Netflix’s <em>Inventing Anna</em> Writes a Check It Can’t Cash
Shonda Rhimes’s new show has a juicy, based-on-a-true-story premise but doesn’t seem to understand our fascination with grifters.
Even in prison, Anna Delvey won’t settle for anything less than the best. When a journalist drops by Rikers Island to see her—her first guest in some time who’s not a lawyer—Anna pushes her to make a proper media visit. Such an ask will take weeks to process, but a media visit would get them inside a private room, she explains. Anna calls it “VIP,” and as she puts it, “VIP is always better.”
The way Anna (played by Julia Garner) describes it, the private room almost sounds like an upscale lounge. But this being Rikers and not the Ritz Carlton, the space turns out to be merely a dingy concrete-walled break room with bad lighting, a hot-water dispenser, and a few
