“This story is completely true.
Except for the parts that are totally made up.”
“She’s everything that is wrong with America right now!”
declares Assistant District Attorney Catherine McCaw (Rebecca Henderson) in the premiere episode.
“No one’s going to convict her!”
scoffs Anna’s lawyer, Todd Spodek (Succession’s Arian Moayed), in response.
“She’s Robin Hood.
She’s a folk hero!
“Everyone here wants something.
Money, power, image, love.”
(The shortest runtime is 59 minutes.)
(A similar situationhappened to Presslerin real life.)
Anna, meanwhile, is brilliant.
Heck, evenJoshua Malinapops up as a porkpie-hat wearing billionaire Anna bullies into writing a check.
So why isn’tInventing Annaany fun?
Perhaps because, like Sorokin herself, it’s stuffed with stories some intriguing, some that go nowhere.
Garner is very watchable as Anna.
Moayed is particularly winning as Todd, a clear-eyed underdog who admires Anna’s unflappable ambition.
His scenes with Garner in the 82-minute (!)
finale, which focuses on Anna’s trial, are electric the few momentsInventing Annalives up to its promise.
