A Guide To All Of The Scammer TV Shows We've Gotten This Year (So Far)
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Scammers: They’re just like us, except sometimes running (and/or hiding) from the law, and almost always having shows based off of their lives. In the past year — really, the past three months, alone — we’ve gotten the pleasure of seeing fictionalized retellings of the rise and fall of WeWork, Theranos, and New York socialite Anna Delvey (Sorokin) along with plenty of scam-ridden scary docuseries like Netflix’s Worst Roommate Ever and Bad Vegan.
What makes these scammers, fictionalized or otherwise, so enticing to watch? I think it boils down to one thing: We live for the real-life adjacent drama of it all. I set out on a mission to watch each and every new scam-centric series streaming right now so that you can skip right to the show for you. Here they all are, unranked, for your perusing pleasure.
1.The Dropout
Recommended for: the girlboss inside all of us
What you need to know: Amanda Seyfried’s Elizabeth Holmes is a baritoned force to be reckoned with in this Hulu limited series that first drew my attention to the droves of scam shows streaming right now. Yes, there were already several big scam-centric series in the atmosphere at the time of its premiere, but nothing else promised that "girlbossed-too-close-to-the-sun" feeling of The Dropout. Granted, much like with the rest of these scammer stories, I possessed very limited knowledge regarding the rise and fall of Theranos, and maybe the freshness of Holmes’ story is part of what made The Dropout so gripping, or perhaps this show is the one that struck just the right balance of human and unhinged, with a perfectly curated soundtrack to boot.
The Dropout follows Elizabeth Holmes from her final weeks of high school, through an absolutely cursed summer trip abroad where she meets the cringe-inducing Sunny Balwani (played by my biggest crush from Lost, Naveen Andrews), all the way to the end days of her defrauded healthcare tech company, Theranos. We see the then-world’s youngest self-made female billionaire fail and scheme her way to the very top of Silicon Valley where you apparently get a party thrown for you where everyone has to wear a mask of your own face, before she swiftly falls from grace.
The takeaway: My two biggest complaints with The Dropout are the lack of, how to put this…razzle dazzle that comes with Elizabeth’s entry into the world of the very, very rich, and how quickly the show runs through everything falling to pieces right at the end. Unfortunately for the show, both of these issues stem from their real-life subjects. Elizabeth Holmes famously had hardly any life outside of her long-con company, and both her and the real-life Sunny are currently facing up to their crimes in court. I highly recommend giving this one a watch before good old Lizzie’s sentencing this September.
Watch it on Hulu.
2.Inventing Anna
Recommended for: the glamorous scam-enthusiast
What you need to know: Where The Dropout failed in fun sequences of Elizabeth dropping massive chunks of her defrauded change on luxury products, Inventing Anna ultimately shines. Listen, I know the accent (which puts Julia Garner’s iconically irritating Missourian twang from Ozark to utter shame) takes some getting used to, but once you’re over that grating hurdle, Inventing Anna is almost the perfect con-show. Nobody gets physically harmed, and most of the people being stolen from are so rich I couldn’t scrounge up a tiny violin to pitifully play for them if I tried. Anna Sorokin/Delvey is a German con-artist who schmoozed her way into New York society and racked up massive bills at several luxury hotels in the city while also defrauding both the banks and her wealthy new friends in an attempt to secure funding to open a private social club.
The takeaway: Delvey is the definition of chaotic and is portrayed as such in the series, which definitely took some liberties with the real Anna Sorokin’s story, but is nonetheless an incredibly entertaining weekend binge-watch.
Watch it on Netflix.
3.Joe vs. Carole
Recommended for: anyone who somehow did not watch Tiger King (and maybe a few who did)
What you need to know: Look, I was the first to pose the question in the group chat: Don’t we think it’s a little too soon to do a dramatic retelling of this one? And I hate to be the one to break this to you, but, y’all, Joe vs. Carole is pretty good. Dare I say, it might even be more enjoyable to watch than its docuseries predecessor. … The show covers all the wild antics of big cat fanatics Joe Exotic and Carole Baskin, from their respective animal “sanctuaries” to the hitman Joe ultimately hires to take out Carole. Kate McKinnon is, as expected, incredibly talented in comedic impressions and also in bringing some real humanity and heart to the big cat lover — maybe even more than the real Carole’s portrayal the original Netflix docuseries revealed to us. John Cameron Mitchell is a pleasant surprise and plays his complex criminal of a character with subtle self-awareness. The CGI animals are…of note.
The takeaway: Whether you, too, are harboring some early quarantine nostalgia (seriously, why are we like this?) or you refused to engage with the Tiger King hype way back when and are interested in checking out a more modern, and honestly much kinder, exploration of this true-crime story, Joe vs. Carole is surprisingly worth the watch.
Watch it on Peacock.
4.Bad Vegan: Fame. Fraud. Fugitives.
