Wanted: The Escape Of Carlos Ghosn is a four-part docuseries directed by James Jones that describes how Ghosn rose to become the CEO of both Nissan and Renault at the same time, then had to surreptitiously escape the Japanese justice system when he was first accused of hiding his compensation, then levied even more serious embezzlement charges.
Opening Shot: We hear the “ding” of an elevator arriving on a floor. A card swipes a hotel room lock. Then we see a wheeled trunk like you might see carrying musical equipment be rolled into the room. Holes are drilled in it.
The Gist: Ghosn, currently living in his home country on Lebanon after escaping from Japan, is interviewed for the series, along with journalists, former Renault and Nissan executives, and some of the people who ended up going on trial in Japan after Ghosn’s escape.
The first episode of the series shows how Ghosn, who was recruited away from Michelin by Renault’s then-CEO Louis Schweitzer, managed to not only turn around the troubled French auto company, but then how he engineered the 1999 alliance with Nissan. The Japanese auto company was near bankruptcy and needed Renault’s cash, but Ghosn vowed to turn the debt-ridden company around in three years. He did so by doing what he did at Renault: Cutting costs, closing factories and laying off thousands of factory workers.
After Nissan’s remarkable recovery, Ghosn was named CEO of the company in 2001; he then took on the CEO position of Renault in 2005. At first it was thought that he was going to only lead both companies temporarily, but he kept both CEO positions; he was especially stretched thin during the 2008 financial crisis, when both companies needed his full attention.
Another issue he was dealing with, as pointed out by Wall Street Journal reporters Sean McLain and Nick Kostov, was that his compensation was becoming a point of contention in both France and Japan, as was the lavish lifestyle Ghosn and his second wife Carole were leading.
In 2018, with a possible merger between Renault and Nissan being considered, Ghosn was arrested in Japan, accused of hiding his total compensation that he reported to regulators.
What Shows Will It Remind You Of? Wanted: The Escape Of Carlos Ghosn reminds us a lot of the docuseries Bad Vegan, especially when it comes to how a once-revered owner/executive escaped justice.
Our Take: The most effective thing James Jones does in Wanted is spend the first three episodes making the case that Carlos Ghosn was the victim of a plot hatched by Nissan and the Japanese government. The first two episodes lay out just how big Ghosn became in Japan after he turned Nissan around, but how his perceived greed and hubris started rubbing the “old boys” at Nissan the wrong way.
All of the ways the country’s ministry of justice tried to get him to talk, like keeping him in solitary confinement, banning him from talking to his wife and family, certainly make it sound like they were plotting against him, especially when the charges seemed to be minor. Ghosn himself makes the case very convincingly.
It’s an effective way of setting up Ghosn’s escape, which was facilitated by a former Green Beret named Mike Taylor. The third episode, where Taylor details how he planned the escape and took Ghosn out of Japan in a wheeled trunk, is the most fascinating of the series.
But the fourth episode shows that Ghosn’s infractions went well beyond simply underreporting his income, and he was accused of funneling money from both Renault and Nissan through a car dealer in Oman back out to shell companies he owns. It also shows how Taylor and his son Peter, plus Nissan HR exec Greg Kelly were subjected to torturous prison time in Japan in the wake of Ghosn’s escape, without much in the way of thanks or acknowledgement from the exiled executive.
What Jones does so well here is that he builds towards the idea that, while Ghosn might still have been a victim of a governmental plot, his hands aren’t clean by any means. It’s a fascinating look at how greed, corporate culture clashes and hubris on both sides have unintentional consequences.
Sex and Skin: None.
Parting Shot: News of Ghosn’s arrest is shown.
Sleeper Star: Carole Ghosn shows lots of determination and strength during her interview segments, where she details how she made her husband’s case in the news media.
Most Pilot-y Line: The reenactments on the series are leaned on a bit too heavily, but are admittedly effective when demonstrating Ghosn’s escape in a trunk that you usually see roadies rolling around backstage at a rock concert.
Our Call: STREAM IT. Wanted: The Escape Of Carlos Ghosn is slightly padded, with a couple of interludes about Ghosn’s family history that don’t connect by the end of the series. But it’s mostly riveting, showing just how Ghosn managed to get the better of the Japanese justice system, for better or for worse.
Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, RollingStone.com, VanityFair.com, Fast Company and elsewhere.