'American Vandal' Season 2

Last year's surprise series American Vandal had me absorbed. I had previously watched Season 1 of Making a Murderer on Netflix back in 2015. American Vandal follows the same documentary style that Making a Murderer used with their wildly successful season, but with a comedic twist. It's funny that Netflix would allow a parody of one of their more popular series, especially so soon.

I thought Making a Murderer was a great series because they really had me rooting for the release of the accused murderers. I was thinking, "Wow I really got manipulated to feel a certain way because of this documentary." Good for you Making a Murderer. I'm sure there were many people who watched it that had the same feeling as I did.

Last year American Vandal Season 1 came out, and the trailer was hilarious. You can obviously tell that they took so much inspiration from the Making a Murderer series. They poke fun at some of the interview methods and directorial styling of Making a Murderer.

Not only did it make fun of the this documentary style, but it seemed like an R-rated comedy. The main character had been accused of vandalizing the school with pictures of a certain male appendage all over the place. They certainly didn’t censor a lot of the risqué dialogue or images. I loved the twists and turns that they did with the season. I didn't see some of the things coming.

Fast forward a year, and the second season is already streaming. I didn't even expect them to make a second season, but the first season was really good so I don't blame them for continuing with the series. They have the same filmmaker characters in this season trying to figure out who did the crime. I'm glad they kept same filmmaker characters for some continuity, albeit small continuity. You definitely don't need to see the first season to get into this one. There’s only a small reference to the first season in the first episode and it’s very short. This season has a story all of its own.

This season, our film sleuths are trying to figure out who vandalized an upper class private school. This time the crime was committed by a character known as the Turd Burglar. It's a very funny premise and, while I didn’t think that they’d top what they did with the first season, this was even more outrageous. The topics and series of events are very topical to what kids of today seem to be experiencing. I like how they set everything up.

They have a pretty good formula. They introduce the problem, then the characters. After the characters are introduced we find their motives and scenarios. I guess that’s the part where you’re supposed to pay close attention, so it can drag for a little but this is where they put their comedic touches to the episodes to keep our attention. There are only eight episodes so they jammed a ton of stuff into this short season.

The real fun part is when we learn of everyone’s relationship with each other. We learn more about them, so we understand how motives change, which this is where all the twists and turns come from. Close to the end of the series, there were some great twists and turns. I hope none of you see it coming, but some of it might be obvious. It had me totally absorbed by the time I reached the last few episodes. Overall, I thought it was a great season. I would give Season 2 of American Vandal an 8 out of 10. Be warned that this series should not be watched while eating. It may make you sick because of the subject matter of the episodes.