But even with their stated skepticism — the “WeCrashed” opening sequence shows a unicorn’s horn getting pulverized in slow motion — the fictionalized versions suggest that founder-worship will be hard to shake. These TV stories don’t exactly let the disruptors off the hook. Theranos’ Elizabeth Holmes, WeWork’s Adam Neumann and Uber’s Travis Kalanick do commit sins, either legal or psychological — whether by skirting ethics and enabling harassment (Uber), blowing billions in investor capital without a viable business model (WeWork) or lying outright about whether a product even existed (Theranos). But when the series delve inside the founders’ heads, what comes out is often sympathetic — or, at the very least, shifts the blame. In some moments, the characters practically seem like victims themselves: products of a system of money, power and irrational exuberance that steers well-meaning creators down a path of excess, demanding a brand of brashness that becomes self-fulfilling.
Partly, that’s a function of TV: A story needs a protagonist, and a protagonist needs an arc, so a spectacular fall needs to be preceded by an idealistic rise. But partly it’s a signal that we’re all still primed for a con. When charismatic people say they’re changing the world for the better, we still want to believe them.
The first piece of pop culture to treat a tech founder as a bona fide cultural figure may have been “The Social Network,” the 2010…
