Well, we made it! Last (real) blog of the year!
I have a love-hate relationship with these blogs, largely because I am just not a great blogger. I always forget about the blog assignment until the Thursday that it’s due, and then the stress starts to set in. For me, writing a blog is a Mission Impossible-esque race against the clock to click “Submit” before my computer reads 12:00 AM, and I have to admit — I really, really enjoyed it. Part of me is going to miss writing these posts.
With that being said, it’s time for the last (real) blog of the year. I never gave much thought to it, but last week, I realized just how obsessed I am with watching scam shows and movies.
I don’t know what it is, but something about a good con really excites me. These scammers aren’t mere criminals — any idiot can try to steal something. They’re geniuses who know they can get away with it. They’re thrill-seekers who aren’t into the crime because it’s lucrative, but because it’s fun. They’re antiheroes that you know you shouldn’t be cheering for but are cheering for anyway.
While I had always been a fan of this type of entertainment — my family and I watched The Dropout, Inventing Anna, Dopesick, I Care a Lot, Red Notice, Oceans 11, The Eyes of Tammy Faye, and more together — I never consciously realized the throughline between these shows until last Thursday, as I was watching Catch Me If You Can on a plane. While I was initially unsure about it because of how old it was, I soon found myself engrossed in a world of intrigue, cunning, and excitement.
For those unfamiliar with the movie, Catch Me If You Can is based off the true story of Frank Abagnale Jr., a teenager who runs away from home. Having seen his con-artist father play tricks on people, Frank starts going up to bank tellers and asking to cash checks. Soon, he starts impersonating a pilot for Pan Am Airlines and forging payroll checks at banks across the country. Chasing him is FBI agent Carl Hanratty, a by-the-books officer who’s eager to catch a criminal. As Hanratty gets closer and closer, Frank turns to scam after scam, faking being a doctor, a lawyer, and, at one point, a Secret Service agent. Over the course of years, Frank scams banks out of millions of dollars and leads the FBI on a wild goose chase across the US. I won’t spoil the ending, but I highly recommend watching it.
When we got off the plane, I couldn’t stop talking about the movie. I quickly went to the Wikipedia page, devouring information about the Abagnale from real life. Apparently, the autobiography that Abagnale wrote (which inspired the movie) was even proven to contain lies; in other words, even the book that Abagnale wrote about his scams was a scam! But then, I started to wonder why I enjoyed the movie so much. Why do I like watching innocent people get conned out of their money? Why do I consume so many of these scam shows?
After thinking about it for a while, I realized that I like them personally because scam-artists are the polar opposites of me. I can’t lie for the life of me — whenever I try to trick someone, I end up futilely suppressing a smile. I also don’t have the confidence that some of these scam artists do — if I tried to pretend to be a pilot, I’d either chicken out or walk out of the airport in handcuffs. I simply do not have the skillset that scammers do.
But I’m not the only one who enjoys cons — millions of others love watching shows like these. Take Inventing Anna. According to Netflix, viewers around the world watched over 511,920,000 hours of the show. Clearly, there’s some sort of psychological basis for this.
After looking into it, I learned that experts believe that we enjoy watching cons because we think that they are excusable. Unlike murder, which is unequivocally wrong, watching shows about scammers seems easier, as we feel that we “have permission [to enjoy] because [we] don’t think of it as violent crime.” After all, being conned out of your money seems to be the victims’ fault. And so, we don’t need to feel bad for the victims; instead, we can marvel at the criminals.
Whatever the reason, I know that I’m enamored by these crime shows, and I know that I’m not the only one. Now that I’ve checked this blog off my list, I’m looking forward to spending the rest of the night curled up on the couch. Maybe I’ll turn on Madoff on Netflix.
Hi Shan, I really enjoyed reading your post. As a fan of shows and movies like Ocean’s 11, Inception, and Catch Me If You Can, I can definitely understand the allure of con movies. I think it has something to do with the fact that we, the audience, feel like we are “in” on the con, so we start rooting for the conmen. This may be why most con movies place their protagonists in a positive light whereas murder movies or true crime don’t. I’ve also noticed that the best of these movies tend to be about real life cons; I was infinitely more invested in Abagnale’s story once I discovered that he was a real person. Last year, I closely followed the FTX saga and became invested in how Sam Bankman Fried managed to defraud so many customers. Overall, your post was really well written and shined a light on one of the more curious aspects of human behavior.
P.S. I definitely did not like completing blog assignments because I also end up procrastinating and writing in general is always a chore for me. However, I do think I’ll miss being forced to write regularly because I find that I can gather my thoughts/opinions/beliefs a lot better when I put it in writing.
I really liked Inventing Anna! I agree with your PS. I think next year I will blog on the same schedule with my students!