Forget about Anna Delvey from “Inventing Anna” or Simon Leviev aka “The Tinder Swindler.” They’re small potatoes compared to Elizabeth Holmes of Theranos infamy, as we’re reminded in the new Hulu limited series “The Dropout,” easily the best of the current wave of true-crime limited series.
With the first three episodes already streaming and subsequent chapters premiering weekly, this is an immensely entertaining and easily digestible chronicle of true-life events — and a fascinating psychological profile of a bizarre huckster and her breathtakingly wide-ranging long con, in which she duped scientists, investors and institutions, in the process becoming a media darling as a young, female tech “unicorn” smashing the glass ceiling. In 2014, Holmes was named one of the richest women in America by Forbes, with an estimated personal wealth of $4.5 billion; by 2018, her net worth was $0 and the SEC had charged her with “massive fraud,” which eventually resulted in four convictions.
