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Season 1 – McMillion$

Play trailer 2:00 Poster for Season 1 – McMillion$ Feb 2020 Documentary Crime Play Trailer Watchlist
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89% Tomatometer 36 Reviews 68% Popcornmeter 100+ Ratings
The story of an ex-cop turned security officer who rigs the McDonald's Monopoly game promotion for a decade, stealing millions of dollars and building a vast network of co-conspirators across the U.S.
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McMillion$ — Season 1

McMillion$ — Season 1

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Critics Consensus

Like something out of a movie, McMillions effectively -- if not always artfully -- captures the chaos of this once-in-a-lifetime, very real con and the colorful cast of characters at its center.

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Critics Reviews

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Deborah Ross The Mail on Sunday (UK) 06/01/2020
5/5
This docu-series is fantastically gripping, enjoys incredible access and has everything: FBI agents, undercover stings, mob connections, wire taps, winners who turn out to be victims themselves. Go to Full Review
Lucy Mangan Guardian 05/28/2020
3/5
It is the characters who carry the series, which is remarkably unstylish in execution and rushes through parts of the investigation where you might have preferred it to linger. Go to Full Review
Ashlie D. Stevens Salon.com 02/18/2020
With the exception of actual footage from an undercover investigation, you could close your eyes, pretend this is a podcast, and it would be just as satisfying an experience. But what it lacks in aesthetics, McMillions makes up for in personality. Go to Full Review
Mark Meszoros The News-Herald (Willoughby, OH) 02/28/2021
Fun and informative enough that you want to tell people to watch it Go to Full Review
Euan Ferguson Observer (UK) 06/15/2020
Arguably about one episode too long, it nonetheless drilled down with panache into the semi-fascinating lives of a staple of American fiction. Go to Full Review
Dan Webster Spokesman-Review (Washington) 05/26/2020
"McMillions" is a true-crime story that feels like a scintillating work of fiction. Go to Full Review
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Audience Reviews

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Nicholas S. @nnschaefer 5d An incredibly fascinating story exposing how fraudsters and the mafia created a monopoly of winners from a famous McDonald’s promotion. This series present no shortage of interesting characters, whether they had participated in the crime or instead investigated it! A very unique beyond the scenes presentation of how the FBI and law enforcement carry out an investigation from start to finish, with substantial detail on key challenges and moments along the way. See more Yuriria M Aug 11 Fascinating and intriguing! One of the best documentaries out there. The level of perfection of this documentary feels like fiction; the cast of characters is captivating; FBI special agent Mathews is the star all along: his creativity and courage made him crucial for the investigation to end up successfully. This documentary has it all; criminal investigation, mob characters and civilians falling for a fraudelrbt scheme that prevailed for ten years. It’s a MUST watch! See more Cheri J 12/17/2024 My partner is a creative producer and loved the style of this documentary. It has a great energy. The story was enjoyable, and only dragged a tiny bit IMO. I would have liked to hear a little more about the IRS components, but maybe I'm a nerd that way. See more Honest D 05/29/2024 Very interesting. I am a fan of any movie, series, article or book that holds mega corporations responsible for anything. See more Mike P 03/25/2024 Interesting; but maybe it gets a little too far into the weeds with this stuff.. They could have simplified and streamlined alot of this stuff; which I think guess too far into all the ancillary crime factions that are involved in this. I had to watch a couple episodes twice so I could keep track of all the people involved. Where they REALLY should have focused on Jerry Jacobson; the crimelord who headed up this whole scheme. See more the s @The_Stranger 04/25/2022 The story itself is very interesting but boy, oh boy did they drag it out. Like any story, you can dissect every single little piece of it and amplify it into its own story but ultimately this one ended up with too many facets and the pacing suffered as a result. And I have to be honest here: this story made the FBI look like clowns. I guess you grow up in America with this idea of J Edgar Hoover and very staunch, serious police types running investigations at the FBI. And I know Hoover was a clown in his own right but at least he put forward an image of being professional and serious. The work they do is some of the most important in terms of the DOJ and national security and these guys (specifically) make the place look like Romper Room. The main clown (gold suit guy) was just hard to listen to to be frank. So you've got this very serious story and situation (in my eyes) and the directors are taking this very light hearted, almost comic angle to how they present it. Which is kind of puzzling. Is this thing a comedy or a documentary? Again, I realize you can look at every story from different angles but this isn't a funny story. It's a tragedy to those who got sucked into it no matter what angle you view it from. So that's a problem: tone. It didn't know what it wanted to be. And in fact, some of the stories are treated very heavily and then it shifts gears back into the comedy angle. So the story itself loses focus and, again, the pacing makes it very slow and boring at times. Without question, this should have been a 90-minute documentary and nothing more. Done with the right director and editor, it could've been a masterpiece…like once in a lifetime story…but as a "series" it is soft and slow and unfocused and kinda hard to set through. The irony of it all? Only the guy at the top (who stole $23 million in money and prizes) did any kind of jail time. So the FBI and DOJ spent what? $20 million on the investigation that lasted years and had a dedicated team of full time agents focused on it. McDobalds launched an entire new game to catch the people and they spent well over $30 million on trying to catch the perps and in the end, thousands of people lost their jobs (at the marketing and printing companies that went out of business) and again, the guy who organized and did it spent 3 years behind bars and pays a little over $300 per month in "restitution." Talk about laugh out loud. This isn't a series about McDonalds, it's literally a docu-series about how white collar crime in America pays and pays well. Anyone who thinks the guy at the top didn't hide probably $5 million of that money doesn't know how it works. I'm the end, if you're not going to punish the people involved (and make no mistake, even the higher level recruiters were laughing in the final episode and having a good old time reminiscing about how they ripped off millions) why spend millions and millions of taxpayer dollars to investigate it all? That's not Justice, no matter how much the FBI thinks it is, if that's justice, just eliminate the white collar crime division for investigations. Seriously. Just let them steal and rob people blind because there ain't an iota of a reason for those people to not do it because there aren't any consequences and no reason for them to even fear being caught. Oh, yeah…back to the series itself: hopefully someone will tell this story in a 90-minute format. At that point, I'll recommend it. See more Read all reviews
McMillion$ — Season 1

