Inventing Anna is much longer than it needs to be
As someone who read about the fake German heiress Anna Delvey in the news a few years ago, I was excited to find out more about her with Shonda Rhimes‘ Netflix miniseries Inventing Anna, but the show is a mixed bag. To break down my feelings about the series, I’ve created a pros and cons list to help you decide if it’s worth a watch.
CONS
The length
Inventing Anna is nine episodes and most of them are longer than an hour (the ninth is 1 hr 22). I’m not sure the story warranted such a big time commitment. I liked the structure of each episode focusing on a different friend/victim but I don’t think full episodes about Val or Nora were ultimately needed, other episodes were unnecessarily padded, and episode 8 was surplus to requirements.
The show doesn’t know what it wants to say about Anna
I liked the series more in the beginning when it went through her crimes, her attempts to start a social club and get a $40 million loan, and how she convinced everyone she was filthy rich. But when Anna (Julia Garner) has no home, friends, or money, the show became too sympathetic towards her and seemed to characterise her as this girlboss who made a few mistakes. No, she is a con artist who scammed people and doesn’t feel sorry about it. She brought this on herself! The show went way harder on Rachel Williams (Katie Lowes) than Anna. I also didn’t get why Neff (Alexis Floyd) and Vivian Kent (Anna Chlumsky) were on Anna’s side and helping her out at the trial. She’s not a good person! Side note: It makes me feel icky that Delvey paid off all her fines and legal costs using the money Netflix gave her for this show. That doesn’t sit right with me.
The storytelling is sometimes muddled
Every episode of the show opens with the disclaimer that the story blurs fact and fiction and some of it is “completely made up” and I get that it doesn’t just stick to the facts. But I was confused by the timeline of events and sometimes thought “How did she pay for that?” and a quick scan of her Wikipedia page cleared it up.
The show doesn’t offer much insight into Anna
I came away from the series with more insight into her fraudulent antics and her relationships and friendships but I still don’t know who Anna Delvey/Sorokin is. You can’t blame the show too much for that though – Anna won’t admit to anything, never gives a straight answer and believes what she did was justified to help her launch her business. She’s a sociopath who has no awareness of how her actions affect others. It seems like nobody knows who she truly is so I appreciate why the show struggled with this too.
PROS
Vivian Kent
The character of Vivian – a proxy for Jessica Pressler, who wrote the New York magazine article the show is based on – is my favourite aspect of Inventing Anna. I liked watching her chasing down the story, finding new leads and trying to restore her reputation, all before she has a baby. It was smart to frame the show around Vivian so the audience had someone normal to cling to. It would have been impossible to centre it directly around Anna because she’s so mysterious and dishonest.
Todd Spodek
Succession‘s Arian Moayed is terrific as Anna’s stressed and exhausted defence lawyer who is in way over his head with her case. He is drowning in paperwork, his marriage is under strain and Anna is a total pain in his ass. I feel for Todd. I really loved the scenes between Vivian and Todd; watching their friendship grow over their mutual Anna frustrations was lovely.
Julia Garner’s performance (sometimes)
I’ve seen a lot of complaints about Garner’s bizarre accent but Pressler has confirmed that’s what Anna actually sounds like so kudos to Garner for pulling off the weird German/Russian/American hybrid. It is annoying at first but I got used to it. The only times it bothered me again were when the scene involved shouting or raised voices as the accent hindered Garner and made her go way over the top. I think she did well in the quieter, vulnerable moments though and looked cool at the height of Anna’s fake heiress reign.
Inventing Anna is now streaming on Netflix.