American Vandal was one of Netflix’s exclusive programs, before the streaming service was releasing a new movie or show every single week. Released back in 2017, this mockumentary-style true crime show followed the story of two high school students investigating who was behind an act of vandalism on school property. The setup sounds a bit silly, but it’s undoubtedly one of the best series on Netflix.
For as funny as goofy as it is, American Vandal actually tells a really compelling mystery. The way that the kids gather evidence, perform interviews, and narrow down suspects, it’s true crime in its purest form. What’s insane to me, is that nobody talks about this show!
American Vandal went on to get a second season in 2018, and it rivals the first in quality. Same students, now hired to get to the bottom of a mystery at a new school. It’s brilliant. However, the show got cancelled not too long after the debut of Season 2. Netflix doesn’t release specific numbers, but it was clearly because of a lack of viewership. This still bums me out, because I believe American Vandal had/has the potential to be one of Netflix’s pillar shows, right up there with Stranger Things.
I’d love to see American Vandal get revived, but I don’t even know if that’s possible. Netflix may still hold the rights to the show or something. If not, nobody else must be interested, because the property has been dead quiet for nearly three years. This is one of my biggest problems with Netflix. It’s extremely ruthless in dropping or canceling projects the moment they aren’t hitting viewership quotas. The entire reason that people love Netflix is that it’s a home for projects you typically wouldn’t see pursued by the major studios that operate solely on quarterly earnings and investor demands.
If you haven’t seen American Vandal, I implore you to give it a watch. If you’re into true crime stuff, I’m begging you to check the series out. As someone who’s middling on that kind of stuff, I was in love with the show. Netflix puts out some damn good stuff, but nothing tops American Vandal for me.
