Television series
Dirty Money
Dirty Money is Netflix's slow-burn autopsy of capitalism gone wrong, each hour-long episode a self-contained deep dive into a different real-world scandal — corporate greed, financial fraud, environmental crime. Built from insider testimony, archival footage and patient reporting, it plays less like a thriller than an indictment: measured, detailed, and quietly furious. For anyone who wants outrage backed by receipts.
If you liked this
Fyre2019
The same appetite for watching hubris collapse in real time, but faster and funnier — a music festival built on Instagram vapor that fell apart in front of everyone's phones.
But It's featherweight compared to Dirty Money's scale; you'll finish it in one sitting and feel slightly guilty for enjoying it so much.
The Inventor: Out for Blood in Silicon Valley2019
Elizabeth Holmes and Theranos, told with the same forensic patience as Dirty Money — charisma as a weapon, and the investors and journalists too dazzled to notice.
But You may already know the Theranos story cold from the podcasts and the miniseries; there's not a huge amount here that's new.
American Greed2007
CNBC's long-running anthology of financial cons and Ponzi schemes is Dirty Money's scrappier cousin — shorter, pulpier, and there's a huge back catalogue to binge.
But Cheaper production values and a narrator who leans hard into true-crime-show cliché; it trades nuance for volume.
The wildcard
Something you would not have found on your own.
F for Fake1973
Dirty Money trusts perpetrators to narrate their own crimes on camera; Welles built an entire film around the question of whether any storyteller — including himself — can be believed.
Orson Welles' essay-film about art forger Elmyr de Hory is a documentary that keeps confessing it might be lying to you — playful, dazzling, and decades ahead of its time.
But It's deliberately slippery and structurally strange; if you want a clean narrative with a villain and a verdict, this will frustrate you.
More like this (8)
Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room2005
The granddaddy of corporate-collapse documentaries — sharp, angry, and still the clearest explanation of how smart people talk themselves into catastrophic fraud.
But It's nearly twenty years old now and some of the financial explainer graphics feel dated next to Dirty Money's slicker style.
The Wizard of Lies2017no page yet
Robert De Niro plays Bernie Madoff with chilling domestic ordinariness — this dramatizes what Dirty Money would interview, and it's just as damning.
But As a scripted film it can't offer the raw, unscripted testimony that makes the Netflix series feel so immediate.
McMillion$2020
An FBI investigation into a rigged McDonald's Monopoly promotion — absurd premise, real stakes, and it has the same eye for the small, human details of a scam unraveling.
But The subject matter is inherently sillier than most Dirty Money episodes; if you want gravity, this leans comic instead.
The Tinder Swindler2022
Romance fraud instead of corporate fraud, but the same anatomy of deception and the same fury from the people left holding the bill.
But It's more tabloid than institutional critique — less about systems failing and more about one man's cruelty.
Betting on Zero2016
A hedge fund manager takes on Herbalife as an alleged pyramid scheme — a slower, more paranoid companion piece with real Wall Street teeth.
But It's a niche fight that never fully resolves on screen, which can leave the ending feeling frustratingly open.
Generation Hustle2021no page yet
A younger, more online spin on the same formula — grifters and scammers built for the Instagram age, quick episodes for a lighter evening.
But Thinner and more sensational than Dirty Money; the subjects are smaller-time and the analysis correspondingly shallower.
Succession2018
Where Dirty Money interviews the real fraudsters after the fact, Succession lets you live inside the boardroom while the rot is still happening — same species of greed, watched from the other side of the camera.
A fictional media dynasty rotting from the inside, told as pitch-black comedy — the same corporate moral vacuum Dirty Money documents, just with better one-liners.
But It's a slow-building family drama with no real crime to solve, and its pleasures are patience-testing before they pay off.
Catch Me If You Can2002
Several Dirty Money episodes are fascinated by charismatic fraudsters despite themselves — this film drops the fury entirely and just lets you enjoy the con, which tells you something about why these stories hook us.
Spielberg turns a real con artist's story into a breezy, glamorous chase — proof that fraud can be filmed as pure entertainment instead of indictment.
But It's unapologetically fun and forgiving of its subject; if you want moral clarity or consequences that sting, this isn't it.
Recommended by
Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room, Fyre, Sour Grapes, McMillion$, The Inventor: Out for Blood in Silicon Valley, LuLaRich, Betting on Zero, The Seven Five, Inside Job, Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, Vincenzo, American Greed, The China Hustle, Fyre Fraud, Operation Varsity Blues: The College Admissions Scandal