10 Tech Disasters That Would Make Excellent Streaming Shows
One of the hottest topics for prestige TV these days is the foibles and failures of what were once world-changing tech startups. Showtime has Super Pumped, about Uber. Hulu has The Dropout about Theranos. This month sees the debut of WeCrashed on Apple TV+, chronicling the meteoric rise and fall of office-space-sharing company WeWork. But what other tech company sagas are ripe for dramatic reinterpretations? Here are our picks for 10 tech sagas ripped from the headlines.
Crowdfunding has created a world where all kinds of big ideas can become reality if enough people buy into them. But it also created a bunch of scams and frauds. One of the most notorious projects of all time is the Triton, advertised as the world’s first “artificial gills” that would let people extract oxygen from water and swim submerged for extended periods of time. This isn’t scientifically possible yet, and the initiative collapsed under scrutiny shortly after it submerged. Watching the inventors frantically try to get their product to work while contending with journalists and infuriated backers would be a fun show.
Competing in the cell phone market seems like a fool’s errand, but companies keep on stepping up to the plate and trying it. One of the most notorious in recent history is Saygus, a Utah-based company who claimed to be right on the verge of releasing a revolutionary new mobile device up until the US Attorney’s Office charged its CEO, Chad Sayers, with fraud. Sayers managed to get more than $10 million from investors, which he allegedly used for all kinds of wild personal expenses. Watching people frantically try to hide their misdeeds is great TV, as watchers of shows like Ozark know, so the Saygus saga is ripe.
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