Bernie Madoff’s Ponzi scheme and his conviction continue to fascinate the public even though the context in which he disclosed his fraud—the 2008 housing crisis—does not hold the same level of public interest after a few years. An examination of a documentary and a fictionalised TV movie revealed that the story about Madoff has a universal appeal because it can be told without the audience’s knowledge of the crisis. In addition, an examination of documentaries about the crisis had to use characters’ personal traits to appeal to the audience’s emotions. The use of male characteristics to explain a crisis ignored structural problems in financialised capitalism.