"McMillions is technically a true crime documentary, though it doesn’t feel like what we’ve become accustomed to," says Pilot Viruet of the six-part docuseries that premiered Monday on the McDonald’s Monopoly game scam. "Gritty, depressing true crime docs litter television — just take a cursory glance at Netflix! — and tend to focus on the more disturbing crimes, uncomfortably (and exploitatively) delighting in getting into the heads of murderers. McMillions, then, sometimes feels like an anomaly: it frequently takes a light-hearted approach, complete with music that could score an Ocean’s Eleven heist scene, silly reenactments (such as one dramatizing an agent reading a Post-It note), and Doug Mathews, a colorful special agent who comes off less of a member of the FBI and more like an over-excitable puppy eager to play with the big dogs."
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TOPICS: McMillions, HBO, Documentaries