Netflix is adding to its roster of incredible animal features with Gunther’s Millions. But secretly, it’s adding to its true-crime library as well.
WARNING! Spoilers for Gunther’s Millions!
While Netflix’s Gunther’s Millions initially seems like a documentary about the outrageous behavior of the rich and powerful, it’s secretly more of a true-crime show. Netflix has found success with both storytelling formats, and documentaries and true-crime stories are often remarkably similar in their colorful characters and eye-catching premises.
The documentary series supposedly tells the story of how the titular dog, Gunther, inherited a trust fund from his owner, a countess, and how his handler went on to manage that money through Gunther’s descendants. But as the episodes of Gunther’s Millions progress, the show reveals the increasingly bizarre usage of Gunther’s money, eventually digging down to its purpose in producing the potentially dangerous Netflix documentary. Unsurprisingly, the documentary exposes the many inconsistencies in Gunther’s money and the people surrounding him.
Gunther’s Millions Isn’t Really About Gunther The Dog
As must be expected, Gunther’s Millions isn’t meant to focus on Gunther, at least not entirely. Instead, the documentary has to turn its lens toward the people behind him. This is especially true given the impossibility of Gunther VI himself expressing any agency with the money surrounding him; he is only the expression of fully human decisions. For better or worse, Gunther’s role is a catalyst, a plot hook in Gunther’s Millions, while the true depth of the story can be found in why the people surrounding Gunther want to spin the story so that it’s about a dog instead of them. All of this helped it slowly reveal itself as a true-crime story.
While Gunther’s well-being in Gunther’s Millions is important, his role as the figurehead of the documentary is still especially true given the eclectic cast of characters and real people around him. After all, the only way to truly understand Gunther’s situation is by talking to the humans in the room, from his PR executive to his handler, and to know how they got to Gunther’s side and what their role is in dispensing the massive amount of money invested in the dog. All these elements only further add to the true-crime nature of Gunther’s Millions, as the documentary is full of people with plenty to uncover.
Why Gunther’s Millions Focuses More On Its True Crime Aspect
With so much material to work with, much of which is unreliable, Gunther’s Millions quickly diverts from the tone of a bizarre reality show to one of true crime. This is because that is where the true substance and complexity of the documentary lies. After all, with a topic as sensational as a millionaire dog, the true story can’t help but to be missing case details, especially with so much cash involved. As such, Gunther’s Millions has no choice but to become a true-crime documentary, otherwise, it would ignore the undeniable truth that when a story seems too bizarre to believe, it usually is.
