A six-episode deep dive into human greed.

This documentary series follows the FBI’s investigation into the McDonald’s Monopoly fraud. The fraud took place starting way back in the 1990s (when I remember collecting Monopoly pieces!), but the investigation didn’t get started until the very early 2000s, when a young, hungry agent named Doug Mathews decided to follow up on a tip from an anonymous informant.

The details about the investigators’ strategy and how they built the case are certainly interesting, but what really makes this documentary hum is the characters.

There are so many different characters. There’s Robin Colombo, the chain-smoking widow of mob boss Jerry Colombo. Dwight Baker, Mormon real estate developer who was excommunicated from the church when his involvement in the fraud was confirmed in court. Amy Murray, a marketing director for McDonald’s who ended up participating in the undercover operations. Even the district attorney who prosecuted the case becomes fascinating in the hands of the director!

The godfather of this whole operation was a man named Jerome Jacobsen, referred to throughout the series as “Uncle Jerry.” He’s painted as a good guy at first.

“Oh, everyone loved Jerry,” says one of Jerry’s former co-workers. This is after hearing from Jerry’s ex-wife about how generous he was, still helping her with home projects after they were divorced.

But this same Jerry threatened to kill his wife multiple times, explaining in detail how he would make the gun untraceable. This same Jerry was extremely violent toward his stepsons. This same Jerry lied constantly.

This same Jerry figured out how to steal the winning game pieces, how to sell them, and he made millions doing it.

The film’s final note speaks of the inevitability of greed. Almost every “winner” involved in this scheme was just a regular person who jumped at an opportunity to get ahead. You hesitate to even call most of them bad people despite the crimes they admit to committing. It makes you ask uncomfortable questions of yourself. Would you take the McMillions?

McMillion$ is a heavy-hitter documentary when it comes to investigation work and character work, well worth your time.