Inventing Anna is the latest series that everyone is talking about online. It has topped Netflix’s charts and we just can’t seem to get enough of the new Shondaland project. From 2013 to 2017, Anna Delvey fooled New York’s elite into believing she was the heiress of a wealthy German family with a trust fund of $60 million waiting for her. Racking up enormous debt and leaving friends with massive bills, Anna, whose real surname is Sorokin, eventually wound up paying for her fraud, though some may say, she didn’t pay enough.
I was engrossed from beginning to end, unable to stop watching the hour-long episodes, even as it turned to midnight, and I had work in the morning. I can see why it has garnered so much hype and it intrigues me to learn about the real woman behind the series. I want to devour every little bit of information about Anna Sorokin, I want to read Rachel DeLoache Williams’s book and Jessica Pressler’s original article. I’ve stalked her Instagram, I’ve read several articles on the show, and I want to know more. This is definitely a show that I will rewatch many times and enjoy for a long time to come. But what makes it so fascinating?
For me, personally, this show hits a guilty pleasure of watching the wealthy elite. No matter how angry I feel reading about that closed society with enough money to cancel all student debt and make sure that children don’t go hungry, I can’t help but imagine myself like that one day. I want to live a life where money isn’t a concern. Where I don’t have to struggle at a job that mentally and emotionally drains me just to scrape by. Where I can hop on a plane on a whim and visit the beautiful places of the world. I want that life and Anna Sorokin just walked right in and took it for herself. Somehow, she invited herself into the close knit group of some of the most elite people in the world. Wouldn’t we all love to do that?
Of course, I don’t want to gorge myself with wealth and so I still feel hostility towards these people and their frivolous pleasures. Which makes the story so captivating. On the one hand, you’re rooting for the girl who has nothing to dupe these elites out of their money, and on the other hand, you’re furious that she’s cheating her way through the system and getting what she wants. She didn’t work for this, why, is she getting rewarded? I believe it’s those two strong and conflicting reactions that have really grabbed hold of audiences and has launched this mini series into popularity.
The show focuses on Manhattan journalist, Vivian Kent who wants to break the story of Anna Sorokin to the world. As she attempts to unravel the intricately crafted narrative of Anna Delvey that Sorokin created, she tries to understand how so many of the elite were swindled. Where did Anna’s money, and her lies, come from? We jump from the present to the past throughout the nine episodes as we slowly learn who Delvey is and what her crimes were.
I really enjoyed the narrative. We get to flashback to the events as Vivian interviews the many people Delvey interacted with, all leading up to her eventual arrest. Each episode focuses mostly on one character and their part in Anna’s story. It kept the intrigue as they hinted at an even bigger scam to come. People close to Delvey shrouded themselves from Vivian, wanting to avoid being connected with the fake heiress but that made us want to see their story even more. The intertwined storytelling kept up the air of suspense throughout, making it impossible to stop watching.
The rest of the review will be full of spoilers. Even if you followed the original story, you’ll want to watch the Netflix show before continuing on.
Anna Delvey, both the real person, and the show, hit a sweet spot which propelled them to the top. In the first episode, Delvey is aptly compared to Trump. Somehow, she managed to fool a whole system that nearly got her millions of dollars. She made people listen to her because she said all the things they wanted to hear. Who would dare to make up their fortune and create such a convincing ruse? I couldn’t help but see the similarities between Anna and Pepper Smith from Katy Keene. Even her big project was exactly the same; an exclusive club for artists. Like Anna, she had no money for the project and her entire identity was crafted to fool the wealthy. I had to look into it and discovered that Pepper was inspired by Anna Delvey.
Then we see her friends, Neff and Rachel, who refuse to accept the truth even as it’s laid out right in front of them. This is something we see more and more today. People don’t want to admit they were wrong and they’d rather hold onto something even if all the facts are stacking against them because they don’t want to look stupid. In episode 6, Noah tells Vivian that Rachel isn’t stupid, defending her for trusting Anna and losing thousands of dollars. And we can’t blame her friends for initially trusting Anna because she was so good at fooling others.
Anna seems to be a narcissistic sociopath. She gaslights others and only thinks about herself, even when her ‘friends’ are in huge trouble. This is part of the reason she was so successful. She could swindle others without batting an eye. But we also see what else made her so successful; her ability to adapt and change according to the need. With each person she was trying to dupe, she transformed to who she needed to be. With Talia Mallay, she’s a socialite. With Nora Radford, she changed herself to be more productive and serious. With Alan Reed, she plays on his fatherly love for his daughter to win him over and convince him to take her seriously. She’s a people person and able to win people over.
Sometimes we get glimpses of the real Anna behind the façade she cultivated. She latches onto people who made themselves as she made herself. These are the only people she can truly admire because they have achieved exactly what she is attempting. Underneath the cool and savvy socialite she created, she’s really a superficial young woman who admired the wealthy elite and sought to make herself their equal. We see it in the way she interacts with Vivian. She wants Vivian to be a VIP when visiting her because she wants to surround herself with VIPs, even as she sits in prison. She critiques Vivian’s clothes and asks if she’s fat, as if any of that matters while talking with a reporter who will potentially be covering your story. This is why I don’t understand why Vivian feels so strongly for Anna. She has never been kind or sincere so why does she care so much?
What I really dislike about this show is how close Vivian got to Anna. She spoke about her very affectionately and she seemed way too invested in her on a personal level which felt odd. It was as of the audience wasn’t allowed to blame Anna for the crimes she committed and was found guilty for. Vivian also seemed way too close to Anna’s lawyer, Todd. It seems like it crosses some sort of ethical line but I don’t know the specifics of lawyer-journalist relationships.
I hated how Vivian and Todd continuously called Anna a kid. She was twenty-six when she went to trial. That’s not a kid. She’s more than capable of understanding the consequences of her actions and should’ve been held accountable for every one of them. By calling her a kid, it diminishes her crimes, and I can’t help but feel like it’s yet another jab at Millennials. For years we have been infantilized, called ‘children’ so that we wouldn’t be taken seriously. Twenty-six is not a child, it’s an adult who makes choices.
I actually just generally disliked Vivian. She was, to me, the most annoying character of the show. I think it was a lot of the actress’s mannerisms and that crazy look in her eyes she had throughout much of the show. But other than her, I really liked everyone else in the show. I loved Talia Mallay who we saw in episode two. She was generous and genuine and I like her ethic. How she was embarrassed that she couldn’t do simple things for herself, like fry an egg, and how she wanted to make her own money. “Earning it beats inheriting it,” is what she tells Anna when they first meet and I appreciate that. She was humanized in a way I like. I liked Nora and Val and I wish we saw more of them later in the series, and I enjoyed the dynamic of Neff, Rachel, and Kacey. I will say that Neff’s way of speaking almost seems comical, like she thinks she’s in a 40’s film of NYC. And I love the old crankies at Scriberia. They provided the comic relief of the show and were so fun when on screen.
I also appreciate the mention of Billy McFarland and the debacle of the Fyre Festival. Anna really did crash at his place, and I love that they included this part of her life, even though it was a passing moment. It was another instance of someone duping people out of money because they made promises they couldn’t keep. I would’ve appreciated the removal of Travis Scott’s music from the show.
Inventing Anna has been one of the best shows I’ve watched in a long time. It was so captivating and entertaining, with good humor, great storytelling, and compelling characters. This miniseries is definitely one to add to your watchlist.
Be Bold 