2023 Rewind: Breakout Star Tom Bateman Talks of Kissing Chris Messina on Peacock's 'Based on True Story'

This piece is part of EDGE's 2023 Rewind series. We're reaching into our archives and sharing some of our favorite stories from the past year.

While Kaley Cuoco and Chris Messina are top-billed in Peacock's new crime podcast satire "Based on a True Story," it is their co-star, British actor Tom Bateman, who is getting plenty of attention. On the show – and this could be considered a spoiler, but it is revealed in the first episode – he plays a hot, likeable plumber who happens to be the serial killer (the Westside Ripper) terrorizing Los Angeles. But rather than turn to the police, the financially strapped couple blackmail Bateman to be part of their podcast. While ethically questionable, pregnant Ava (Cuoco) tells husband Nathan (Messina) that they should get there first before "the girl from Serial turns up!"

"Oh my god, Tom Bateman," Cuoco told Entertainment Weekly of her breakout co-star, while Messina adds, "So, good. Such a great actor. Really, the hardest part on the show is Tom."

"I mean, he had to play a horrible human being, [and] at the same time, be charming and sweet and fun and threatening," Cuoco continues, before joking, "And then he had to deal with us two, which is the hardest thing he has ever had to do."

What is being talked about is the kiss between Bateman and Messina on Episode 5, called "Ted Bundy Bottle Opener," in which the three make out on a dance floor. "By that point in the series, we'd been shooting for quite a while and it was a really special experience 'cause me and Kaley and Chris just really clicked into each other and became this sort of three musketeers," Bateman told EW.

"And what was amazing was we had this very, I dunno, it was like a mercurial sort of quality to it, where we all knew each other very, very well. And we just loved each other and respected each other so much so that by the time we came to do this... and we said, 'Did you read that f**king episode?' And it was like, 'Oh my god, we're gonna go there.' But it was super fun."