This exciting documentary series follows the investigation on the McDonald's Monopoly game scam that held during the nineteenth, through making interviews with contestants and the winners of the game and tracking down the organizer of the whole game, a corrupted police officer.
The story behind McMillions is as delicious as a thick juicy burger. Yet like the criminal scheme at its core, the HBO documentary inspired by it proves a little too cute and clever for its own good.
A kind of Argo-meets-The-Imposter by way of Super Size Me, McMillions is an enthralling thriller which should more than satisfy fans of true crime, while not containing any of the genre's usual stomach-churning grisly details.
Compassion, not chaos, is the key to "McMillions" success. The mindful storytellers carefully shift tones, sucking viewers into an outlandish story before driving home its substantive impact.
The filmmakers take a podcast approach, slowing down the action and throwing in extraneous detail to make what would have been a decent feature length story into a six part, six hour slog.
I've seen only the first three episodes of McMillions, so I can't tell you how this story ends - but it's off to one hell of a start. The end of episode 3 left critics on a cliffhanger, and not hunting down the answer for myself has been a test of wills.
If you're too young to remember this story - or, like me, you've forgotten many details - the new HBO documentary series McMillions tells it in comprehensive fashion, with more than a little flair.
McMillion$ is absolutely true, and as this six-part docuseries vividly unravels a multi-million-dollar fraud targeting the popular McDonald's Monopoly promotional game from 1989 to 2001, you soon realize there's no improving on these real-life characters.
While McMillions is a surprisingly fun examination of the con and the con men, it's also a worthy portrayal of the toll that predatory offers take on those most vulnerable to their poisoned charms.
