S01.E02: The Devil Wore Anna

[Whimsy]

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From a yacht off Ibiza to a suite at Paris Fashion Week, Anna's glamorous lifestyle comes into focus as her former friends dish out details to Vivian.

 

[peridot]

It's pretty creepy how Anna manipulates to get her way.  At first I thought it kind of her to have her boyfriend's back with his app, but then I saw how messed up their relationship was.  I can't believe they somehow got their way back onto the yacht after leaving with everyone else.

Val still seems to admire Anna, which is odd.  The way Anna and Chase treated him in Paris was terrible.

[Melina22]

2 episodes in and I'm absolutely loving this show. At first, I was really thrown off by the way they've changed the actual story, having read the book and watched the documentary, but now I'm happy to just go with it. 

Julia is fantastic as Anna. My favourite thing about Anna Schlumskie is the way she still has her real face. So mobile and expressive. I love it. 

Gorgeous scene in the guest cottage - it made you feel and smell what being ultra-rich is like, in a way most shows don't. I'd love to stay there. 

I'm going to have a hard time not binging the whole series this weekend. 

I want a wardrobe that's nothing but gorgeous caftans! Failing that, I'll settle for a week on that yacht. 

[Stan39]

I’m out. I guess the scene on the balcony with Chase was supposed to be her “Braveheart” scene. The scene where Anna rallies Chase to her vision and convinces him to follow her into hell with her, but it was just so flat and uninspired. She wants to be an art influencer? That’s her big goal that sucks people into her orbit? This scene, combined with the yacht scene where rich people constantly fawn over how supposedly amazing she is, while she’s not actually all that interesting, is just painful to watch. 
 

I feel like this is one example of how even crowdsourcing these scripts would have led to better writing and decisions that what this is. Rich, world touring, New York socialites get scammed and want revenge while also not being publicly embarrassed. Somehow Netflix made that boring and plain. 

[SoTheresThat]

9 hours ago, Melina22 said:

2 episodes in and I'm absolutely loving this show. At first, I was really thrown off by the way they've changed the actual story, having read the book and watched the documentary, but now I'm happy to just go with it. 

Julia is fantastic as Anna. My favourite thing about Anna Schlumskie is the way she still has her real face. So mobile and expressive. I love it. 

Gorgeous scene in the guest cottage - it made you feel and smell what being ultra-rich is like, in a way most shows don't. I'd love to stay there. 

I'm going to have a hard time not binging the whole series this weekend. 

I want a wardrobe that's nothing but gorgeous caftans! Failing that, I'll settle for a week on that yacht. 

Would you please share the name of the book and the documentary, I'd love to read and watch.  I've googled, but I can't find the book.  Thanks!

[Melina22]

The book is called My Friend Anna, by Rachel Williams. I assume she's the Rachel in this episode. The whole thing at the Paris hotel where Anna can't pay for the room and she and Val get locked out actually happened to Rachel when she was staying at a fancy hotel in Morocco with Anna and friends. Long story short, Rachel got stuck with the whole cost and it ruined her financially, at least temporarily. 

I can't remember where I saw the documentary. It might have been Dateline or 20/20. I can't remember. But I'm sure there's lots on youtube. 

 

[nenya]

11 hours ago, Melina22 said:

I want a wardrobe that's nothing but gorgeous caftans! Failing that, I'll settle for a week on that yacht. 

Yes! watching this episode, I was trying to figure out if I could do my zoom meetings in a kaftan. Maybe the fact that I have to work excludes me from the kaftan-for-meeting group. 

Kudos to the costume team, from the outfits to the jewelry and accessories. 

[bilgistic]

I told my boyfriend I was going to start "swanning about in caftans," and he was very confused.

I would look like a circus tent.

[Whimsy]

2 hours ago, SoTheresThat said:

Would you please share the name of the book and the documentary, I'd love to read and watch.  I've googled, but I can't find the book.  Thanks!

