Netflix fans have taken to social media to praise a “funny and clever” mockumentary series as an “underrated gem”, five years after it aired.
American Vandal was created as a parody of true crime documentaries, such as Making A Murderer and Serial, which have seen an influx in recent years.
The show follows two students, Sam Ecklund and Peter Maldonad, who are investigating a prank at their school, where someone spray-painted phallic images on teachers’ cars.
Student Dylan Maxwell is expelled from school for the crime, but when evidence comes to light suggesting he is innocent, Sam and Peter begin to delve into the mystery to uncover the true culprit.
In season two, Sam and Peter go to investigate a series of pranks at a Catholic high school, where a mysterious person is adding laxatives to the cafeteria’s lemonade.
Netflix fans have taken to social media to praise a “funny and clever” mockumentary series as an “underrated gem”, five years after it aired.
American Vandal was created as a parody of true crime documentaries, such as Making A Murderer and Serial, which have seen an influx in recent years (shown in photo).
The show follows two students, Sam Ecklund and Peter Maldonad, who are investigating a prank at their school, where someone spray-painted phallic images on teachers’ cars.
The series cleverly satirizes trends typical of classic Netflix documentaries, such as recent hits American Murder: The Family Next Door and American Nightmare, while being hilariously funny and truly compelling.
Sam and Peter unravel the details by conducting interviews, conducting experiments, examining video footage, delving into social media posts, looking at text messages, and even using Snapchat.
The first series premiered in September 2017, the second exactly a year later, and both received critical acclaim, with nominations for a Primetime Emmy and a Critics’ Choice Television Award.
However, in October 2018 Netflix announced that it would cancel the series after two seasons.
Recently, viewers rewatched the show and once again recommended it as one of the platform’s “top five series” while lamenting its cancellation online.
One person tweeted: “I will never understand why Netflix canceled American Vandal,” while another echoed: “American Vandal needs to come back right now.”
A third wrote: “Guys remember American Vandal… I miss that show,” while a fourth added: “Hey @netflix I miss American Vandal. I wish you would do season 3 please!!!”
Someone else praised the series, saying, “I rewatched American Vandal and I truly think this is the most accurate depiction of modern teenagers out there.” criminal how little is said about it in the television canon of the last decade’.
Student Dylan Maxwell is expelled from school for the crime, but when evidence comes to light suggesting he is innocent, Sam and Peter begin to delve into the mystery to uncover the true culprit.
In season two, Sam and Peter go to investigate a series of pranks at a Catholic high school, where a mysterious person is adding laxatives to the cafeteria’s lemonade.
While another gushed: ‘American Vandal on Netflix is a masterpiece. I can not recommend it highly enough. Great research and history.’
A seventh wrote: “Just finished re-watching American Vandal and I’m still convinced it’s one of the top five shows on Netflix.” Still fucking gutted we only have 2 series.
‘Funny, smart, so wonderfully empathetic to teenagers and that time of life. My stomach still hurts from the change from funny to sad at the end.
An eighth wrote: “I did a good deed today (convinced someone who had never seen American Vandal to watch American Vandal)” before adding: “Imagine if Serial had gone all out on a local high school prank.” That was enough of a hook, but of course, I also added that ‘A PEABODY WON!!!’
Another called the show “Netflix’s most criminally underrated movie or series,” while a tenth said: “I can’t believe I watched the entire first season of American Vandal in one sitting, but I had to when it was too good to leave it.”
While someone else lamented: ‘American Vandal was too good for this world and we didn’t deserve it.’
It comes after the show’s creators, Dan Perrault and Tony Yacenda, revealed that they still have hopes for a third season and have even planned out the story.
speaking to Entertainment Weekly Last year, Tony said, “We know what our third season would be and where the show is going.”
The series skillfully satirizes the typical trends of classic Netflix documentaries, while being funny and compelling, using interviews, experiments, video footage, social media posts, text messages, and even Snapchat.
The first series premiered in September 2017, the second exactly a year later and both received critical acclaim, but Netflix canceled it in October 2018.
“It’s something evergreen, so we could come back to it when the time was right and if we felt there was an audience clamoring for it. But the answer is we have a game plan that we’re very excited about.”
Speaking further about making American Vandal, Tony said: “The good thing is that we were doing something that had never been done this way before.
‘By using documentary tools and staying as true to the format as we were doing, it was a little easier to have the confidence to stick to our guns and the rules of our world.
“We knew that even if it doesn’t connect, at least it’s going to be cohesive and it’s going to be unique, at least we’re doing something in the comedy space that’s never been done before.”
“That was the safety net and gave us a little more confidence than we would have if we were just doing a more traditional scripted narrative.”
Dan continued: ‘But we didn’t really know how people would react. It was a really fun trip that people responded to.
“We were doing something a little unusual, but I’m glad we stuck with it and tried. We also thought Vandal would be a much smaller production web series, and I really give credit to our friends at CBS, Funny or Die and 3 Arts who saw it as something bigger.”
Tony added: “And let Netflix roll the dice.” It’s crazy that they gave the go-ahead to this project. “We will be eternally grateful.”
Recently, viewers have rewatched the show and are once again recommending it as one of the platform’s ‘top five series’, while lamenting its cancellation online.