Con artists and disruptors – TV's latest obsessions
Beth Dubber/ HuluWhy are we so fascinated by the stories of scammers and corporate rule-breakers? Because they are so charismatic, brazen and compelling to watch, writes Caryn James.
"There's only one thing you need to know about Elizabeth Holmes," Stanford professor Phyllis Gardner (played by Laurie Metcalf) says in The Dropout, the absorbing, jaw-dropping series about the once idolised, now criminally convicted founder of the biotech company Theranos. "She's a fraud. She's always been a fraud." She's not the only one. We live in an age of fakes, on screen and off. Holmes, played with electrifying intensity by Amanda Seyfried, may be the avatar of the type. Her company promised easy, pin-prick blood tests, and faked results to get there. But we are awash with TV series and films based on real-life rule breakers.
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Netflix's most popular recent series include Inventing Anna, with Julia Garner as the poseur and would-be socialite Anna Delvey, and the documentary The Tinder Swindler, in which a swipe right ultimately leads women to financial ruin. Bad Blood, Adam McKay's feature film with Jennifer Lawrence as Holmes, is in development.
There seems to be a perfect storm of reasons why we're now surrounded by fakes. Recent politics has put us in a world where truth and reality are regularly, and nonsensically, challenged. Social media also plays a role. Maria Konnikova, author of The Confidence Game: The Psychology of the Con and Why We Fall For It… Every Time (2016), tells BBC Culture that while there has long been a fascination with scammers, "The explosion of social media has made conning easier – we are better targets and con artists can craft better stories – and has given cons increased visibility".
NetflixAnd there is the simple, enduring fact that fraudsters make for great narratives. Alex Gibney directed The Inventor: Out for Blood in Silicon Valley, the 2019 documentary that is still the most potent work on Holmes. He tells BBC Culture, "Usually in these frauds, what you have at the heart of them is a storyteller. Elizabeth Holmes told us a story that we really wanted to hear: Stanford dropout, just like Steve Jobs dropped out of Reed College, by the dint of her own determination and her desire to make the world a better place, ends up becoming a billionaire, and finds a way to help us all." If only it were all true.
The facts of the case are so dramatic that The Dropout doesn't even exaggerate much. The fictional version is more blatant, the dialogue at times blunter than real life. But it is also eye-opening in the way it takes us inside Holmes' stubborn mind, allowing us to understand what drives her. As in Inventing Anna, this series doesn't glorify the deceptions, but allows for begrudging iration. As Konnikova says, "it's easy to get wrapped up in the glamour of the con itself – can you believe she was able to pull that off?!'
The Dropout's characters are vivid and deeply realised, as the series charts Holmes's rise and fall, from wonder-girl founder of a company eventually valued at $10 billion, to a scoundrel who lied to people about their health. Seyfried captures both Holmes's opaque, brittle outer layer and the increasing tumult inside, as well as the spooky, wide-eyed stare, and the distinctive deep voice, which Holmes reportedly lowered intentionally in order to sound more authoritative. On screen, the voice changes so abruptly, it might hurt your throat just to hear it. "Do you have a cold">window._taboola = window._taboola || []; _taboola.push({ mode: 'alternating-thumbnails-a', container: 'taboola-below-article', placement: 'Below Article', target_type: 'mix' });