American Vandal: REVIEW

Just a quick heads up that some language and images may not be family friendly. Check out the trailer to see what I’m talking about. *cough* dicks *cough*

American Vandal is a 2017 teen mockumentary made by Netflix. Created by Dan Perrault and Tony Yacenda, the show functions as a merging of genres inside the form of a documentary.  What seems like a generic teen comedy gets brought to new heights because of the cast, creators and the work they all put into the show. The main premise of the show is when 27 staff vehicles get defaced with large penises one student is accused. The show takes 8 episodes to investigate the truth behind this accusation and the possible truth within this case.

One of the most interesting parts is the cast, many who if you have watched the Disney Channel in the last 5 – 10 years will see many familiar faces. From Griffin Gluck to G. Hannelius and many others, there is clear talent in the show and possibly these are the best few that are finally rising to the top, away from the Disney Channel. It clearly follows Netflix’s recent trend of having a large part of their original content catered towards teens and youth. But the depth that comes from the beautiful shallow depth cinematography and the way this fake tale has been told puts you in the driver’s seat. They fasten the seatbelt and take you along for the ride with the cast to reveal the truth.

While I feel the content is comical and there are certain times whether it be through looks toward the camera or coincidental events the humor comes through over the top. A number of dick jokes are just inevitable and you would be right to think that they had to put them in. Aside from that, there is a clear comedy that rises above the base levels and provides smart and intelligent laughter amongst all of the genitalia. The show has levels of The Thin Blue Line and Freaks and Geeks, the combination of the intense documentary as well as the teen aspects makes this feel like an extended episode of something like Documentary Now!. While this may be seen as a good thing I feel it goes further in offering a new view of the contemporary high school. The new high school where everyone is hiding something and willing to do anything for their moment in the spotlight.

The intense spotlight is akin to what is shown on the youth of today. The pressure to be ever present is obvious and with the inclusion of so much cell phone video for evidence and proof it is clear that is not what content you have but how you use. I’m sure that anyone involved with content creation will tell you the best type of video is landscape instead of the portrait but in this modern day of Snapchat and Instagram stories that is not always the case. Now it is more important to have good content instead of how it is made and the combination in the show of awesome footage with cell phone video marries the two in a truly modern TV show.

Give it a chance. You can find it on Netflix here. There are only 8 episodes and on average they are about 30 minutes long. It’s a fun binge with a couple really good episodes and amazing cliffhangers for most episodes. Even though it feels cliche it definitely is very enjoyable.