However appealing the notion that the "American Dream" remains strong, particularly to North American audiences, "Undercover Billionaire" feels completely fabricated, unauthentic and seriously flawed on numerous occasions.
Who manages to sleep (and survive?) in a car wearing only the slimmest of winter jackets when the temperature outside is less than 30 degrees F.? Who runs a car engine for hours without running out of fuel?
Glenn rented an apartment and signed 2 leases for restaurant premises. He would have had to provide personal identification in each situation, thus disclosing his name. The same would have applied for using the small development business centre.
Glenn wouldn't have been able to buy a house and get a mortgage using a false identity, which would have been criminal. Obtaining a mortgage without disclosing one's real name is also fraudulent and any mortgage company would have required personal information disclosing who he really is and his net worth. The later would have made obtaining a mortgage very easy, but I'm very dubious about the very short amount of time it took to buy the house considering the legal and mortgage documentation required. Why didn't he carry out a survey that would have identified the mould problem is another question mark for me, especially when he states that he is an experienced property owner.
If the Underdog BBQ business was incorporated, he would have had to disclose his personal information to someone at some point in time, especially if he ended up being an officer of that company.
Glenn is seen signing cheques ... Was that with a fake signature and thus fraudulent?
And, what about the alcohol license for the restaurant. How did this happen so quickly?
One of the members of the Underdog BBQ team tells a colleague of hers that his research skills on the Internet are poor because he wasn't able to find out who Glenn was. Surprise, surprise! It took me 3 minutes to find a lot about Gleen using a few basic search words in Google and 3 different approaches (each excluding "Underdog" and "BBQ", and one excluding "TV show"). Glenn's personal website was very easy to find.
Glenn is clearly very experienced in business, articulated, structured, well-spoken, charismatic and at ease in front of the camera which, combined, are not traits of your average person.
I find it strange that some of the participants where willing to put their livelihoods and jobs on the line for Glenn, without knowing or at least hoping that there was an opportunity lurking in the background.
Finally, being followed by a camera crew and production staff usually gives a hint to people that something is not normal.
In short, despite its feel-good factor and interesting key learning points about starting and running a business, "Undercover Billionaire" feels fake, unrealistic and completely manipulated to prove a point. In that, it's more a dream than the American Dream.
