Review: American Vandal (Netflix Original) *mild spoilers*

Last month American Vandal was one of the shows I blogged about that was coming out in September that I really wanted to see. I binged it this weekend and so here's what I thought.

First, let me explain what this is on the surface. American Vandal is a mockumentary spoofing the recent multitude of true crime shows (a few more of which are coming to networks this fall). True crime as a genre (across all media) seems to be on the rise, maybe since Ann Rule published The Stranger Beside Me about her friend, serial killer Ted Bundy. Our fascination with true  crime goes much further back, I suppose to when Jack the Ripper was terrorizing Whitechapel, but now with TV and movies, we seem to be reaching a glut in the market. It is, therefore, the perfect time for a parody.

The story is about Dylan Maxwell (Jimmy Tatro). Dylan is not the sharpest crayon in the box. He's continually disruptive in class, and he and his stoner friends make ridiculously awful YouTube videos. He also loves drawing dicks on his Spanish teacher's whiteboard. So when, on a teacher workday, one of the students finds dicks drawn on all 27 cars in the teacher lot, Dylan is automatically blamed and kicked out of school. Some of Dylan's pals on the school's media club/public access channel show decide to look into the matter.

Peter Maldonado (Tyler Alvarez) and his partner Sam (Griffin Gluck) go deep into the case, finding all kinds of evidence that both exonerates and proves Dylan guilty. The entire show is so well made, you really get lost in the narrative. But just in case you forget you're watching a spoof, the creators add just the right touch of comedy to remind you without going overboard and taking you out of the moment (although one 3D animated simulation is almost too funny).

As proof of how good this show is, I watched this with my mom. She loves true crime shows. At first, she asked me, "What is this?" Soon she was laughing along, and by then end she said, "So, who really drew the dicks? Is there another season where they let you know?" It's really easy to get invested, which I feel is the hallmark of a well-made show.

But there's something else going on here. When I read J.K. Rowling's The Casual Vacancy, I spent a lot of time laughing at the characters and their situations,  but somewhere in the middle, Rowling threw a wrench in. She introduced some serious social commentary in such an unobtrusive way. One minute you're laughing, and suddenly you think, "Wait, this isn't funny. This seriously happens to people and it's not a.laughing matter." You wonder to yourself how easy it is to cross a line, a line that, hypothetically at least, you tell yourself you'd never cross, but now you have, and it took no effort. Comedy has a way of teaching us things about life, breaking down borders, and opening our eyes to seeing situations from different viewpoint. It's universal and unifying. After all, we're born knowing how to laugh; we have to be taught to hate and to judge others.

American Vandal operates in the same sort of the vein. What preconceived notions do we have about people around us? What does that say about us? And, more importantly, how does that affect the person we have judged, whether intentionally or not. It may not be everyone's cup of tea, but I hope a lot of people will give it a chance.

It's not at all high-brow, but it's incredibly well made. It's also something that can be binged in less than a weekend. I continue to be impressed with the quality of shows that Netflix is putting out, and I'm really looking forward to what is coming in the next few months.