INVENTING ANNA.

• Author: Dowzicky, Natalie
• Position: TV

Anna Delvey, a German heiress who claimed a considerable trust fund, floated through New York City's wealthiest circles in the mid-'10s. She had a habit of forgetting to pay for luxury hotel bills, and once she even stole a private jet. In reality she was Anna Sorokin, a middle-class Russian-born immigrant, loaded with more chutzpah than money.

Inventing Anna, a Netflix miniseries created by Shonda Rhimes, fictionalizes Sorokin's story in a way that might be dramatically powerful but is morally problematic. The show seems designed to imbue the audience with empathy for a naive though rude girl rather than allowing viewers to harshly judge a convicted criminal who used her friends to prop up her overinflated sense of self. Caught with her hand in the City National Bank...