Oftentimes when listening to one of the dozens of excellent investigative podcasts I struggle to commit to, I’ll think, “this would make a great TV show.” When watching “McMillions,” a documentary series premiering on HBO Monday night, mostly I thought, “this would make a great podcast.”

The story is wild: The McDonald’s Monopoly game, for some reason beloved in the 1980s and ’90s, was rigged. Players were supposed to collect peel-off tickets and either amass properties à la the board game or find instant winners, but a sprawling F.B.I. investigation uncovered the ludicrous scam in which a security officer for the marketing company that oversaw the production of the game pieces secretly snatched the winning pieces and distributed them — for a fee — to friends, family and eventually acquaintances.

Given its total lack of visual interest, though, I’m not sure why this is a six-part TV documentary. What are the slow shots of present-day McDonald’s restaurants meant to evoke? Why is the same b-roll footage of a “Monopoly Is Back” marquee shown multiple times?

That blandness adds nothing, but it’s the hazy re-enactment footage that actively hurts “McMillions.” Images of the backs of F.B.I. agents sitting at their desks do not enrich the story, and perhaps viewers could be trusted to know what an envelope looks like. If the feds actually put together one of those crazy-wall bulletin boards, I’d love to see it or hear what was on it — because the one in the re-creation includes a Post-it note that reads “HOW’S HE DOING IT?” Yes, one could call that the million-dollar question.