How scammers and con artists became TV's laziest way to hook viewers

Once upon a time, if Hollywood told the story of your life, it was because you did something inspiring: ending British rule in India; writing one of the greatest nonfiction works of the 20th century; being, like, really good at math.

Now, all it takes is being a big-time scammer. Or, failing that, running your company into the ground in spectacular fashion while screwing over your investors and employees.

TV is awash in stories of people faking it until they (almost) make it. In the past two months alone, we've gotten "The Dropout," a Hulu limited series about disgraced Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes; "Super Pumped," a Showtime drama about the rise of Uber and the fall of its former CEO, Travis Kalanick; "WeCrashed," for Apple TV+, which tells the story of WeWork and its co-founder Adam Neumann; "Inventing Anna,"