A comedic workplace drama based around the true story of a ruthless scammer who climbed a mountain of private funding and destroyed employees into brief success and eventual infamy. Why does that sound like an accurate description of three or four series airing on various streaming services right now?
If one is willing to ignore the unpleasant implications, it’s easy to see how grifters are the living embodiment of the American dream. There’s something hugely compelling about someone destroying themselves and everyone around them inpursuit of pure profit. America’s eyes are always glued to one big-time court case or another.
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At the time of writing,The Dropoutis justabout to stream its sixth episode,Super Pumped: The Battle for Uberis preparing for its fifth, andWeCrashedis just about to drop its fourth. Meanwhile,Joe vs. Carolepremiered its limited run on Peacock. Every single one of these tells the story of an unethical and morally bankrupt business owner.TheDropoutcenters around Theranos CEO and convicted fraud Elizabeth Holmes.Super Pumpedis about widely despised ride-share company co-founder Travis Kalanick.WeCrashedcenters on the man who made and ruined WeWork, Adam Neumann. Holmes is the clear front-runner, bothin notoriety and qualityof biopic, but each of these figures has captured an audience simultaneously.
The scammer biopic isn’t a new phenomenon, it’s just experiencing something of a boom period at the moment.The Wolf of Wall StreetandThe Big Shortalmost a decade ago chronicled big-money scammers of the past. If there’s one recent source of inspiration for this trend, it’s unquestionably David Fincher’s 2010 filmThe Social Network. While Zuckerberg isn’t technically a convicted fraud like Holmes, he is unquestionably the bad guy of that movie. Arguably, he’s the bad guy of a lot of movies. Maybe part of the impetus for the grifter invasion comes from the ongoing desire to see the bad guy through the glass up close, like a dangerous animal at the zoo.
The difficult thing about assessing these projects is determining what, if anything, they have to say about the people they depict and the stories they retell. If it’s just a slickly produced, well-lit, better-written version of the story everyone either already knows or doesn’t care about, then what’s the point? There needs to be something more there than “can you believe this?”, or else a true-crime podcast or a well-timed documentary will always be the better option. Beyond the fictionalized biopics, there’s the massively popular documentaryBad Vegan: Fame, Fraud, Fugitives.Just over a month earlier,The Tinder Swindlerpremieredon Netflix. There’s a solid documentary version of each of the stories currently being told week by week, so what do the biopics do to improve on the true story and keep people engaged?
The power of fiction is an obvious candidate. Real stories are rarely paced in a satisfying way, and they typically feature tons of characters with no major impact on the plot. The wild narrative path of these true stories has attracted excellent creators with clever visions. The fictional retelling allows viewers to get into the head of people they had never heard of, or more likely, already despise.The Dropout’sportrayal of Holmes’s early lifeand ongoing struggles with identity humanizes her. Simultaneously, the shows grant the viewer a closer look at the people who didn’t get famous.Super Pumpedintroduces and briefly focuses on a girlfriend Travis Kalanick had right up until the company was funded. The shows allow obsessives to point excitedly at the screen when people they recognize pop up and newcomers to learn the story from multiple interesting perspectives.
Tech grifter biopic is rapidly becoming something of a subgenre, but the cultural impact of these shows is mixed.WeCrashedandThe Dropoutare direct adaptations of long-form podcasts on the same subject.Super Pumpedis based on a book, and the second season of the show is set to focus on Zuckerberg, retreading the groundofThe Social Network. The quality of these shows and the stories that inspire them is intensely compelling. Maybe in this age of income inequality and constant terrible financial news, seeing some people get rich, then get ruined is deeply cathartic. On the other hand, each of these shows spends some time exploring the luxury that a successful tech scam buys. The shows scratch a combined itch of avariciously devouring an idealized lifestyle and powerful schadenfreude at the grifter’s expense.
The real genius of the shows is creating a microcosm of the modern corporate ecosystem out of a single compelling story of greed and deceit. As people are forced back into their cubicles, into close proximity withtheir own company’s answerto Holmes, Kalanick, or Neumann, these shows will only grow in popularity. So worry not, scam fans, there will be no shortage of unethical monsters that the media will call geniuses before the real story comes out, becomes a podcast, then makes it to the small screen.
