what impresses me most about the creation of “Samalamadingdong” is the operational security. It wasn’t just coordinated embezzlement (though it objectively was that). There were so many different lies told to so many different people, coworkers and friends and family. There were secret slack channels and calendars dual-used alongside Sam-occupied ones. There were blurred Zoom meetings with people smashing plates just offscreen/out of hearing, a long-term secret warehouse rental, a Variety reporter—who presumably had to carefully tell their boss—Sam’s wife, and dozens of cast, crew, and other creatives involved—and yet nobody outside the carefully chosen people knew. Least of all Sam.