A Major Disappointment

The film creates a perfect balance between action and depth of basic needs, in the midst of an infertile atmosphere.

The first must-see film of the year.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

I've only seen the first two (VW & Payday Loans) but it's become obvious that although they are very entertaining....they are not providing ALL the facts in these stories. Scott Tucker was painted in a sympathetic light with his kid and wife seeking sympathy from what the evil government did to them and what an honest man Scott is. NO mentioned whatsoever that he had served jail time previously. He had a previous bogus loan scheme previously where he took money from businesses. He plead guilty to two felonies of mail fraud and making a false statement to a bank. Yeah he lied about collateral for a loan because he had sol the car and no longer owned it.Come on Netflix! Do a documentary right! Or did he pay these producers too??

A well intensioned documentary series from Netflix and I hope there are more to come. Unfortunately the six programs suffer from the usual docu problem that the subject matter frequently doesn't provide any meaningful visual material to back up the voiceover narration so the makers go for a stream of news clips or stock footage.The best, for me, was the one on Donald Trump (Confidence man) and though the first half or so was the predictable collection of talking heads (mainly the excellent author Timothy O'Brien) and loads of Trump clips it got better to reveal his business misjudgements and nicely clips of him saying his new venture would be the biggest and best which turned out to be the complete opposite of what he had predicted.Of the other five programs the Canadian maple syrup heist was the least satisfactory, clearly a problem for the maple syrup producers in Quebec but not that important for anyone elsewhere. Payday loans, drug price-gouging by big pharma and the VW emissions scandal are great stories that are relevant to most folk. The VW program had the most dreadful background music as if my TV was tuned into some other channel at the same time, in fact I found the music in all the programs far too loud and why was it needed anyway?If Netflix continue with the series I would like to see tighter story lines and production, if the subject matter is that strong why not just let those who know all about it just tell to the camera, forget the excessive clips and loud music.

It might have hurt some people sentimental specially episode 1 and confidence man. Which i see clearly from the review. Some people can't accept facts and criticism. Everything gets personal. Why watch a documenty. Why dont you watch some movie? I have seen the complete show and loved every episode except maple syrup. Must watch Bank cartel episode.. Banks lobbying exposed which has resulted in Blood (Mexico). I would suggest people who wants to watch; watch with open mind... go for it.. this is for youWatch every episode without reservation :)

Among the best documentaries I've seen over the past decade! Still have only viewed the first few but they are any example, I won't be viewing elsewhere until I have completed the series. I odn't think it will spoil potential viewer's interest to say that the documentary series details inside stories, deep background, documents and interviews of participants on all sides of issues, including the VW scandal, the Payday Loan lenders and so forth. The actual mechanisms that occurred to create the scandalous activities and the enormous energy, complexity and serious funding of the subsequent cover ups are extraordinary and reveal far more than was publicly rendered at the time. How the Payday Loans enabled their CEOs to trample over and utterly destroy the lives of literally thousands of innocent people, all of whom had paid off their loans, only to discover that the payments were being diverted elsewhere and the loans were being continued at ever higher interest rates. I was unable to shed tears when the CEO in charge made virtually the same complaints as his thousands of victims but blamed the government for his ensuing legal and personal problems. The interesting point that I have been forced to consider so far is the denial factor. Denial seems to act like some kind of impenetrable force field, disabling the culprit's (as well as their co-workers, friend's and family member's) ability to comprehend the extraordinary damage they caused, using the weakest and most skewed form of reasoning to form excuses and to say things like "it was just business" ... like "just following orders". We were all so sickened as we witnessed the horrors and ravages perpetrated by the Pay Day folks that we ended up staying up all night trying to make sense of how anyone could possibly defend such actions. I can't say enough how truly fascinating it is to learn the details behind these scandals as well as their ultimate effect on political retaliation taken in 2017 against the same government regulations that had been put into place to successfully stem these activities and had ultimately protected so many citizens not to mention the reaction of the current administration favoring the kind of sick activities perpetrated by these monsters, once more unleashing the horrors that our society had finally managed to rid itself of. The Docs are entirely unbiased and professionally executed, leaving nothing to the imagination other than, perhaps, a consideration of how it is that perfectly ordinary people with otherwise good intentions managed to end up lying to themselves and to create a kind of universal state of deception cloaked in a kind of self-congratulatory goodness and how the ignorance of the masses enabled them to fool so many people, desperate for products that really work, that function as they ought; that don't risk the lives of the users; for a bit of good will to help them out during desperate times, for policies that enable citizens to get on with their productive llives without having to fear the predatory politician or the neighbor next door. This series is education on steroids! A must see for all age groups whose lives are primarily about treading water in this world controlled by wholesale greed, ignorance and insensitivity.