''Based on a True Story'' is an American

comedy thriller Comedy thrillers are a hybrid genre that draw subject matter generally from comedy and thrillers. Criteria They often include a darker tone, relative to other genres, of humor. List of comedy thriller films * '' The Big Fix'' (1978) * ''Charad ...

television series created by Craig Rosenberg, starring

Kaley Cuoco Kaley Christine Cuoco ( ; born November 30, 1985) is an American actress. After a series of supporting film and television roles in the late 1990s, she landed her breakthrough role as Bridget Hennessy on the ABC sitcom ''8 Simple Rules'' (2002 ...

and

Chris Messina Christopher Messina (born August 11, 1974)Hochberg, Mina.Chris Messina stars in 'Ruby Sparks'��. ''Newsday'' (Long Island, New York). August 8, 2012: “...the actor, who turns 38 Saturday ugust 11, 2012 After graduating from Northport ew Yor ...

. The series premiered on

Peacock Peafowl is a common name for three bird species in the genera ''Pavo (genus), Pavo'' and ''Afropavo'' within the tribe Pavonini of the family Phasianidae, the pheasants and their allies. Male peafowl are referred to as peacocks, and female pea ...

on June 8, 2023. In October 2023, the series was renewed for a second season.

Cast and characters

Main

as Ava Bartlett, a pregnant real estate agent who is passionate about true crime *

as Nathan Bartlett, Ava's husband and a tennis coach at the Beverly Club who used to be a famous tennis player before a career-ending knee injury * Tom Bateman as Matt Pierce, a plumber who befriends Nathan *

Priscilla Quintana Priscilla Ann Quintana is an American actress and model. Quintana stars in The CW science fiction series '' Pandora'' as Jacqueline "Jax" Zhou, and has the recurring role of Isabella on Freeform's '' Good Trouble''. Early life Quintana is fro ...

as Ruby Gale, Ava's affluent friend *

Liana Liberato Liana Daine Liberato (born August 20, 1995) is an American actress. She played the younger version of the female lead in the 2014 film '' The Best of Me'' and starred in the drama films '' The Last Sin Eater'' (2007) and ''Trust'' (2010), the thr ...

as Tory Thompson, Ava's younger sister who lives with her and Nathan *

Natalia Dyer Natalia Danielle Dyer (born January 13, 1995) is an American actress. She is known for starring as Nancy Wheeler in the Netflix science fiction horror series ''Stranger Things'' (2016–present), in addition to her starring role in the comedy-dr ...

as Chloe Lake, a bartender who catches the eye of Matt and Nathan at a bar one night

Recurring

Li Jun Li Li Jun Li is an American actress, known for her portrayal of Iris Chang in the ABC series '' Quantico'', Rose Cooper in the Fox series ''The Exorcist'', and Jenny Wah in the Netflix series ''Wu Assassins''. Early life Li was born in Shanghai, ...

as Michelle, Nathan's colleague at the country club *

Annabelle Dexter-Jones Annabelle Dexter-Jones (born 25 October 1986) is a British-American actress and director known for her roles in ''Succession'' and ''Under the Silver Lake''. Jones is the daughter of jewellery designer Ann Dexter-Jones and Foreigner guitarist ...

as Serena, one of Ava's best friends *

Aisha Alfa Aisha Alfa is a Canadian comedian and actress, best known for her recurring role as teacher Ms. Grell in the ''Degrassi'' franchiseBrad Oswald, "The farce is with her". ''Winnipeg Free Press'', January 27, 2014. and her appearances as a reporter on ...

as Carolyn, another of Ava's best friends * Alex Alomar Akpobome as Ryan, a client of Ava's who is looking to buy a mansion *

June Diane Raphael June Diane Raphael ( ; born January 4, 1980) is an American actress, comedian, and screenwriter. She has starred in TV comedy programs ''Burning Love'', Adult Swim's '' NTSF:SD:SUV::'', and ''Grace and Frankie''. Notable film work includes support ...

as Lipinski sister #1 *

Brandon Keener Brandon James Keener (born October 1, 1974) is an American actor. He was born and raised in Fort Smith, Arkansas and graduated from University of Arkansas at Little Rock, Arkansas, Little Rock, where he won an Irene Ryan scholarship for collegiat ...

as Paul, Serena's husband *

Miles Mussenden Miles Mussenden is an American actor and music producer. He is best known for portraying Otis Johnson in '' Marvel's Cloak & Dagger''. Career Born in London to Guyanese parents, Mussenden and his family moved to Brooklyn where at the age of nin ...

