McMillions (stylized as McMillion$) is a documentary miniseries about the McDonald's Monopoly promotion scam that occurred between 1989 and 2001. Directed by James Lee Hernandez and Brian Lazarte, the series details how the scam was perpetrated by Jerry Jacobson, the head of security for the agency that ran the promotion, and how he recruited a wide range of accomplices. The series premiered in the US on February 3, 2020, on HBO, and all episodes were made available in the UK on May 27, 2020, on Sky Documentaries. McMillions was nominated for five Primetime Creative Arts Emmy Awards, including Outstanding Documentary or Nonfiction Series.
Premise
McMillions "examines the $24 million worth of fraud that corrupted the McDonald's Monopoly game between 1989 and 2001, in which there were almost no legitimate million-dollar winners in the contest." Through six episodes, the documentary introduces the FBI and other legal authorities who investigated the Monopoly game heist, as well as the bogus winners and the perpetrators. Using in-depth interviews with those involved in every aspect of the crime, McMillions offers an insider's view into one of the most notorious fraud cases of the 1990s and early 2000s.
Episodes
Production
On July 28, 2018, The Daily Beast published a detailed article chronicling the McDonald's Monopoly scandal written by Jeff Maysh. On August 2, Deadline Hollywood announced that a true-crime story based on Maysh's article was up for auction, with the high bid placed by 20th Century Fox, beating other bids from Universal, Netflix, and Warner Bros. The proposed film adaptation would feature Ben Affleck as director, Pearl Street and David Klawans as producers, and Matt Damon in a starring role.
Before the Fox project was realized, Mark Wahlberg's Unrealistic Ideas agreed to produce a true crime series based on the rigged Monopoly game at McDonald's. The series is executive produced by Unrealistic Ideas' Mark Wahlberg, Stephen Levinson, Archie Gips and written, directed and also executive produced by James Lee Hernandez and Brian Lazarte.
Critical reception
On Rotten Tomatoes, the series had an 87% rating with an average score of 7.29 out of 10 based on 31 reviews. The site's critical consensus read: "Like something out of a movie, McMillions effectively — if not always artfully — captures the chaos of this once-in-a-lifetime, very real con and the colorful cast of characters at its center." On Metacritic, it had a score of 72 out of 100 based on 15 reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews".
Awards and nominations
References
External links
- McMillions on HBO
- McMillions companion podcast Archived 2022-08-12 at the Wayback Machine on HBO
- McMillions at IMDb