 

1 hour ago, Melina22 said:

The book is called My Friend Anna, by Rachel Williams. I assume she's the Rachel in this episode. The whole thing at the Paris hotel where Anna can't pay for the room and she and Val get locked out actually happened to Rachel when she was staying at a fancy hotel in Morocco with Anna and friends. Long story short, Rachel got stuck with the whole cost and it ruined her financially, at least temporarily. 

I can't remember where I saw the documentary. It might have been Dateline or 20/20. I can't remember. But I'm sure there's lots on youtube. 

 

I think it was Dateline or 20/20 too. I started a threads to discuss the show vs real events. I’d love to learn more about what actually happened vs what the show “made up” 

[MaggieG]

On 2/12/2022 at 5:00 PM, SoTheresThat said:

Would you please share the name of the book and the documentary, I'd love to read and watch.  I've googled, but I can't find the book.  Thanks!

There is also a pretty good podcast on her called Fake Heiress 

[Melina22]

I'll check it out! 

[SlovakPrincess]

Vivian is just the absolute worst.   Stomping into a lawyer's office and demanding that he "team up" with you and give you information about the defense of his client?    Lady, you are not Anna's lawyer and not within the attorney-client privilege, why the fuck would he share anything with you??  You are a journalist!  Neither he nor his client should even be talking to you right now! 

And why do the nice older writers have to do her job for her, scouring Instagram for her when she should have thought of that herself?  Like they don't have their own work to do?

Is the goal of this show to make me hate Vivian more than Anna?  

On a positive note, I enjoy the group of older writers banished to the "Scriberia" section of New Yorker ... I mean, Manhattan magazine.  I would rather watch a show about them, the caftan mogul lady, and Val and Nora's unusual relationship.  

[CeeBeeGee]

On 2/15/2022 at 10:12 PM, SlovakPrincess said:

On a positive note, I enjoy the group of older writers banished to the "Scriberia" section of New Yorker ... I mean, Manhattan magazine.

It's not New Yorker, it's New York Magazine. They even kept the title font.

[PRgal]

Nitpicking a bit on the Starbucks cups featured around 29:40 - I'm pretty sure they don't use flap lids, not even for cups that are used at offices that have Starbucks machines.  At least I've NEVER seen flap lids there.  

[Armchair Critic]

Did her friend who went to visit her in prison change her mind and not go in? It cut off and showed the reporter visiting her.

[peachmangosteen]

6 hours ago, Armchair Critic said:

Did her friend who went to visit her in prison change her mind and not go in? It cut off and showed the reporter visiting her.

That's what I assumed but I thought that was a weird way of editing that sequence. They should have made it clearer.

[aradia22]

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This scene, combined with the yacht scene where rich people constantly fawn over how supposedly amazing she is, while she’s not actually all that interesting, is just painful to watch. 

I felt the writers there. And yes, it was cringe. 

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Gorgeous scene in the guest cottage - it made you feel and smell what being ultra-rich is like, in a way most shows don't. I'd love to stay there. 

They stepped up the locations. The lighting is still bad but I'm satisfied with having some things look expensive. I did think Vivian getting sucked into the glamorous life was a cliche I didn't need. Hopefully they don't keep going in that direction.

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Val still seems to admire Anna, which is odd.  The way Anna and Chase treated him in Paris was terrible.

I have seen this same rather pathetic gay best friend character before... down to the bad relationship with his mother. I don't like him being recycled here. The actor is doing what he can but it's a disappointing choice from the writers. Actually, a series of disappointing choices.

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Kudos to the costume team, from the outfits to the jewelry and accessories. 

I can tell that everything is not expensive, but they're trying and I respect that. 

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On a positive note, I enjoy the group of older writers banished to the "Scriberia" section of New Yorker ... I mean, Manhattan magazine.  I would rather watch a show about them, the caftan mogul lady, and Val and Nora's unusual relationship.  

The more I watch this show, the more I wish it were following other characters. I would also watch all these other shows.