McMillions

I was stunned to see a new DVR recording every week. Six hour long episodes. Six! Don't expect a big pay off. The final/6th episode turns willing scam participants into sad victims. The only real victims were Simon Marketing employees and factory workers who produced the game tickets.

Mob ties, a snitching Mama, a custody battle, taking out 2nd mortgages, 7 ex-wives, car accident/maybe murder plot...why not just focus on the scam and investigation?

The colorful characters will make you laugh at times, but it still didn't need to be a six-hour loooooooong docu-series.

Watch Ep 1 (was very good) and skip to Ep 6 (to see how the scam unfolded) and keep it moving.

Doug Mathews is the FBI equivalent of Barnie Fife. In the first episode you'll learn he was ambitious, slightly hyperactive, bored, and not trusted with much. One day he happens to notice a post it note on his bosses computer and asks if he can look into it.

What follows is a honest documentary about how the FBI fumbled into this huge conspiracy. You see agents relating how they didn't think things would work, practically rolling their eyes while talking about Mathews.

It shows how these guys are just normal humans, with tedious jobs and not some sort of super sleuth agency people imagine they are. It's more like the Mayberry police than the Silence of The Lambs FBI Agent Clair Starling.

Couldn't they have referred to one Jerry as "Jacobson" and the other as "Colombo?" So frickin confusing!!!

The writers of this documentary are good and make the story entertaining, and not boring.

Interesting story that could be told in 3 episodes, or 90 min to 2hrs. They are milking it.