2023-12-22 21:13:46
Infidelities and billionaire heirs – our streaming tips for the holidays
For the break between Christmas and New Year: We recommend five series from the business world that are just as exciting and entertaining as a crime thriller.
L’Oréal heiress Liliane Bettencourt (left) and daughter Françoise Bettencourt Meyers fought a bitter family dispute.
Foto: Thibault Camus (AP Photo)
Economic topics are no longer a niche issue for streaming providers. Whether documentary or fiction – this year too, Netflix, Disney+ and Co. released new series from the world of company owners, stock exchanges and companies.
These are certainly of interest to the audience: “The Bettencourt Affair: Scandal surrounding the richest woman in the world” was at times the most popular series on Netflix in Switzerland and France.
Our review of the series about the unfortunate L’Oréal heiress Liliane Bettencourt and other recommendations can be found below, with five stars being the top rating:
“The Ashley Madison Affair” – a disastrous data leak
In the early phase of online dating portals in the 2000s, one offer caused a stir: Ashley Madison – a website that arranged affairs. With provocative and brazen public appearances by then-company boss Noel Biderman, the portal managed to quadruple sales to $115 million within four years.
Bidermann not only promotes the offer with his real wife Amanda. He also claims that the couple is in a monogamous marriage.
However, several data leaks bring the building of lies down. They show that Ashley Madison uses thousands of fake profiles of women to keep male customers happy. Biderman isn’t as loyal as he pretends to be. And prominent US customers have been exposed as potential cheaters.
The three-part documentary series “The Ashley Madison Affair” illuminates the meteoric rise and deep fall of the affair portal from different perspectives. Former employees, those who have been duped and cheated have their say.
What’s most amazing is that Ashley Madison survived the controversy more or less unscathed. The portal is still in business and had 75 million users worldwide at the end of 2021. (met)
Platform: Disney+
Overall grade: ****
Entertainment: ****
How well is the economic context explained? ****
How much money is involved? $115 million in sales before collapse
“The Bettencourt affair” – the lonely L’Oréal heiress
This three-part documentary series is about money, power and manipulation. L’Oréal heiress and widow Liliane Bettencourt is in a family dispute with daughter Françoise Bettencourt Meyers over her handling of the billion-dollar fortune in the last decade of her life. She took her mother to court in 2008 because she was said to have given the photographer François-Marie Banier gifts worth a billion euros over several years. To support the allegations, Françoise Bettencourt had domestic workers secretly make audio recordings of her mother.
The audio recordings suggest that Liliane Bettencourt evaded taxes on a large scale and made generous party donations. Money flowed, among others, to the later French President Nicolas Sarkozy for the election campaign.
The series illuminates Liliane Bettencourt’s deep loneliness and emptiness.
Photo: Netflix
One of the central themes of the documentary is the contradiction between wealth and privilege. Despite being the richest woman in the world, the series highlights Bettencourt’s deep loneliness and emptiness. This is thought-provoking and raises questions about the true nature of happiness and fulfillment beyond material wealth. (met)
Platform: Netflix
Overall grade: ***
Entertainment: ***
How well is the economic context explained? ***
How much money is involved? $39.5 billion in assets at the time of Liliane Bettencourt’s death in 2017
“The Morning Show” (3rd season) – power games in the media company
The television series “The Morning Show” revolves around the fictional stars of a breakfast TV program of the same name. While the first season focused on a #MeToo case and the second on the consequences of the Covid pandemic, the third season is about the fact that the ailing media company urgently needs fresh money – and the intrigues surrounding the potential investor and tech billionaire Paul Marks.
The similarities to living billionaires with their own rocket program are striking, but of course, as always in such series, purely coincidental. The gambits of the various company bosses and board members who try to get one over on each other are also reminiscent of actual events from the business world.
As in the first two seasons, the important roles of the TV stars will be taken on by Jennifer Aniston and Reese Witherspoon. Stephen Fry is also great as an influential board member who takes the power game to the extreme. (jb)
Platform: Apple TV+
Overall grade: ****
Entertainment value: *****
How well are economic relationships explained? ***
How much money is involved? Tens of billions of film dollars
“Succession” (4th season) – Intrigue about company succession
We have often seen broken families on the screen. But with the Roys everything is bigger: Kendall, Roman, Shiv and Connor fight to see who will succeed their father Logan at the head of his fictional media empire Waystar Royco.
This year the series came to an end with the fourth season. Patriarch Logan Roy dies unexpectedly. His children either try to boycott the sale of Waystar Royco to a Norwegian tech mogul or serve as his deputy.
The Roys and those around them don’t give each other anything, even the smallest weakness is immediately exploited: “Succession” is sometimes brutal television that takes place in beautiful locations of the super-rich. You take the helicopter from your city apartment in New York for the weekend in the Hamptons, and the crucial takeover talks take place in a luxury hotel in the Norwegian wilderness. There is also an excellent ensemble, especially Brian Cox as the evil manipulator Logan Roy. (BB)
Platform: Sky
Overall grade: *****
Entertainment value: *****
How well are economic relationships explained? **
How much money is involved? Waystar Royco is a billion-dollar corporation.
“Big Vape: The Rise and Fall of Juul” – The grandiose failure of an e-cigarette
The two Stanford students James Monsees and Adam Bowen are setting out to improve the world with the Juul e-cigarette. The idea of a product that does not burn tobacco and therefore does not release any carcinogenic substances is well received in 2017 and 2018. The market value of the young company in the USA rises to 38 billion dollars, and the two founders are now multimillionaires.
But the tide is turning. Because young people in particular use Juul products with a fruity flavor, the e-cigarette is increasingly becoming the focus of concerned parents, the media and the US health authorities. The company’s market capitalization drops to $1.9 billion; Juul has to spend $3 billion on out-of-court settlements.
The four-part documentary series shows in detail how the steep rise and the deep fall came about. It’s about tempting product design, dubious company decisions and effective marketing. However, “Big Vape” cannot completely clarify an important question: Was Juul deliberately targeting not only adults but also minors with its and fruity flavors in order to increase profits? (met)
Platform: Netflix
Overall grade: ***
Entertainment: ***
How well are economic relationships explained? ****
How much money is involved? $36.1 billion (loss of stock market value)
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