Documentary of the week: Dirty Money
DOCUMENTARY OF THE WEEK: Be prepared to kiss your families goodbye this week when you start binge-watching Dirty Money, Netflix’s new docu-series on some of the most prominent recent cases of financial crimes and shady practices committed by the biggest corporation. This series, which is produced by Alex Gibney — the creative genius behind such documentaries such as Enron: the Smartest Guys in the Room and Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Belief — runs the range of corporate scandals, including the Volkswagen emissions fraud case, HSBC laundering money for Mexican narcos, and Big Pharma’s price gouging on life-saving meds. As entertaining as these are, once cannot help but feel dejected at the central theme of the series: That the natural instinct of large corporations, emboldened by leniency of the justice system in dealing with them, appears to be to test the boundaries of what’s legal to drive up revenues. Check out the trailer here (watch, runtime 2:25) or you can just start watching it on Netflix here. You’re welcome.