Every once in a while, there is a Netflix series that instantly grabs people’s attention. Inventing Anna is one of the latest to do just that. The miniseries was inspired by the true story of Anna Delvey (Julia Garner), a woman who was able to infiltrate the elite New York City social scene by pretending to be a German heiress. Along the way, Anna, whose real last name is Sorokin, scammed her way into some of the city’s most expensive hotels and tricked her way into accessing hundreds of thousands of dollars from banks and “friends”. Unfortunately for Anna, however, things eventually caught up with her and she found herself at the center of a criminal investigation. After a trial, Anna was sentenced to four to 12 years in prison, however, she was ultimately released in less than four years on the count of good behavior. Anna’s story made headlines all over the world between 2017 and 2019, and it has now gotten a second wind thanks to Netflix. However, despite how popular Inventing Anna has become, many viewers can’t help but take issue with some of the way some of the story’s major players were portrayed. Keep reading to learn more about why some viewers are angry about Inventing Anna.
The Story Isn’t Told From Anna’s Perspective
Anyone who has seen Inventing Anna knows that there’s no denying the fact that Anna is the star of the show. Why then, was the story told from the perspective of a fictional journalist? It seems odd that so much of this true story revolves around a person who doesn’t really exist. Sure, Vivian Kent is based on real-life journalist Jessica Pressler, but that doesn’t make it any less unusual that Anna isn’t the one telling the story. This means that lots of important details that only Anna would know were omitted from the project. On top of that, many viewers feel that the series spent too much time focusing on Vivian’s personal life which wasn’t really relevant to Anna or her story. As some viewers have suggested, it would’ve been nice to get some insight into what was going on in Anna’s head when she made some of the decisions she made. Sadly, we weren’t able to find any information on why the story was told through Vivian. Some viewers also felt that Vivian’s character was annoying. Her whole life began to revolve around Anna, even at the expense of Vivian’s young son and her husband. If there’s one thing that all journalists know, it’s that you shouldn’t try to befriend the subject(s) of your articles.
Anna’s Portrayal As The Anti-Hero
On the surface, Anna’s story seems cut and dry from a good guy/bad guy perspective. After all, someone who lies and takes advantage of people — especially those they consider friends — is usually labeled a bad guy without issue. That, however, wasn’t really the case with Inventing Anna. Towards the end of the series, it became painfully obvious that Anna was being painted as a sympathetic character. Viewers were made to believe that she was someone who immigrated to the United States in hopes of a better life and was willing to do what it took to achieve the American Dream. On top of that, the fact that she didn’t have a great relationship with her parents made her look even more sympathetic. It appears that Inventing Anna was attempting to prove the point that what Anna did wasn’t really that bad because people in the finance and business worlds run underhanded scams all the time. It was also insinuated that since most of Anna’s ‘victims’ were banks and/or wealthy people, we should be happy that she was sticking it to ‘the man’.
While most people love a good Robin Hood story, that’s not exactly what Anna’s story was. Not only was she friends with several of the people she manipulated, but she showed absolutely no remorse about it. Still, viewers were made to feel like Anna being sentenced to prison was her wrongfully being robbed of her freedom. While it usually feels good to root for the underdog, Inventing Anna didn’t do a good job of convincing anyone that Anna was ever truly an underdog. Some would even argue that the way she lied so easily was actually a little scary. A Reddit user named RealDogBoy wrote, “…the series was much too sympathetic to Anna. She’s a con artist and a thief. It is understandable how some of the victims she befriended (particularly the ones who got paid back) would continue to have a bond with her. She was (and probably still is) highly skilled at manipulating people. Her lawyer is a special case. His job is to be on her side no matter what she did. While her friends (who got conned) look stupid for their continuing loyalty”.
Rachel’s Portrayal As The Villain
Rachel is arguably one of the most interesting characters in Inventing Anna. After forming a friendship, Anna invited Rachel to Morroco. Anna offered to cover all of the expenses including the hotel which cost around $10,000 a night. However, once Rachel, Anna, and the rest of their group arrived in Morroco, it was eventually revealed that Anna had failed to put a card on file. This was a tactic that she’d used in the past, but Rachel was unaware. Anna claimed that the issue was with her bank and that it would be fixed quickly. In order to help her friend, Rachel offered to put her card on file with the hotel and was assured that it wouldn’t be charged once Anna gave the hotel her card. However, Anna didn’t actually have a card, and Rachel was charged upwards of $60,000 between her personal and work credit cards. At one point, Rachel was even close to being arrested in Morroco after the group took a trip to a local garden and Anna claimed that her card still wasn’t working. As a result, Rachel had to put her work credit card on file with the hotel so she could use her personal card to pay for the garden.
I think most people can agree that they’d be highly upset if they were in Rachel’s position. However, the series painted her as an annoying opportunist who was taking advantage of Anna’s money. So, when she decided to set Anna up to be arrested, it was portrayed as the ultimate act of betrayal. Rachel and Anna’s other friends couldn’t believe she would do such a thing. Sure, Rachel may have been a little naive and it may be true that she loved being around Anna because she thought she was rich, but that doesn’t make what Anna did to her any less horrific. Seriously, if you’re friends with a millionaire who offers to pay for everything you do together, you probably wouldn’t object either. Many also feel that because Rachel was able to capitalize off of the situation, there’s no need to feel bad for her. Realistically, though, people find ways to capitalize off of bad situations all the time. That doesn’t make the initial situation any less bad.
Do Netflix and Shonda Rhimes Have Something Against Rachel?
The vendetta against Rachel started long before the show even premiered. An early description of the character referred to her as “a natural born follower whose blind worship of Anna almost destroys her life”. It was clear that she was being positioned as someone who set herself up to get screwed over by trying to take advantage of Anna’s perceived status and wealth. Although it’s unclear why this angle was chosen, it likely has to do with a couple of factors: for starters, Rachel undercut Jessica Pressler when she wrote her own story for Vanity Fair as opposed to being a part of Jessica’s. On top of that, she sold the rights to her story to HBO which meant she couldn’t work with Netflix on Inventing Anna. It appears that those involved may have felt slighted by this and decided to factor this into her portrayal.
As you can imagine, Rachel isn’t too please with the way she was depicted in the series and she shared her thoughts in an article she wrote for Time. Rachel wrote, “Millions will watch as Anna is portrayed as a complex anti-heroine fighting against her personal demons and a world that constantly underestimates young women. It will be seen by more people than will ever meet Anna or do the work to understand her real nature or what really happened. And that is a dangerous reality.” At the end of the day, though, Rachel seems to be doing well and she will probably be very excited when the buzz from Inventing Anna starts to die down. Hopefully, she’ll eventually be able to go back to leading a quiet life. That said, we will probably be seeing a lot more from Rachel, once her story is told by HBO. It’ll certainly be interesting to see the story told from Rachel’s perspective. Inventing Anna
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