Mike Connolly’s three-part Netflix chronicle opens with 1970s newspaper clips of John Z. DeLorean posing beside his stainless-steel gull-wing coupe, then rewinds to a young engineer tinkering at Chrysler and Pontiac before convincing Britain to bankroll a Belfast factory. Archival network news, internal GM memos and new testimony from colleagues chart how the DMC-12’s launch slipped two years, how DeLorean’s taste for celebrity—Johnny Carson spots, supermodel wives—alienated investors, and how an FBI sting in a Los Angeles hotel room produced 27 pounds of cocaine and a headline that sank the company overnight. Connolly keeps the camera still on contributors such as former DMC publicist Mike Knepper, who recalls the Belfast workforce wiring cars under plastic tents while management fretted over cash flow, and prosecutor Robert Perry, who still calls the $24 million entrapment setup “the only case where the target begged us to take the money.” Composer Paul Leonard-Morgan’s slow-burn synth score undercuts the glamour, letting the contradictions speak: the same man who quoted Ralph Nader on safety once approved a spoiler that cracked at motorway speed. Released on 30 July 2021, the series clocked a perfect 100% Rotten Tomatoes score from seven critics, though the tally itself hints at the niche fascination that keeps DeLorean’s story alive.
Production Details
Netflix / 1 Season / 3 Episodes / 2021
Showrunner(s): Jon-Barrie Waddell, Dan DiStefano, Jonathan Smith
Producer(s): Chris Hegedus
Cinematography: Mark McCauley
Music: Paul Leonard-Morgan
Main Cast
John Z. DeLorean as Self (archive footage)