Recommended for: lovers of moral ambiguity
What you need to know: A popular raw-food chef with a super successful vegan restaurant is accused of stealing millions from her restaurant’s employees, goes on the run with her potentially monstrous husband, Anthony Strangis, and is finally brought to justice thanks to a pizza craving so insatiable it was apparently worth risking it all. Directed by Chris Smith (Tiger King, Fyre: The Greatest Party That Never Happened), Bad Vegan attempts to unravel the complex and at times utterly unbelievable story of Sarma Melngailis’ rise and fall from grace in the culinary world (and in the eyes of the law). While neither I nor the docuseries managed to actually sort out every chaotic aspect of this plot, I can give you the gist: In 2011, amidst the height of her success, Sarma met Anthony online, and he wormed his way into her powered-by-raw-food heart. Anthony convinced Sarma that if she passed a series of “tests,” which included stealing from her employees to fund Anthony’s antics and sexually degrading herself, that he would grant her and her beloved dog immortality using his magic powers. Theranos’ whole “one drop of blood” schtick isn’t sounding too far-fetched now, is it?
The takeaway: Told through the point of view of her friends, associates, and Sarma herself, Bad Vegan is certainly an exploration of…something. This one’s worth watching if you love complex stories that live in the gray, or if you’ve ever felt tempted to try tackling some raw recipes.
Watch it on Netflix.
5.WeCrashed
Recommended for: the romantic
What you need to know: If falling for Jared Leto and Anne Hathaway’s chemistry is any indication of how much money WeWork could’ve scammed out of me, consider me lucky to be working comfortably from my couch right now. Adam and Rebekah Neumann’s love story takes center stage in WeCrashed, which is a refreshing departure from the boardroom drama that these scam shows tend to dish out in droves. The non-romance-centered parts of the show explore how Adam Neumann managed to charm his way into success with the workspace-selling startup with a cult-like following.
The takeaway: If you want the cold hard facts about how WeWork failed, you may want to direct your attention toward WeWork: Or the Making and Breaking of a $47 Billion Unicorn. But if you want to see Anne Hathaway tightly smile as she expertly radiates toxicity through your TV, WeCrashed may just be the whirlwind scam show for you.
Watch it on Apple TV+.
6.The Thing About Pam
Recommended for: the true crime newbie
What you need to know: If you can get past the unfortunate voice-over narration and the even more unfortunate pacing, The Thing About Pam is actually a somewhat interesting story. The show tells the horrific story of Pam Hupp, and how she managed to get away with the murder of her so-called best friend, Betsy, while helping police frame Betsy’s husband for the whole thing. Spoiler alert — after Pam convinces her entire small town that she, the beneficiary of Betsy’s life insurance, is the real victim in all of this, she goes on to kill again. This story is somehow both gripping and exhaustingly repetitive, which I think speaks to how painfully obvious Pam’s crimes should have been to those around her.
The takeaway: It’s easy to binge in a day; Renée Zellweger makes an irritatingly good and practically unrecognizable Pam, and as a long-time fan of Desperate Housewives, the humor-tinged drama of it all eventually won me over.
Watch it on Peacock.
7.Worst Roommate Ever
Recommended for: those with the privilege of living alone
What you need to know: Blumhouse Television retells four full-fledged-horror-movie-worthy tales of terrible roommates in this haunting Netflix docuseries. Spoiler alert, all these roomies wind up committing murders at some point in time, though their killer habits are actually often unrelated to their poor qualities as a housemate. The most important figure in this five-episode series is Jed Creek — aka Jamison Bachman, a skilled serial squatter who time and time again managed to take over the homes of his innocent cohabitators with legal loopholes and threats of violence.
The takeaway: Worst Roommate Ever is a uniquely twisted true crime story centered around the seemingly mundane, making it the perfect background noise for your own mundane tasks: folding laundry, paying bills, posting your own ad for a new roommate…
Watch it on Netflix.
8.Super Pumped: The Battle for Uber
Recommend for: those who already prefer Lyft
What you need to know: Maybe it’s that at this point, I’d exhausted myself on true-scam shows, or maybe it’s that I’ve never really gotten Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s appeal, but nothing about Super Pumped: The Battle for Uber feels fresh, exciting, or worth sitting through the eight incredibly long episodes. Quentin Tarantino’s needless and inconsistent narration certainly doesn’t help things, but in the shadow of so many other enticing scam shows, I could’ve gone without this Wolf of Wall Street knock-off. Super Pumped charts the rise and fall of Travis Kalanick and his “disruptive” new company, Uber. It’s a Silicon Valley story like many, many others, exposing the inner workings of a morally bankrupt company that you won’t want to know about, considering that using their service is often hard to avoid (thanks, in part, to Travis’ tactics). Kyle Chandler and Uma Thurman also star in this feel-free-to-miss series about the popular ride-share startup we all know and likely already have beef with.
The takeaway: If you’d like to add more conflict to the next time you call a car to head out for the evening, feel free to try this series out.
Watch the first episode free on Showtime.
We hope you love the shows and movies we recommend! Just so you know, BuzzFeed may collect a share of revenue or other compensation from the links on this page. Oh, and FYI: Platform, prices, and other availability details are accurate as of time of posting.
