Inventing Anna - Netflix

[HeyItsPickleRick]

I've been obsessed with this case since listening to The Fake Heiress on BBC sounds. Is anyone else watching?! I love the casting of Anna.

I watched one and a bit episodes. Usually I wouldn't stop watching part way through an episode, but I'm struggling to get into this. Is it only me who finds the script/dialogue really bizarre and unnatural? Sometimes it feels like they're talking in riddles but it doesn't come across as clever or mysterious to me, just annoying.

Also in the first episode, did I hear this right? Man saying that Anna went to the toilet and had a poo, didn't wipe herself because there was no toilet roll then went into meeting stinking of poo? I found that part utterly bizarre, was it meant to be funny?

@cuno

Also in the first episode, did I hear this right? Man saying that Anna went to the toilet and had a poo, didn't wipe herself because there was no toilet roll then went into meeting stinking of poo? I found that part utterly bizarre, was it meant to be funny?

Yes, you did hear that right. Or at least I think you did. Bizarre.

I agree with you about how stilted the dialogue is. I think the whole series thinks it's a lot more clever than it actually is.

Well thank god I'm not the only one. When I turned it off last night I was left wondering if it is just me and I'm too stupid to follow what they're saying. I don't mind talking in riddles, but it has to be slick which this is not in my opinion. I think the poo story is really odd and surely not true, seems a bit nasty and unnecessary towards Anna to throw that in considering she's a real person.

I think the poo anecdote was to show (once they knew she was a fake) that they really knew she wasn’t a socialite, that she was unrefined and didn’t know how to behave.

Like in hindsight it all makes sense. Protecting their reputation I think.

Hmm I’m not sure. Strange to fictionalise something that was so much stranger than fiction anyway.

This.
I find her story fascinating and yet I think the Netflix show is bogging it down with completely made up stuff unnecessarily.
I’ve seen quite a few interviews with her since and like Tinder Swindler, I’m also torn about giving her more attention and notoriety from it (and money!). She also tends to come across as almost sociopathic and genuinely doesn’t seem to think she did anything wrong. It’s all very weird.

I've binged this and I have found it really enjoyable, although I'd never heard of Anna before so I have no idea what's true and what's fiction. I think the actress playing Anna is brilliant in that she really comes across as a narcissist and yet people are still falling for her scams because its all about the money and glamour. I like the journalist (Vivian?) and her struggle with both a career and family, although at the beginning she does seem to come off as very naive about the pregnancy and a little bit uncaring (would any mother to be really not bother turning up for a scan?!). Also, her gurning-like facial expressions are really distracting.

I've just bought the book written by Anna's friend Rachel, so will be interesting to read from her point of view.

@LorelaiDeservedBetter

I read the original article about her when it was published and I think it had that sense of confusion that the journalist didn't really understand Anna or what had happened.

I'm a bit bored with the series already and I'm only on episode two. I keep pausing to Google if the people are real or the events actually happened and so far most of the subplots and all the best side characters, were invented for the series.

It feels like a bit of a swindle to make a programme about a real con and then just make up the storyline. It loses its impact. If it's mainly fantasy except for the charges, then what's the point?

It feels like a bit of a swindle to make a programme about a real con and then just make up the storyline. It loses its impact. If it's mainly fantasy except for the charges, then what's the point?

This BTS with Shondra Rhimes should help answer your question

I'm still enjoying it a few episodes in but would've preferred it as a documentary. I wonder if they'd have struggled to get anyone with first hand experience to talk about it though.

Actually, I think the poo thing would be completely in character. Shrug, 'well if you dont cater to your guests correctly what do you expect them to do?' Swans off contemptuously. Definitely a way of being remembered, shes a woman to whom shame is a stranger and it would definitely be someone else's fault for putting her in an 'impossible position'.

Yes @longwayoff I like that interpretation! Could just imagine it.

Its good but Americans draw things out so much

This should have been 4 episodes max

Overall I really liked it although I think it could have been two episodes shorter (true of most Netflix shows).

