Review:  Once again — and unfortunately — ‘Madoff’ proves a lure that’s difficult to resist

I remember the day the Bonnie and Clyde “death car” came to my hometown. Bedecked with lurid headlines, the trailer truck that held it sat in the rural Maryland parking lot in front of Leggett’s department store for days, and none of my friends could talk of much else. The number of bullet holes, the traces of blood, the pictures in the “historical exhibit.”

But I never got to see it. No matter how much we begged, my brother and I were not allowed to go. Bonnie and Clyde were just a couple of murderous thugs who stole other people’s money, my father said. There was nothing thrilling or romantic about their brutish lives or deaths; could anyone even name all the people they killed?

That death car has come to mind a lot in recent weeks. Less than 10 years after chicanery on Wall Street nearly destroyed the U.S. economy, daring day traders, brilliant hedge fund kings and, occasionally, the people who attempt to control them once again fill our screens with plenty of high-flying if not bullet-pocked thrills.

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“The Big Short,” “Billions” and now two versions of Ponzi schemer Bernie Madoff — an upcoming HBO movie and an ABC mini-series — all have cautionary-tale elements. But the appeal of their stars make it tough not to root for them, even when the characters they play are ruthless or corrupt, even when we know their success means ruin for many others.

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“Madoff,” which premieres on ABC Wednesday night, is a fine example of the new “so bad it’s good” high-finance drama. It may be named for a man, but it’s the story of a con; the presence of Richard Dreyfuss, clearly having a terrific time doing terrible things, makes it both enjoyable and morally ambiguous.

With a twinkle in his eye and gravel in his voice, Dreyfuss’ Madoff is all canny charm and insider information. In less than a minute his Madoff explains what he did and how he did it. By creating a facade of exclusivity, the faux fund manager seduced people into giving them their money, which he purported to invest for a remarkably high return. In reality, Madoff simply used new investors to pay old investors, which worked as long as no one withdrew all of their money.

This is exactly what they began doing, of course, during the financial crisis of the mid-2000s. The scheme collapsed, thousands of people realized they had been defrauded, and Madoff landed in jail.

“Madoff” attempts to tell this story but only when it’s not breathlessly admiring the con. Working from a book by ABC correspondent Brian Ross, director Raymond De Felitta and screenwriter Ben Robbins are as overly fascinated with the reality of Madoff’s business as investors were with the illusion.

Like some modern-day version of “The Sting,” scene after scene pays homage to the near satiric dimensions of the process. While Madoff and his wife, Ruth (Blythe Danner, shamelessly underused until the end), wine and dine at five-star restaurants and their sons work in the gleaming fund offices, the real work is being done in a dim, smoke-filled office on the 17th floor by book cooker Frank DiPascali, played by Michael Rispoli in full “Sopranos” mode, down to the eggplant parm references.

Any shot at character insight — why Madoff did what he did, how he justified stealing from pension funds, charities and his own employees, how he thought it would end — is left almost exclusively to Dreyfuss. An actor of tremendous theatrical agility, he combines personal warmth and professional ruthlessness to give us a man who feels owed, who is burdened only by anxiety and only when it becomes clear that he cannot outmaneuver the failing market.

A classic charming crook, in other words. Easy enough to root for except that he was a real man who did despicable things — who cares if his back hurts so much he has to lay down a lot?

“Madoff” does.

Although Elie Wiesel and other charities get a mention, most of the victims portrayed are snooty rich folk who seem to deserve what they get. An antagonist is introduced in Harry Markopolos (Frank Whaley), a rumpled, scowling math whiz who recognizes the fraud early on and attempts to sound an alarm that no one wants to hear (the best and most excruciating bit of the series involves an absurdly lax federal investigation), but he is a gadfly character at best. Madoff’s older son cannot understand why his father does not trust him with the inner workings of the business, but he comes off as petulant and spoiled.

As Madoff’s younger brother, Peter Scolari briefly reveals the pain of knowing complacency, but only Ruth is allowed to embody Madoff’s betrayal. (A few clips of actual victims tacked on at the end feels dutiful to the point of cynical.)

Unfailingly exquisite, Danner gives a performance in the last half-hour that offers a glimpse of what “Madoff” could have been if the script had been less infatuated with the romance of the con and more interested in its human cost.

Like too many tales out of Wall Street, “Madoff” treats money the same way its main character did — as something to be charmed from the ethers for narrative purposes. The numbers Madoff and the characters in “Billions” or “The Big Short” talk about are so large they seem to have no meaning. Except that they do. And when so many people struggle in near and actual poverty, the stranger-than-fiction enjoyment of high-market theft should be as troubling as the hero worship of Bonnie and Clyde.

Twitter: @marymacTV

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‘Madoff’

Where: ABC

When: 8 p.m. Wednesday and Thursday

Rating: TV-PG-LS (may be unsuitable for young children with advisories for coarse language and sex