Netflix’s Fyre and Hulu’s Fyre Fraud come at the same topic in different ways. One is better. Fyre Festival was the ur-grifter scheme. But the real losers weren’t rich millennials.

...I think the grifter archetype is cousin to the celebrity outlaw, another figure long mythologized both by media reports and by Hollywood: Think of Jesse James, Butch Cassidy, Bonnie and Clyde, John Dillinger, Baby Face Nelson. They were the subjects of ballads and breathless newspaper stories in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, folk heroes to millions who rooted for them even when they were violent and ruthless — quintessential American antiheroes.

Why root for those who rob? You could look to Robin Hood for answers, but you’d only get so far; Robin Hood, at least, was turning around and giving away what he stole. Celebrity outlaws and celebrity grifters keep it all for themselves....

...And yes, this strategy will be familiar to anyone who’s observed President Donald Trump, whose history of cons and grifts is well-documented (The Dream also points to his history of profiting from marketing MLM schemes). He seems to surround himself with con men too; my personal favorite is former Environmental Protection Agency head Scott Pruitt, whom the Ringer crowned the “grifter king.” For many, the appeal of Trump is that he appears to stick it to whoever it is they don’t like, a reputation that has helped him get ahead for decades.

And so the schadenfreude that powered the jubilation over the Fyre Festival meltdown — as fun as it all was — has its ickier sides, mostly because the rejoicing over whoever got what was coming to them has tended to crowd out those who couldn’t afford to get hurt but did anyhow. That’s not really a millennial thing. Americans rooted for John Dillinger even when he killed innocent people, and got excited when “rich millennials” and Instagram influencers got conned by Billy McFarland. Hulu’s Fyre Fraud leans into that instinct and revels in their downfall. What Netflix’s Fyre does especially well is remind us that there’s not really anything funny about it.