I know she’s an awful individual but I must admit I was rooting for her while I watched . I think I just found her blatant selfishness and determination to get what she wanted no matter what, somehow more “honest” than the hangers on and money makers who were clearly also out to get what they wanted (freebies, money, status etc) and were quite happy to ride her coattails and believe what they wanted to believe.

Given some of the comments here I suspect this show is a lot more enjoyable if you don’t know the ins and outs of the ‘real’ story!

I haven't listened to the podcast but binge watched this last weekend. Loved it! Agree that the last 2 episodes were unnecessary.

Do you think that if Anna had actually been approved for the loan and been transferred the funds that she would have used them to create the ADF?

I'm finding all the 'oh my back is aching because I'm pregnant' from Vivien really really tedious. WTF does that have to do with the story? It goes on for too long and is too frequent.

@BonnesVacances

I'm finding all the 'oh my back is aching because I'm pregnant' from Vivien really really tedious. WTF does that have to do with the story? It goes on for too long and is too frequent.

Against my better judgement, I watched another episode tonight and there was a lot of the back rubbing and lying on the floor. I thought I must have missed something about why this pregnancy was so difficult.

As for the poo story it was as though the poo troll from here had crept into the writer's room. iirc the same thing happened in the last season of Sex Education. Maybe the Netflix writer's room has its very own poo troll. - not envy.

As for the poo story it was as though the poo troll from here had crept into the writer's room. iirc the same thing happened in the last season of Sex Education. Maybe the Netflix writer's room has its very own poo troll. envy - not envy.
🤣

The RL story is incredible. This is a long winded dogs dinner. Almost a pastiche.

The 3 friends I couldn’t understand how they overlapped.

The poo story from episode one just hung / clung in the air and haunted me!

The journos over expressive rubber face was irritating and she seemed to be pregnant with a tiny bump and huge discomfort for years …. and then gave birth to a huge 6 month old!

I like the characters and nice seeing familiar faces from Greys and other Netflix series. I'm on episode 4 right now and would continue. It's very long though isn't it each episode?

Where have I seen the actor who plays Neff before? I checked out her IMDB but couldn't find anything on there I've already seen but I KNOW I have seen her before! Gahhh

She also tends to come across as almost sociopathic and genuinely doesn’t seem to think she did anything wrong. It’s all very weird.

I am on episode 4; and whilst the credit card fraud and trust fund loan fraud is obviously illegal - I do struggle to see how the rest is anything but start up culture.

I know friends of friends who do 'startups'. Its a pyramid scheme of scamming IMO. Companies with millions of £ in investment with turnover less than eligible for VAT and no stock, no cash in the bank but being promoted in Grazia, Times and other big mags. I dont know who is scamming who tbh. I find the whole thing perplexing.

One thing she got right in the first episode was 40% of nothing is nothing.

When you have a shit load of money you dont actually care about the money. Its all about not being the last one in on something or missing out. If you loose money - so be it - so did everyone else. But you hit on investing in the next big thing and its an ego thing.

I think this series is about so much more than Anna.

I found it quite weak,

Lots of things didn’t make sense ,

Where did the stylist suddenly go? Anna mentions a visit to his parents , then suddenly no mention of him though he lives with the old lady ? And Anna and her boyfriend continue staying , but In episode one after her arrest he is there ? I find it quite strange .

The Paris bit is just stupid that one scene with the Eiffel Tower on one side and Manhattan skyline opposite it , is just dumb and should have been left out.

The friends storyline and how they befriended her just doesn’t add up, did neff became her friend for money ?

is it this easy to open accounts and apply for loans in the US , don’t they ask for copies of passports , ID? Previous bank statements in Europe,
It just looks so easy .

@GruffaloSolja

Do you think that if Anna had actually been approved for the loan and been transferred the funds that she would have used them to create the ADF?

This is the part of the story that I don’t think they made clear.

Was she genuinely wanting to open that big building as a club and just went through dubious means to raise the funds? Or was the foundation a front for her to get the money then disappear? Still not sure to be honest