Based on a True Story

I decided to subscribe to Peacock so my son could watch a movie about Lebron James when I came across this crime series. Unlike the title, it is not really based on a true story. It is a fiction story about a couple struggling in their marriage who just happen to accidentally meet a serial killer.

Nathan and Ava Bartlett are your everyday married couple living in Los Angeles, California. They used to have more money when they were younger and now both of their careers have taken a downward spiral. Nathan and Ava have daily arguments about their finances and how they have changed over the course of their relationship. Then their commode breaks and they buy a new one and hire a plumber to come in and install their new commode. The plumber, Matt Pierce, is an attractive friendly guy who comes in and fixes their commode. Matt and Nathan strike up a conversation about his career as a professional tennis player because Matt plays tennis and knows who Nathan is in the tennis world. Then the couple notices that their pipes under their kitchen sink also need to be repaired and they ask the plumber to take a look at them. He gladly looks at them and tells them how much it is going to costs them to get it repaired. Well, the couple do not have the money to fix it so Nathan agrees to give Matt tennis lessons for several weeks in exchange for the repairs.

Matt and Nathan start their tennis lessons and begin getting to know each other. They go to a local bar where Matt notices this attractive bartender. The guys talk about tennis and what happened to Nathan's career and then his upcoming baby. Matt shares with Nathan that he is divorced and has one son and how much he enjoys being a dad, but it is a struggle at times.

Meanwhile, Ava and her friends are talking about her baby and her birthing plan. As they are sharing information with each other, Ava learns that all of her friends who happen to be rich are all having affairs. They make it sound like it is just a normal part of life. She is speechless because she and Nathan have been friends with these couples for years and neither one of them had any idea that they had open marriages this whole time. Here these people are living in these beautiful mansions, driving expensive cars, buying everything they want, donating money to charity, and they are cheating on their spouses.

Ava goes home and shortly thereafter Matt brings a very drunk Nathan home and places him home on the sofa. Ava thanks him and Matt goes home. The next morning she wakes up and pulls a note off of Nathan's computer and notices pictures of the bartender ,Chloe, from the bar they were at last night. She gets upset and starts looking at all these pictures and then she opens up another tab on the computer and a news story comes up about this same bartender being murdered last night. So when Nathan walks through the door, she begins to question him about Chloe and he tells her about him bumping into this bartender and the next thing you know she was murdered by the serial killer living in their area nicknamed the West Side Ripper.

Ava and her rich friends meet and discuss this new development because they love serial killer stories especially the one that has now moved into their area. They think they have the skill set to use the clues to figure out who the killer is in their community. They start studying clues that the local police had found in similar killings and think they can tie the puzzle pieces together. They also think they can use their knowledge to create a profile of the serial killer.

Later on that day, Matt comes back to the house as part of the deal to work on the pipes again. Nathan is at work and Ava lets him in the house. She notices these terrible scratches on his arm and asks him about them. He tells her that he was playing with his cat and the cat scratched him. She really did not think much about it. Then she left the house to go and show one of her houses. On her way there, she called her husband and just mentioned to him where she was going. She told him Matt was at the house and that his cat had really done a number on his arm. Matt tells her that Nathan does not have a cat and she hangs up the phone.

Long story short, Ava starts breathing heavily. She suddenly turns her car around in the middle of the road and heads back toward the house. She knows Nathan is on his way home and she has figured out who the West Side Ripper is. She speeds home and runs into the house trying not to alarm her husband or Matt. She manages to get Nathan away from Matt by telling him to come back to the bedroom and help her with something. She lures him away from Matt and tells him that Matt has weird, long scratches on his arm. When she asked him about them, he claimed that his cat scratched him. Nathan again said that he did not have a cat. Then Ava said that the police found a little blue shoe booty like Matt's at the crime scene. Nathan still does not want to believe it, but then he remembers that both of them were at that same bar with the bartender that night and it was too much of a coincidence to dismiss.

Matt leaves and Nathan dials 911. Ava hangs up his phone and comes up with this idea of doing a podcast with the Westside Ripper to help them with their financial situation. Nathan at first refuses because he is afraid of anyone who can kill another human being and is afraid that he may come after his pregnant wife.

Ava and Nathan come up with a scheme and include Matt which would give him the notoriety many serial killers seek to create a podcast from the serial killer's point of view. All three of them would gain something from the podcast: financial security and notoriety. Matt sees himself as a killing prodigy and is eager to see what others think of him. The Bartletts want what their friends have without all of the cheating. These three make a pact to create a podcast without getting caught by the police to voice things from a serial killer's point of view and to give the American audience exactly what they want.