Based on a True Story, a Peacock comedy series starring Kaley Cuoco and Chris Messina is returning for Season 2, but things are going to feel quite different this time around.
Season 1 of the show followed a couple who ended up blackmailing a serial killer to do an anonymous True Crime podcast with them to try and hit the jackpot. Now, with Season 2, that podcast is no longer the focus.
In a series of exclusive interviews, The Direct spoke with producer Michael Costigan and lead actress Liana Liberato (Tory, the sister of Cuoco's Ava) about how the show and how Season 2 evolved from Season 1.
Why Based on a True Story Season 2 Moves Away from the Podcast
While the Story Originally Focused on the Podcast, The Creatives Wanted to Go Further
- The Direct: "One unique thing I did notice about Season 2 is that it kind of leaves the podcast narrative behind and shifts focus. Can you talk about making that choice and how you guys explore the next step in the journey of the show?"
Michael Costigan: I think we felt that we really owed it to the audience; if you're going to go another season, we think, do you really want to see the same thing again? And what we loved at the end of the season was, how the hell are Chris [Messina] and Kaylee [Cuoco] gonna get out of this? And they're gonna have a baby and Liana [Liberato], who's so brilliant in the middle of this too, and Tom Bateman, what are they going to do?
So, in a way, we want to get more into the characters this season, and not be in the ins and outs of how you make a podcast, etc, and actually go further and make sure the audience––we got to go in this, like, really cool new place with them that gets even crazier than being stuck in the old paradigm of a podcast, which, for Season 1, hopefully, was fun for the audience, but we wanted to do something new.
In Season 1, what's always really hard in such a [funny and] propulsive show like this... We didn't have as much time. Like, we had some material that got left on the floor. So now... We had such good actors and characters and this awesome new character [Drew], [played by] Melissa Fumero, that we just wanted to have as much runway and time for the plot to genuinely thicken for all of them and to see how all of them are going to get out of this.
Producer Comments on Chances of Season 3 for Based on a True Story
"There's a Lot More to Do."
- The Direct: "What about Season 3? Can fans feel good about this story continuing? And then how many seasons do you guys maybe hope for, is there like a long term plan that you guys have?"
Michael Costigan: We've always thought that this is a returning show because we also make limited series. We enjoy making limited series, which, more often than not, are kind of like a long movie, but our feeling was, at the end of Season 1, I can't wait to see what they're going to do next.
But Season 2 really came, Annie Weisman, who we loved 'Physical,' she and this great group of writers she assembled really wanted to keep taking it further and expanding the scope and the scale of it.
So, in Season 1, we didn't start out by saying, All right, well, here we know what's happening in Season 2, and we hope that's what makes Season 2 fun. It isn't like the culmination of Season 1, it really is surprising in a fun way, we hope.
And that's where with Season 3, which we certainly feel like, if the audience is there with us in Season 2, we really think and hope that they're going to want to go with us again. Yeah, because there's a lot more to do.
Actress Liana Liberato on Justifying Tory Dating a Serial Killer
"People Do Crazy Things When They're In Love"
- The Direct: "Right off the bat, in that very first episode [of Season 2], they reveal officially that you are now dating Matt. How do you justify your character being with a serial killer?"
Liana Liberato: It was hard. I mean, yeah, that is your job as an actor is to try to justify and humanize your choices as your character. And I was very nervous about that. I think that Tori is innately very much rooted in reality. And so, having this turn, I was like, how am I going to do this?
And honestly, I leaned a lot on Tom Bateman, and I think that we sort of created this memory and an experience together that happened in between seasons that I felt like I could lean on throughout the season.
And I mean, ultimately, the bottom line is [that] people do crazy things when they're in love, and sometimes they wake up in the middle of it all going, my God, why did I do that? Why? How did I get here? And, you know, that could potentially happen with Tory this season, or, you know, and I think she evolves a lot throughout the season, so I'm excited for the audience to see that.
At the end of the day, Tory and Ava are cut from the same cloth. And Ava is very attracted and addicted to this true crime world and lifestyle. And I think that interest sort of manifests in a different way in Tori, and she might not even be that aware of it. But they come from the same family and have the same memories and experiences. So, you know, I think she's addicted to the high and she likes being a part of Matt's world.
Liana Liberato Talks About Becoming More Involved in Season 2 and Tory's Evolution
"My Character in the First Season Is a Seed Planted."
- The Direct: "In Season 2, your character gets a much larger role this time around than she had in Season 1. What was it like to be more involved in the plot?"
Liana Liberato: "I was so excited. When I signed on to the show in Season 1, I was told that my character in the first season is a seed planted, and if we got the opportunity to do another season, you'll kind of watch that character sort of blossom and explore more of her storyline.
So, I was really excited, and I was up for the challenge. I mean, I certainly had no idea that they were planning on taking my character in the direction they did, and it was very daunting but also really exciting to explore that."
- The Direct: "What is something you feel has changed about Tori in Season 2 on a character level compared to where she was in Season 1, the last time audiences saw her."
Liberato: I was thinking about our obsession with true crime as a community and even just our society as a whole, and people in my generation and how desensitized we've become. And I feel like in order to get a rise out of us, things need to be more and more intense and more and more graphic. Like we gravitate towards that now.
And I feel like you kind of watch that in Tory in Season 2, you know, she steers very clear in Season 1 of all things true crime like she's very against it, and then all of a sudden, she's just like a thrust in the middle of that in real-time.
And I think honestly, because of that kind of exposure, you do see her maybe get a little bit more callous towards it, which I think a lot of us can, obviously not as closely as Tory, but we can kind of relate to that. We're talking about how people were falling asleep to Dateline and watching, you know, True Crime documentaries, and we're still able to sleep at night because of it. So I think there's a bit of that in Tory.
Both full interviews can be viewed below:
Based on a True Story Season 2 releases all eight episodes on November 21 only on Peacock.