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Episodes

Episode 1 Aired Feb 3, 2020 An anonymous tip to FBI agent Doug Mathews speaks of a con surrounding the much-beloved McDonald's Monopoly game and its mysterious mastermind, a man going by the moniker of "Uncle Jerry." Details Episode 2 Aired Feb 10, 2020 Hoping to unmask "Uncle Jerry," the FBI investigates two prominent figures they believe are connected to the scam; Agent Mathews and McDonald's employee Amy Murray pay a visit to a prior winner, who sweats and mumbles as their cameras roll. Details Episode 3 Aired Feb 17, 2020 Frank Colombo reveals how "Uncle Jerry" would sell the winning tickets to his brother, Gennaro "Jerry" Colombo, for a premium; the undercover FBI video crew interviews a winner who tries to obscure the origins of her million-dollar game ticket. Details Episode 4 Aired Feb 24, 2020 Gennaro "Jerry" Colombo lands in the ICU, leading Jerome "Jerry" Jacobson to scout for new recruiters; Dwight Baker and others join the operation; the FBI gathers intel on "Uncle Jerry's" middlemen and ends up tailing Dwight to the airport. Details Episode 5 Aired Mar 2, 2020 Focusing their attention on Dwight Baker, the FBI intercepts a call with "Uncle Jerry" that leads them to capture evidence of a game piece exchange; the FBI works overtime to launch a coordinated cross-country day of indictments. Details Episode 6 Aired Mar 9, 2020 As the trial nears, any of the defendants take plea deals, but George Chandler and others decide to fight to prove their innocence; when Jerome "Jerry" Jacobson takes the stand, the remaining details of how he pulled off his scheme are disclosed. Details
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Season Info

Director
James Lee Hernandez, Brian David Lazarte
Executive Producer
Mark Wahlberg, Stephen Levinson, Archie Gips
Network
HBO
Rating
TV-MA
Genre
Documentary, Crime
Original Language
English
Release Date
Feb 3, 2020