Fun
Frisky
Nostalgic
Intense
Adventurous
Choked Up
Curious
Romantic
Weird
You wouldn’t expect a show with almost a thousand dicks in it to also be capable of packing a dramatic punch, but Netflix’s true crime mockumentary American Vandal ended up being a lot more than just 8 episodes of dick jokes. The show parodied recent juggernauts of the genre like Serial and Making a Murderer, from the intimidatingly artsy opening credits to the use of an in-over-his-head everyman investigator. And just like those cultural phenomenons, American Vandal created characters that felt super real (even if the story is fiction and every single one of them is an actor). Still, American Vandal proved that a mockumentary can be just as engrossing as a documentary, and that a show that’s ostensibly a comedy can also deliver drama.
So let’s talk about Mackenzie Wagner. Camille Ramsey plays Mack, the girlfriend of accused vandal Dylan Maxwell (Jimmy Tatro). Her presence on the show flies under the radar for the first six episodes, as she drifts in and out of the investigation, usually popping up to make out with Dylan or accompany him on his Postmates runs (and also score some free fries). Mack wasn’t a showy character, and I appreciated Ramsey’s approach. As a hardcore gamer and make out buddy of a juvenile prankster, Mack could have easily been played like a loudmouthed burnout (think Busy Philipps in Freaks & Geeks). Her chill presence was welcome in the midst of Dylan’s showboating and Peter’s (Tyler Alvarez) purity.
And then we get to Season 1’s penultimate episode, “Climax.” Everything we know about Mackenzie blows up in one episode, and in one scene particular. At this point–SPOILER ALERT, BTW–Peter thinks he’s solved the mystery (#WhoDrewTheDicks) and he has evidence pinning the whole thing on Mack. It turns out that Coach Rafferty dated Mack’s mom, thus keeping her parents from reconciling. Peter realizes that that would give Mack motive to trash Rafferty’s office and start a dick spray painting spree on his car, and her alibi was weak. So Peter confronts Mack about it, and shit gets real.
21 minutes into Episode 7, Mack drops the chill facade and shows her soul, without saying hardly anything at first. Peter runs through his theory, the camera slowly zooms in on Mack’s face, and her entire world caves in. Her eyes go pink, her mouth quivers, and then she lets out a snarl of a speech tearing into Peter and his reckless quest. As her eyes fill with tears, she calls him out for ruining people’s lives with his documentary and then sizes him up as an insecure dweeb just looking to finally matter. It’s a powerful moment, one that ranks up there as one of the best dramatic performances all year. And it happened in a mockumentary about spray painted dicks.
What’s even more astonishing is that this is Ramsey’s first major role, and only the third thing on her IMDb page. So, like, this is where she’s starting from? Crying on command and careening from vulnerable to vindictive while spitting out a speech that deserves to become a staple of auditions for years and years to come? Watch out, world, because Camille Ramsey is here, and she is not playing around.
