Ruthless: Monopoly’s Secret History (2023)

Good episode but, despite pointing out that the history of the Monopoly board game is filled with ironies, it failed to note the second greatest irony in the story. The greatest irony, which was noted, is that a game intended as a critique of capitalism turned out out to be a celebration of it. But the second great irony is that the woman who invented The Landlord Game, which later came to be known as Monopoly, was ideologically opposed to monopoles, yet took out a patent for her game to assert her ownership rights — which she later sold to Parker Bros. A patent is a temporary monopoly on intellectual property.

I also thought the program treated Charles Darrow harshly. It’s true that he misrepresented himself as the game’s inventor to Parker Bros., but it’s also true that he made refinements that last until this day and, crucially, successfully commercialized it. There’s are reason’s his version of the game took off while Lizzie Magie’s original did not.