WeCrashed Review: This is Where It Begins / Masha,Masha,Masha / Summer Camp (Season 1 Episodes 1-3)
In the era of grifters, corporate swindlers, and fraudsters on television, Apple TV+ enters the arena with WeCrashed, the story of WeWork’s rise and catastrophic fall from grace, and the man at the center of it all, Adam Neumann.
The first three episodes of WeCrashed do a particularly excellent job of setting the scene for what’s to come starting at the end, jumping back to see more of the past. From Adam Neumann’s origins of his grifting ways with his ability to sell everyone on the delusion to his romance with Rebekah Neumann (nee Paltrow) and her similar ways.
“This is Where It Begins” sets the foundations for a core trio of characters, Adam, Rebekah, and WeWork co-founder Miguel McKelvey. Born of a series of workshopped pitches in a business class presentation, Adam can sell Miguel on the idea of communal working, tapping into their shared communal living experiences.
Even though you know that Miguel ends up co-founder of the company, you feel sorry for him for how Adam leaves him to do the arduous work. From building the prospectus overnight in “This is Where it Begins” to building out the space in “Masha, Masha, Masha,” the writers expertly juxtapose both moments with Adam sleeping peacefully or playing innovator.
Jared Leto plays Adam Neumann as an insufferable serial manipulator who will do whatever he needs to get what he wants while touting “community” at the center of his “next big thing.”
From the first three episodes, it’s clear that the show isn’t holding back on their characterization while not necessarily picking a side on the matter, though it might be too early to tell.
By “Summer Camp,” you can’t help but marvel at how easily everyone’s fallen under Adam’s spell. It offers a look into how we are seemingly deifying these start-up CEOs and elevating them to this god-like entity, something WeCrashed references in passing when Adam and Miguel are building out the GreenDesk/WeWork space.
Anne Hathaway’s Rebekah Neumann offers a complex portrayal of a woman determined to reach her goals but is stifled by the men around her while watching them expecting her to help them achieve theirs.
We get small glimpses into her upbringing and ambitions in “Masha, Masha, Masha” and “Summer Camp,” from her father’s previous fraud conviction and the one he was dealing with in the present timeline to losing her brother to cancer.
These moments are juxtaposed to when Rebekah shows off her petty, vindictive, self-centered sides best shown on “Summer Camp.” She ultimately makes that listening session about her, choosing to ignore all the women’s valid complaints of the toxic work environment.
It’s easy to sympathize with her in her dark moments, but her reactive choices out of it undo all of it. It’s what makes Hathaway’s portrayal engaging.
The tagline says a “love story worth $47 billion,” and leaving the first three episodes feels that no one else in the world could probably tolerate their personalities like each other.
The pair both know who they are and their flaws. But instead of pushing each other to change and be better, they both inflate their own sense of self in a way that does the world around them no favors.
Considering we all know how this story ends, it will be interesting to see how they continue to build on the heels of “Summer Camp.”
What did you think of this episode of WeCrashed? Share your thoughts in the comments below!
Critic Rating:
User Rating:
A new episode of WeCrashed drops Fridays on AppleTV+.
Follow us on Twitter and on 
Instagram!
Want more from Tell-Tale TV? Subscribe to our newsletter here!
Brianna Martinez
Brianna spends her time away from briefs, legal research, and pleadings, watching TV and writing about it. She generally has a lot of feelings about TV, which you can read about here and on Twitter.