‘Wild’ true crime docuseries from the makers of Tiger King already has viewers hooked
Topics: True Crime, Documentaries, TV And Film
Jess Hardiman
Featured Image Credit: Apple TV+
Topics: True Crime, Documentaries, TV And Film
Just when you needed a new true crime fix, a ‘wild’ new docu-series from the creators of Tiger King and Fyre drops, and people are already HOOKED.
The modern-day crime doc has become one of the entertainment industry’s biggest feats, bringing stranger-than-fiction real stories to our sofa through the powers of streaming.
Over the years, we’ve had countless obsessions, from Making a Murderer, The Staircase and The Jinx to American Nightmare, Girl in the Picture and Don’t F**k With Cats.
One of the biggest from recent years has been Tiger King, which followed exotic zoo owner Joe Exotic and his bitter feud with rival Carole Baskin.
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Chris Smith, the director behind the series, had also just the year before given us Fyre, which was all about the hot mess that was the failed 2017 Fyre Festival.
Now he’s given us what looks like another instant gem, this time documenting one of Hollywood’s biggest scams.
For years, Hargobind Tahilramani would allegedly target entertainment industry workers and encourage them to travel to Indonesia, with victims believing they’d been recruited to work on the latest big show or film.
He reportedly posed as powerful women from Hollywood, including Sony Pictures chair Amy Pascal and American film producer Megan Ellison, convincing people to fund their own trips to South-East Asia for roles on projects that never existed.
It wasn’t until after a decade of scamming at least 500 victims out of around $2 million that he was arrested in Manchester in 2020.
Now his story has been turned into Smith’s new three-part documentary called Hollywood Con Queen - which was released today.
Check out the trailer here:
Based on the original reporting of investigative journalist Scott Johnson and his book Hollywood Con Queen: The Hunt for an Evil Genius, the series delves into how Tahilramani allegedly lured unsuspecting victims to Indonesia with the promise of life-changing career opportunities.
They would exhaust their own finances in pursuit of the big break they’d been chasing, while also being exploited in a ‘perverse psychological game spanning the globe’.
After tuning in when it dropped today, one viewer tweeted: “Hollywood Con Queen is so much more bizarre than I thought it was going to be.
"It’s a little bit better than your typical commodity documentary that we’ve seen frequently over the past 5 years.”
While someone else said: “Whoa @AppleTV- #HollywoodConQueen is a riveting crime documentary! Who knew? Wow, just wow!”
Kevin Senzaki, who worked as a sound designer on the docu-series, also wrote ahead of its release: “Hollywood Con Queen, an absolutely wild docuseries about an Indonesian scam artist and his victims around the globe, is out on Apple TV+ next month.
"I sound designed this series, so it's a pleasant surprise to find out when and where it's being released.”
Stream Hollywood Con Queen on Apple TV+ now.