TV review: Inventing Anna is a treat of a hate-watch
Julia Garner as Anna Delvery, Chris Lowell as Noah in episode 106 of Inventing Anna. Cr. Nicole Rivelli/Netflix © 2021 declan burke, caroline delaney
Don't give up on (Netflix) after the first episode. I almost did, and that would have been a shame because it turns into a treat of a hate-watch after that.
The hate here is for the victims, because most of them are very rich and foolish.
This 9-part drama tells the real-life story of Anna Delvey, real name Anna Sorokin, who was convicted in 2019 for conning money out of people between 2013 and 2017.
Anna posed as a German heiress with a giant trust fund and ambitious plan s to open an exclusive member’s club on Park Avenue called the Anna Delvey Foundation. Designed by a big-name architect , it would feature over-priced art, a world famous chef and super-rich people sheltering from the proles so they can figures out ways to make even more money. Like I say, lots to hate here.
I almost didn’t watch a second episode because, for some reason, they decided to make the first episode about Jessica Pressler — the journalist who broke the story in .
No offence to Jessica, but she never tried to persuade the thick cream of New York society to give her $40 million so she could open a pimped-up nightclub and name it after herself.
Instead of living in this world, we are forced to watch Jessica try to persuade her editors to run with the story, helped by some older writers in the office who had been put out to pasture. This wasn’t the show I signed up for.
Not to worry, that came along in episode two, and we got to see what we’d been missing. Anna is portrayed brilliantly by Julia Garner, who will be familiar to fans. There has been a lot of sniggering about her accent online, from people who should know better. I don’t know any Russian-born millennials who are trying to pretend to be a German heiress in Manhattan, but if I did, I’d hope they sound just like Garner’s take on Anna Whatever Her Name Is.
She’s coy and vulnerable and vicious and sly and flirtatious and not remotely likeabl e.
I love her . The New York eejits who fell for her shtick decided that what the city needed soon after the financial crash was a super-sized shrine to their amazing-ness. That’s all you need to know about them.
S he remains an enigma for the first few episodes. And then, finally, the journalist Jessica Pressler, started to earn her place in the drama, filling in the gaps as we follow her around interviewing people who had encountered Anna and been conned along the way. Not all of them were rich in fairness, and portrays Anna Delvey/Sorokin as callous and manipulative.
But she’s not really the point . The lid opens on the so-called elite in New York is what makes this a must-watch show. When you’re finished give me a shout — I have this idea for a members-only club in Cork.
