Summary
The Big Conn is another docuseries that overstays its welcome, highlighting another crooked person doing crooked things.
Apple TV+ docuseries The Big Conn will be released on the streaming service on May 6, 2022.
Any time you have a documentary that exposes con artists being criminals, you automatically have my attention. Apple TV+ is releasing a series called The Big Conn about Eric. C. Conn, a Kentucky attorney who stole over $550 million from the government.
Our introduction to the documentary shows Eric C. Conn in some farm-like atmosphere. Eric looks about as you would expect for a middle of nowhere social security lawyer in Kentucky. A chubby, overzealous, not precisely attractive guy with a larger-than-life personality. We find out from a montage of people that Eric was a wild guy but one that got people the benefits and money they were owed. His wild things caught up to him when the government went after him for that $550 million and Eric decided to go on the run.
Eric wasn’t shy about showing that he was making the big bucks. Whether it was going on lavish vacations for extended periods to his multiple cars to the massive parties he would throw at his house that had stripper poles within them. He had a big thing where he was a people-pleaser and wanted to show off to his friend everything he had.
We all understood that Eric was a conman by the end of the first episode. As we moved from episode to episode, The Big Conn is more or less the same outside of providing us with more details on how much of a conman he really was. I complained about this when I watched They Call Me Magic, but docuseries from these streaming platforms overstay their welcome. There is no reason this needed to be four one-hour episodes. You can easily edit this down to one two-part and release it that way and the same story gets told. As you are watching it, the viewer is sitting there like, “okay, I get it.”
One of the more fascinating things you come across is how the government shutdown affected the case. The takedown of Eric Conn was a collaborative effort from former co-workers to journalists to doctors. So as all these people are beginning to testify, the social security office didn’t show up for the big court hearing because of the shutdown. But, nonetheless, hearing all of these people testify and hearing about the judges and doctors that were in on helping Eric make all this money was CRAZY.
The amount of people that were screwed over by what Eric had done is wild. We find out that in every case that Eric had worked on, these people have their disability brought into question. We hear words from these people that are genuinely heartbreaking. They were being sent letters stating they would have to repay thousands upon thousands of dollars. A combination of lawyers from across the US came in and worked for free to help these people out. It was great to hear that people were willing to step up for these folks.
Can I finish my soup?
Overall, the story is as crazy and as wild as expected. Eric Conn was an awful person doing bad things to good people. He eventually pleaded guilty after trying to go on the run (he was busted at a Pizza Hut in Honduras) and is currently spending 12 years in federal prison. Sadly, the people that have sued him to recoup some of the money people are still facing uphill battles.
What did you think of the Apple TV+ docuseries The Big Conn? Comment below.
