Fun
Frisky
Nostalgic
Intense
Adventurous
Choked Up
Curious
Romantic
Weird
Who drew the dicks? Get used to wondering this question out loud and in your head, as it’s the only thing you’ll be thinking about as soon as you dive into American Vandal. The new Netflix original series, available today, is a true crime satire that sets out to discover who drew penises on 27 cars in the faculty parking lot at California high school, while simultaneously subverting the genre we’ve all become obsessed with.
Oh, and it is 100% Netflix’s best original series of the year. Yes, a show about dicks. Because it’s not just about the dicks. In genuine true crime fashion, it’s about the justice system. In this case, the system is that of Hanover High School, and aspiring documentarian and student Peter Maldonado (Tyler Alvarez) sets out to determine if class clown and leading suspect Dylan Maxwell (Jimmy Tatro), as dumb as he is endearing, really did draw the dicks.
American Vandal is everything you want a true crime series to be: highly addictive, incredibly thorough, and absolutely hilarious. While continuously taking the case at hand seriously, the series injects humor in places you never, ever knew a crime could use it, even if the crime is about 27 spray-painted dick drawings. The lack of pretentiousness here due to the absurdity of the crime is precisely what makes this case tick along so effectively. Sure, the crime is utterly ridiculous and nothing a paint job couldn’t fix. But there are repercussions: it would cost $100,000 to fix, and Dylan’s education, reputation, and relationship are all on the line, and staying in line with the genre at large, he deserves justice. American Vandal attempts to achieve this by interviewing students, faculty, and parents to get to the bottom of this case, examining everything from alibis, time stamps, and ball hairs in the process.
Perhaps it is due to the low stakes (i.e. no murders involved) that viewers will be even more invested in solving the crime for themselves, examining all motives, and paying extra close attention to exactly what was going on in those Snapchat videos of the central party. No other Netflix show released this year will keep you as hooked as American Vandal, and short of your grandparents, unless they have a particularly juvenile sense of humor, there are few people that won’t recognize and enjoy the fun of this series. Just as young adults gobbled up Stranger Things last year and 13 Reasons Why this past spring, they’ll be hooked on this half-hour series that contains elements of both: a mystery to be solved with a fresh, young cast.
It should also be noted that this is perhaps the most fair and accurate portrayal of high school students in some time. They aren’t just giggling, moody teens, they’re smart and nuanced and technologically savvy. The outlines of cliques are there, but with social media, and much of their focus on the case at hand, the lines are much more blurred than The Breakfast Club crew would ever believe.
Just when you think every suspect and theory has been exhausted, a new clue reveals itself; a lie, a tweet or a new phallic drawing is discovered. Maybe it’s because you’ll be so excited to get to the end, but if there’s a fault at all within this show, it’s that each of the 8 episodes should be a bit tighter and closer to the 30-minute mark, rather than hovering around 35 minutes each.
American Vandal is the most fun binge-watch you’ll experience this year: partly because most people are managing their expectations appropriately, and also because you’ll be voluntarily watching a show about a bunch of dicks drawn on cars. That is inherently, objectively funny. Yet American Vandal never lets the comedy take away from the investigation, which is what makes it so intense, legit, and gripping. It’s intricate in places it doesn’t have to be, only adding to how compelling it remains. Yes, there is penis talk, but the show is flat-out well done. There’s no escaping it, but there is much enjoying it.
The thing about American Vandal is not just that it is the best original Netflix series of the year, it is the embodiment of everything Netflix is. It’s a program that is entertaining, utterly binge-able, and essentially the reason we all signed up for Netflix in the first place. It’s the perfect show to spend your time on, and subsequently discuss with your IRL and online pals. Because after all, we need to know, who drew the dicks?
