Inventing Anna is Netflix's biggest new English-language TV show of 2022 so far. The limited dramedy series from creator Shonda Rhimes recently cracked Netflix's list of its top 10 most-watched TV series in its first four weeks of release, the first English-language show from 2022 to do so and the second overall (Netflix's most popular new show of 2022 so far is the Korean zombie thriller All of Us Are Dead). And it's by far the most popular of the recent wave of based-on-a-true-scam limited series, which includes a number of shows on this list. More than a month after its release, Inventing Anna still has a hold over pop culture, because the story of Anna Delvey is so fascinating, and the show tells it in such a fun way.
Inventing Anna follows a reporter named Vivian Kent (Anna Chlumsky) โ a fictionalized rendering of journalist Jessica Pressler, who wrote the viral New York Magazine article on which Inventing Anna is based โ as she tries to unravel a mystery that keeps her up at night: How did Anna Delvey, a young Russian-born German citizen legally named Anna Sorokin, convince members of New York City's high society that she was a German heiress whom they should lend money to in order to finance her ambitious business dreams? To find out, she interviews Delvey (Julia Garner) in jail, as well as Delvey's friends/victims, and they all tell their side of the story about how Anna made them believe in her, in spite of her vague backstory, shady behavior, and general lack of social graces.
If you watched all nine episodes of Inventing Anna and wish there were more, we've rounded up some other recent limited series that feel sort of like Inventing Anna. The list features based-on-a-true-story shows about liars, scammers, snake oil salespeople, and criminals who convinced people they were someone they weren't and/or got investments from supposedly savvy people who should know better. There's also one docuseries about another true scam story that…