Vince Gilligan, the creator of Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul, centred his best-known shows around distinctly unlikable protagonists. One was a teacher turned drug lord, the other a frequently criminal lawyer. But viewers were enthralled by the antics of Walter White and Saul Goodman even when they were deplorable because, he said: “Viewers respond to people who are good at their job, even when they are bad.” In The Following Events Are Based on a Pack of Lies, you may not be rooting for sociopathic conman Rob Chance (Alistair Petrie), but you can’t help but get a thrill out of just how skilled he is at pulling off his schemes.
The series, from sibling writers Penelope and Ginny Skinner, follows Alice (Rebekah Staton), his ex-wife, who spots Rob years after he told her he was popping out for chow mein and never returned. Brutal breakup technique aside, he also took with him all her money and her parent’s retirement fund. She sees him on a street in Oxford, now claiming to be an academic and “disruption exploration” pioneer, giving lectures on his time at the north pole to gaggles of well-meaning environmental enthusiasts. While Alice seeks revenge on the man who ruined her life, another life is in danger as successful author Cheryl Harker (Marianne Jean-Baptiste) is slowly being caught in his web. Though Cheryl has confidence, legions of fans and a home where gargantuan jewel-toned rooms are lined with heavy silk curtains and opulent crushed-velvet sofas, Rob spots in her a critical vulnerability. Having recently lost her husband to dementia, she is ripe to be swept up by a morally bankrupt man who says all the right things. And though we may want to scream at Cheryl to be smarter and spot that she’s being conned, ultimately … this guy is good at his job.
The show touches on some serious themes around abuse, misogyny and gaslighting, but it is so compelling because it doesn’t forget how much fun there is in the art of the con. When the female protagonists team up to take him down, the narrative can be sustained as it feels like an impossible task. Even armed with the truth and Harker’s considerable resources, the odds are stacked against them in a David v Goliath fight, with Rob perpetually one step ahead. As clips of Jimmy Savile, OJ Simpson and Jeffrey Epstein play, Cheryl reminds the audience of the unlikelihood of justice for female victims: “The system is designed for men like Rob. It protects him, gives him the benefit of the doubt. And however extreme or awful his actions are, we await his redemption.”
While Petrie is incredible at flipping between warm tenderness and cold menace, Jean-Baptiste and Staton are also given space to create complex women who are formidable enough to take this man down but have wounds and insecurities that make their susceptibility to his charms plausible.
The programme is also filled with flourishes that elevate it beyond pedestrian scammer fare such as Inventing Anna, The Tinder Swindler or Bad Vegan. We see testimony from previous victims presented as news interviews. Rob appears as an occasional narrator to warn his haters: “I believe in a little thing called karma, and your karma is coming.” He is at his most deliciously devilish when, at the end of the first episode, he commits an act so heinous it would make Saul Goodman weak at the knees, then breaks the fourth wall to shrug: “What?”
Our central trio keep the cat(s) and mouse games propulsive, while the creativity of the film-making is a joy to behold, with unreliable narration and surreal flights of fancy. Rob is almost constantly watching and referring to Fatal Attraction, and the show embraces many of those long-established erotic thriller tropes. Yet it is best when it subverts our expectations with black comedy, feminist reimaginings and dream-like logic to make Alice’s world physically contort in line with her emotional state.
While it is hard to argue that the programme needs every minute of its five hours, it remains whimsical and satisfying to the end. As well as watching a conman excel in his field, there are plenty of surprises throughout. Unlike its central villain, then, this is TV that delivers on its promises.
• The Following Events Are Based on a Pack of Lies airs on Tuesdays at 9pm on BBC One. The full series is available on iPlayer.
