Melissa Cadick was a self-styled financial advisor, who swindled her clients out of millions of Australian dollars. She disappeared when the financial authorities started to investigate her; then her shoe, still containing her foot, washed up on a beach. It sounds like it should make a good story; but many con tricks are really very simple, the con artist might tell a sophisticated story of how they're going to make a lot of money, but the actual con is simply to tell the tale and pocket the cash. The mystery associated with her disappearence is effectively solved by the discovery of a body part: it's overwhelmingly likely she jumped off a cliff (and that the rest of her corpse was eaten by sharks). This dramatised account of her life doesn't even offer us insights into how she got away with it for so long: the Melissa we see isn't particuarly clever, or charming, merely pushy. The series tries to keep things interesting by hinting at an alternative narrative, one in which Melissa gets away with it (or at least, does so at the expense of one foot), before effectively conceding that there's no evidence to support such a theory. There's not much to take away other than the message that humans can be greedy; and if you didn't know that already, well, Melissa would have sold you an investment plan in a thrice.
Review of Underbelly: Vanishing Act
