“Making a Vandal”

American Vandal: Season One

Network Netflix

Release Date 15 September 2017

Episodes S01E01 ”Hard Facts: Vandalism and Vulgarity”

Created by Dan Perrault and Tony Yacenda, American Vandal is a brand new satirical Netflix series that follows the aftermath of a large-scale high school prank.

Dylan Maxwell (Jimmy Tatro) is a notorious prankster and general idiot, accused of defiling every one of the teacher’s cars in the school’s parking lot by spray painting male genitalia, resulting in his expulsion. Dylan, however, is adamant that he is innocent, despite the scepticism of almost everyone who has ever interacted with him.

A comedy presented as a true crime documentary, American Vandal is the exploration of Dylan’s case, as narrated by lead “investigator,” filmmaker and fellow classmate Peter Maldonado (Tyler Alvarez). Through interviews with teachers, parents and classmates, Peter attempts to piece together the evidence in order to determine whether or not Dylan is guilty of the mass-graffiti attack.

Straight away I knew I’d love this show. It combines so many of my favourite television styles: American Vandal is a mockumentary in the style of Summer Heights High, an amateur school student film reminiscent of Project X, and true crime mystery like any weird show you accidentally stumble upon on the Documentary Channel after midnight (or Netflix’s own true crime series, Making a Murderer).

And it does it all really well. The first episode was funny, engaging and genuinely left you wanting to know who’s to blame. Is Dylan Maxwell really capable of such destruction? And if not, who has gone to so much trouble as to frame him for it?

I can’t wait to see where American Vandal takes us, and I hope the rest of the series is just as good as episode one.