Based On A True Story is still a bloody mess in first look at second season

If your true crime comedy cravings aren’t completely satisfied by Only Murders In The Building, then boy does Peacock have the show for you. The second season of Based On A True Story, executive produced by and starring Kaley Cuoco and Chris Messina, returns to the streamer on November 21, a good time to pick up the slack after OMITB‘s season finale in October. Of course, the Bartletts are a bit less wholesome than the Only Murders trio, and the second season finds them trying to leave their podcast behind after getting entangled in mayhem and murder.

Per the synopsis from Peacock, the second season “finds new parents Ava (Kaley Cuoco) and Nathan Bartlett (Chris Messina) three months into parenthood. Focused on taking care of her family, Ava is determined to resist her true crime obsession and return to work as a real estate agent while Nathan trains private tennis clients. But a series of new murders pulls her back in – is Matt (Tom Bateman) behind the slayings? Is Tory (Liana Liberato), now entangled in a relationship with Matt, in danger? For a while, life is good—Ava’s TikTok habit and her new friend Drew (Melissa Fumero) provide a welcome distraction, and Nathan’s all in on reigniting his tennis career as well as his friendship with Matt — until danger comes knocking, literally.”

In her C+ review of the first season, The A.V. Club‘s Saloni Gajjar said “there’s just enough ridiculousness to keep the momentum going” on Based On A True Story. The series “is not the next great examination of true-crime aficionados or a worthy skewering of them. It turns out that it’s just a mildly entertaining show that lets Kaley Cuoco and Chris Messina shine,” she writes. “And sometimes that’s all the fun TV escape you need.” You can check out the first-look photos of the second season below, courtesy of Peacock.