podcast. All-purpose assistant Emmy Sizergh (Robyn Cara) initially presents herself as a simpleton. Her metamorphosis takes up much of the coming episodes. Dubheasa Maloney (Siobhan Cullen) – Dove to her friends, except she doesn't have any –has long since left Dublin for London, where her investigative methods have just led to the suicide of one of her sources.

Faced with these visitors, the locals present a selection of characters both predictable (the gruff fisherman, the uninhibited nun, the maternal bed and breakfast keeper) and sometimes more surprising (the tech bro who has come back home, the Irish Travellers living in a camp on the outskirts of town), who get along like thieves as they try to conceal Bodkin's secrets.

The uncovering of these mysteries is the pretext for a humorous stroll through the mythology and iconography of Ireland, past and present. Between memories of the war in Northern Ireland (an old stockpile of Semtex explosives) and the reality of the digital world (the village's biggest building is now a data center), between Celtic mythology and Catholic theology – both equally soluble in Guinness and whiskey – the series plays affectionately with stereotypes.

The revelations also serve to flesh out characters who initially come across as caricatures, particularly David Wilmot as the fisherman Seamus Gallagher, who is soon revealed to have embraced a fishing career only to escape his rivals in the Belfast underworld. He deserves a miniseries of his own.

Bodkin, series created by Jez Scharf (EU-Ireland, 2024, 7 × 44 to 56 min). With Will Forte, Siobhan Cullen, Robyn Cara, David Wilmot.