as Detective Quincy Burrell *

Pierson Fodé Pierson Dane Fodé (born November 6, 1991) is an American actor, Internet personality, and model known for his roles as Brooks on Disney Channel's '' Jessie'' and Ely in the 2015 romantic comedy film ''Naomi and Ely's No Kiss List''. Fodé has ...

as Jamie * Sebastian Quinn as Carlos, Ruby's paramour

Guest

Jessica St. Clair Jessica St. Clair is an American actress and improvisational comedian from the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre. With frequent collaborator Lennon Parham, she co-created and co-starred in NBC's ''Best Friends Forever'' and USA Network's '' Playi ...

as Lipinski sister #2 *

Aaron Staton Aaron Staton (born August 10, 1980) is an American actor. He played Ken Cosgrove on the AMC drama series ''Mad Men'' (2007–2015) and voiced Cole Phelps in the video game ''L.A. Noire'' (2011), for which he was nominated for a BAFTA for Best P ...

as Simon, Ruby's husband *

Timm Sharp Timm Sharp (born 1978) is an American actor and writer. He is known for his role as Marshall Nesbitt in the Fox sitcom ''Undeclared'', Doug Von Stuessen in the Fox sitcom Til Death'', and Jim in the Starz comedy ''Blunt Talk''. Early life a ...

as Richard, Carolyn's husband * Yvonne Senat Jones as Detective Jessie Peterson *

Lizze Broadway Elizabeth Broadway (born February 16, 1998) is an American actress best known for her role as Emma Shaw in ''Gen V'', and for her roles in ''The Rookie (TV series), The Rookie'', ''Splitting Up Together'', ''Here and Now (2018 TV series), Here an ...

as Dahlia Stone *

Ever Carradine Ever Dawn Carradine is an American actress. She is known for her roles as Tiffany Porter and Kelly Ludlow on the ABC television series '' Once and Again'' and '' Commander in Chief'', respectively and as Naomi Putnam and Janet Stein on the Hu ...

as Melissa Lake, Chloe's mother *

Claire Holt Claire Rhiannon Holt (born 11 June 1988) is an Australian actress. She is known for her roles as Emma Gilbert in '' H2O: Just Add Water'', Samara Cook in ''Pretty Little Liars'', Chastity Meyer in ''Mean Girls 2'', Rebekah Mikaelson in ''The ...

as a TV writer * George Sear as Jacob, Tory's

Bumble Bumble is an online dating application. Profiles of potential matches are displayed to users, who can "swipe left" to reject a candidate or "swipe right" to indicate interest. In heterosexual matches, only female users can make the first contac ...

date

Episodes

Production

In April 2022, it was announced that

had given a straight-to-series order to a comedy thriller series created by Craig Rosenberg and

Jason Bateman Jason Kent Bateman (born January 14, 1969) is an American actor, director and producer known for his roles of Michael Bluth in the Fox Broadcasting Company, Fox/Netflix sitcom ''Arrested Development (TV series), Arrested Development'' and of Mart ...

. In August, it was announced that

had joined the main cast as a realtor, Ava Bartlett. In October, it was announced that

had been cast as Nathan, the husband of Ava, with additional casting including Tom Bateman,

, and

announced the following month. In October 2023, Peacock renewed the series for a second season. The series will be executive produced by Jason Bateman and Michael Costigan through

Aggregate Films Aggregate Films is an American motion picture production company founded by actor Jason Bateman. The company currently has a first-look deal with Netflix to generate film and television projects. It previously had a two-year first-look producing d ...

, and Craig Rosenberg. Roxie Rodriguez will serves as co-executive producer for Aggregate Films. Production companies for the series include Aggregate Films and

Universal Content Productions Universal Content Productions (UCP) is an American television production company operating within the Universal Studio Group division of NBCUniversal. History Universal Cable Productions In July 2008, Universal Cable Productions was split off ...

Release

All eight episodes were released to stream on

on June 8, 2023.

Reception

The

review aggregator A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews of products and services (such as films, books, video games, software, hardware, and cars). This system stores the reviews and uses them for purposes such as supporting a website where users ...

website

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

reported an approval rating of 74% based on 42 critic reviews, with an average rating of 6.7/10. The website's critics consensus reads, "True crime enthusiasts have been satirized more sharply, but engaging leads and a lightly humorous touch make ''Based on a True Story'' worth investigating."

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...

, which uses a weighted average, assigned a score of 60 out of 100 based on 22 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".

References

External links

* * {{Peacock (streaming service) 2020s American comedy television series 2023 American television series debuts American thriller television series English-language television shows Peacock (streaming service) original programming Television series about podcasting Television series about couples Television series about fictional serial killers Television series by Universal Content Productions Television series set in 2023 Television shows set in Los Angeles