CNBC's True-Crime Play?
Plus Tarantino's novel, future defendants in politics, and more
the true crime that's worth your time
Today marks the anniversary of the Tate-LaBianca murders. Technically, I suppose it’s yesterday — and since that’s also the anniversary of Nixon’s resignation, AND since today was the date in 2014 on which a police officer killed Michael Brown in Ferguson, there’s an argument for my replacing July 15-17 with August 8-10 in my crackpot theory of the most tragic stretch of days of the year. But beyond that note, I don’t have a ton to add. If you’ve read Quentin Tarantino’s novelization of Once Upon A Time In Hollywood…, however, YOU might have something to add to my esteemed colleague Alan Sepinwall’s tweet about the book.
Off I go to add it to my purchase list for Exhibit B.; any of y’all read it yet? Should we forcen Eve with it? — SDB
Richard Nixon is also — sort of — the subject of the series premiere of Super Heists tonight on CNBC. My contact at the network was kind enough to furnish a screener of the first episode, which is about the Nixon bank job. I talked with Michael Dunn about another “re-enactment” of that heist, Finding Steve McQueen, on The Blotter Presents 137; how’d CNBC do with their more straight-ahead basic-cable-newsmag treatment?
The crime
In the premiere, it’s the United California Bank burglary, aka “the Stealing Nixon’s Millions” heist, in which legendary Youngstown, OH bank robber Amil Dinsio and his team cracked a Laguna Niguel bank vault in order to steal $3 million in allegedly “extorted” campaign contributions from a safe-deposit box allegedly belonging to then-President Nixon…on the orders, allegedly, of Jimmy Hoffa, who had paid for a pardon but felt he hadn’t got his money’s worth when Nixon arranged for Hoffa to be shut out of Teamsters leadership.
A…llegedly.
In the series going forward, Super Heists
cracks open the case files of master thieves, examining their crimes from two distinct, yet parallel points of view: the masterminds themselves and the investigators who doggedly pursue them. Whether it’s the huge bankrolls that fund these heists or the thieves’ mad dash to stash their loot, investigators know that the best way to solve the case is to follow the money.
Which explains, nominally, why Super Heists exists in ADDITION to American Greed, versus under its umbrella (AG has contended with bank robbers before, but not this case).
The story
It’s fine? I’d have preferred a case I hadn’t dug into already in other media, but it’s competent, even process-y at times, like the animated “shopping list” of materials and job “tools” assembled by Dinsio et al. — and there’s something about an explanation of “cleaning” money in a casino that I find very…soothing? Even when it’s accompanied by the same old Pond5 stock footage of chips splashing onto a craps table.
Super Heists does have a couple of tiresome same-old attributes. The placeholder tracks trying to put us in mind of superior properties (the faux “Gimme Shelter”/GoodFellas) or nodding to on-the-nose references (“Faking Care Of Business”) may not still be in place in the aired version, and either way they need to go. A couple of talking-head interviewees have saved up lines like “Someone had busted up the [vault] like a rock star in a hotel room” for years, and it shows. And one of the more interesting allegations in the case — Dinsio’s assertion that the FBI only managed to catch him via a fingerprint frame-up — is teased throughout, then crammed in at the end. Granted, Dinsio’s rundown of the specifics make him and the theory sound like a 55-gallon crackpot, but…you know, take it on or don’t. Splitting the difference for marketing soundbites is cheesy.
Still, on balance, it’s solid “hotel TV” in the American Greed mold: you don’t need to DVR it, but if there’s a marathon of it on vacay, you can use it to pass the time before the wedding reception or dinner with your in-laws. Super Heists premieres tonight, August 9, at 10 PM on CNBC.
*******
And the net’s got premieres busting out all over this week, with Season 8 (!) of The Profit headed our way on Tuesday night, followed by new series Money Court on Wednesday. Money Court is basically “what if The People’s Court, but Shark Tanked” — entrepreneurs and investors bring disputes to Kevin “Shark Tank’s Mr. Wonderful” O’Leary, who’s flanked by two legal experts during the “arguments” phase but who delivers (binding, he’s careful to note repeatedly) decisions himself.
Money Court also has a dash of Chrissy’s Court to it, so it’s about as true-crimey as any other judge show, which is to say “not really,” but the addition of that AND Super Heists to the primetime line-up raises the question of whether CNBC is making a play in the true-crime space. It wouldn’t surprise me to learn that NBCU execs have an assignments playbook of sorts for crime material: standard trashy Serial Siblings fare is detailed to Oxygen, prestige-y docudramae go to Bravo or USA, and — with American Greed heading into a 15th (!) season and these United States showing no signs of slowing down on the conflict-of-interest tip — all the finance shit goes to CNBC, from cons to counterfeiting to payola to Ponzi schemes, and gets broken out into nichier sub-shows.
And it’s not a bad idea, IMO. Super Heists isn’t a game-changer, and it could use a narrator with more mustard a la Stacy Keach, but it’s a sound enough concept, and Shark Tank is effective hotel TV too; the shows are both a bit glib and overproduced, but not offensively so. More to the point, the network’s brand is a focus on the nuts-and-bolts aspects of these financial-crime stories, whether it’s how a con works, how a break-in was accomplished, or what a disagreement among investors really boils down to legally and ethically. We’ll see how it plays out! (And when MC runs out of former Shark Tank hopefuls who are now fighting with each other…which tbh might be a while.) — SDB
One of our Australian correspondents, L.B. Jeffries, checked in with an update on a cluster (in all the senses of that term) of cases they ran down for us earlier this year. Police have announced that a “person will be formally charged in September” in connection with Higgins’s case, notes Jeffries.
As a New York State voter currently waiting for some kind of outcome on the misdeeds of Andrew Cuomo, I am heartened, but not particularly hopeful, because stateside it’s clear that an absence of shame works. For a take on Cuomo’s Trumpian, I-dare-you, dug-in stance as of this writing, I recommend this piece from InsiderNJ.com, for its economically phrased perspective on what the tri-state citizenry has accustomed itself to in this regard. — SDB
If you like what we do here, won’t you consider a paid sub? It helps keeps us in paid subs to streaming services, and paying our own contributors, who are rad, like you. — SDB
Reveal has an online comic illustrating a recent podcast episode about the differing state-by-state approaches to “juvenile justice.” The related pod ep aired in March of this year, and is another tale from Wyoming focused on the state’s preference for punishment over support.
True, the comic’s a little simplistic, but for the purposes of highlighting the differences between states in how juvenile offenders are treated, and their relative hopes for success, it’s a solid “in” into the story. (Yet another way in which, IMO, Love After Lockup is — perhaps accidentally — useful in illustrating the multi-generational realities of carceral life: that these cycles get perpetuated, and that the poor have no way to break the block.) — SDB
This week on Best Evidence: New docs from Hulu, Gaetzgate in pod form, and a White Collar star’s new franchise.
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