The title sequence of Apple TV+’s new blockbuster mini-series, WeCrashed, depicts a forlorn unicorn trampling through the bustling rooms of a co-working space. If the significance of this imagery is lost on you, then so too will most of this programme, which requires a degree of LinkedIn literacy (and tolerance thereof) to meet head on. The unicorn – an irritating business term for a start-up with a valuation of greater than $1bn – is WeWork, the office space company, with beer on-tap and ping pong, that soared to a $47bn valuation in just a few years and then, as the title of the show somewhat spoils, came crashing down.
WeWork’s founder and CEO was Adam Neumann, an Israeli former Naval officer, played here with mesmeric zealotry by Jared Leto. Leto portrays Neumann from his late twenties through to the present day – a feat of ageless vampirism that the 50-year-old Leto is supremely equipped for. Neumann (who describes himself repeatedly as a “serial entrepreneur”, with such intensity that you wonder what other things he might have done serially…) has a vision for WeWork, and unlike so many entrepreneurial success stories, less of a work ethic and more of a Messiah complex. “You know you’re not God?” his co-founder Miguel McKelvey (Kyle Marvin) tells him. “You have to admit, I do look a bit like him,” Adam replies.
