Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Generation Hustle’ On HBO Max, A Docuseries About People Who Hustle And Scam Their Way To Wealth And Power

We’re fans of the “art of the scam” documentaries for a few reasons. One of them is that the scams that are presented are so elaborate and involved that they can’t help but be impressive. The second reason is that the scammer or scammers always get caught. We especially like shows that show victims who are angry they got scammed but simultaneously impressed at the scammer’s abilities. A new HBO Max docuseries, Generation Hustle, has 10 such stories.

Opening Shot: Stock footage of film going through a projector and an audience reacting to what they’re seeing on the big screen.

The Gist: Generation Hustle is a 10-part docuseries about different ways people have hustled to gain money, fame and power, often via scams targeted at others seeking those same things. Produced by Alex Gibney’s Jigsaw Productions, the 10 episodes are directed by five different filmmakers.

The first episode, “Hollywood Con Queen”, directed by Yon Motskin, tells the story of a con that involved someone impersonating Wendi Murdoch, ex-wife of Rupert Murdoch, among others; the voice on the other side of the phone would entice photographers, screenwriters and presenters to travel to Indonesia on their own dime to be a part of a grandiose project. Along the way, the person would persuade the victims to take out money for permits and other things they need to do their work. All the while, the pay they were promised for the project was never deposited into their accounts, and they were given conflicting calls from “Wendi” and her assistant, playing “good cop” and “bad cop” if the artist had any questions.

In the case of screenwriter Gregory Mandarano and his co-writer David Blue, they actually had a face-to-face interaction with a representative of a Chinese film company, who was giving them input on the script and made changes that actually made it better. But when investigator Nicoletta Kotsianas gets hold of the case, she finds that this seemingly complex operation isn’t quite as complex as it looks.

Other episodes concentrate on individuals, like concert promoter Ian Bick, fake heiress Anna Sorokin, WeWork co-founder Adam Neumann, phony Saudi prince Anthony Gignac, and scam rapper Teejayx6.

Generation Hustle
Photo: HBO Max

What Shows Will It Remind You Of? The episodes of Generation Hustle, with their emphasis on how people came to quick fame and fortune, and often fell, with the help of social media brings to mind documentaries like Fake Famous and Fyre Fraud. Both films talk about people using social media to build something that’s not real, whether it’s for nefarious reasons or to just get companies to send them swag.

Our Take: By making Generation Hustle as an anthology series, the various filmmakers can tell their stories in an engaging manner that keeps their stories moving. The first episode, about the Hollywood Con Queen, was a fascinating hour mainly because the people that Motskin spoke to for the episode weren’t idiots; they were people who were, as mentioned in the episode, on the precipice of breaking out in their various professions. They were on the verge of being able to pick and choose their projects, and when they got the calls from this scam artist, they were ready to see what was next.

The victims aren’t treated with pity, and they don’t seem to beat themselves up; they hate having fallen for these schemes, of course, but they’re impressed with how elaborate the scams were. Not to give away too many details, but the people they heard on the phone were male and female, with varying accents that — including American — that sounded authentic. When the scammer(s) did impersonate celebrity producers and moguls, they chose people — like Wendi Murdoch and Laurene Jobs — whose voices aren’t well known.

We’re hoping the other nine episodes are as engaging as this one, using interesting visuals like the storyboard stills used in episode 1. We’re especially interested in the WeWork episode, given the fact that Hulu has its own documentary out about Neumann. We love to hear about the mechanics of elaborate scams and how they draw in people who are not all that different from the scammer him/herself. What we want to see are episodes similar in tone to this first one, that doesn’t try to feel sorry for the scammer’s victims but doesn’t let them beat themselves up either. In a lot of ways, appreciating the game is a whole lot more interesting than examining the victims of that game.

Sex and Skin: None.

Parting Shot: Right before we see a postscript about the scammer, one of the storyboard illustrations shows all the people interviewed, with the phrase “Chameleon of the Mind”.

Sleeper Star: We loved the pictures from Jessie Evans and Nathaniel Atakora, and we hope they were able to sell some of them in order to recoup some of the money they lost in the scam.

Most Pilot-y Line: None.

Our Call: STREAM IT. If you’re a fan of watching documentaries about the “anatomy of a scam”, then Generation Hustle has ten different well-told stories to choose from.

Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, RollingStone.com, VanityFair.com, Fast Company and elsewhere.

Stream Generation Hustle On HBO Max

source: nypost.com