The Big Conn

The Big Conn is one of those docuseries that moves along at a good pace while not leaving out much pertinent information. It’s as intriguing as a good scripted drama, and that should be the goal of any true crime docuseries.

Despite being set upon the rather parched storytelling landscape of financial chicanery, "The Big Conn" is infectiously engaging, the directors using copious re-enactments, graphics and solid interviews that never run aground, keeping our attention afloat amid a sea of fraud and bureaucratic minutiae.

This four-part Apple TV+ docuseries strikes just the right combination of almost breezy astonishment while chronicling Conn’s outlandish and blatantly crooked schemes and his embarrassing albeit fascinating attempts to create a larger-than-life persona—and then switching to a more somber approach when we see the true victims of Conn’s illegal shell game.