It’s brutal, it’s hilarious, and it’s so well done. In a June stacked with returning series premieres, Based on a True Story is a new show absolutely worth latching onto.

Sharp writing and keen comedic timing by the show’s main players make “Based on a True Story” an amusingly disturbing journey into the world of true-crime fandom and the queasy worship around homicidal maniacs like Dennis Rader, better known as “BTK,” and John Wayne Gacy.

The premise of Based On A True Story is definitely absurd and by the end of the first episode, we’re not sure where it’s going to go. But Messina and Cuoco’s performances are more than enough to keep our attention while the show figures itself out.

I like the show overall, but it doesn’t hold up to scrutiny. That’s OK — it can exist purely in the realm of upbeat, if sinister, high jinks, so long as we’re not pretending it’s saying something more.

It’s not as brazen as Poker Face, as innovative as Mrs. Davis, or as bizarre as The Resort, but BOATS scratches the itch for an entertaining, if not illogical, TV comedy.

A seemingly daring, dark premise that disguises a mild domestic comedy. It promises slashing satire. It cuts like a butter knife.

The series has proved itself incapable of reading the (living) room into which it has imposed itself, or of actually staying aboard the ethical tightrope it has strung across a murky basin of bad taste.