The dick joke-fueled mockumentary American Vandal is a refreshing take on true crime. It plays off the frenzy around real-life murder mystery series like Making a Murderer, Serial, and The Jinx, with a more lighthearted version of the genre. More importantly, it envisions the documentary process in more modern terms, creating a future where platforms like Snapchat or Instagram become tools of record for would-be detectives.
Tony Yacenda and Dan Perrault’s spoof focuses on fictional high school students, as the team was heavily inspired by interviews with real-life teenagers. The Netflix series follows an ambitious filmmaker named Peter Maldonado (Tyler Alvarez), who’s investigating an incident where 27 faculty cars were spray-painted...
