I was immediately interested in "American Vandal" since the very first announcement, a satirical true-crime series airing on Netflix trying to find the truth behind a recent vandalism plaguing the parking lot of a small Colorado high school. At first glance, "American Vandal" seems like something that would work as a short video sketch and then wear out its welcome. Because of this, there was some skepticism to see how long they could play this joke out and they smartly set it at just 8 episodes, each 30 minutes long.

Banking on the success of "Making a Murderer," and "The People V. OJ Simpson," "American Vandal" takes all the tropes that make a good true crime story and flip it on its head, telling a compelling suspenseful story about a mystery inside of a high school. On March 15, 2016, all the cars in the faculty parking lot of this high school were vandalized, spray-painted penises on the side of each vehicle. The school immediately has a suspect, but two kids Peter and Sam set out to film a documentary trying to figure out the truth behind it.

"American Vandal" does everything a true crime series accomplishes, one-on-one interviews, mapped layouts of crime scene locations and computer-generated re-enactments of crimes. They play it all so straight which immediately makes it funny, or at the very least, interesting to watch unfold. There are plenty of plot twists throughout the 8 episodes, leaving you guessing who really spray painted the dicks.

A negative I have to give to "American Vandal" is that they replay certain clips way too many times. There are some moments in the documentary that are important and referred back to in a later episode to clear up some confusion and mystery, these parts are fine in my opinion but there are quite a few times where they’ll play a clip of someone saying the same exact line that they delivered just in the last episode. It seems a bit excessive, like an attempt to pad out the runtime by reusing clips.

All the twists and turns that "American Vandal" takes makes a really effective Netflix binge-watch. Each episode ends with a valid question being raised on the identity of the vandal. It also adds humor with each new revelation in the case: the amount of ball hairs being inconsistent, the style of how the “tip” is drawn, etc. Rather than following a murder case that could end with prison time or even the death sentence, "American Vandal" creates a suspenseful mystery where the only real punishment is expulsion from a high school. The stakes are much lower than in a show like "Making a Murderer" but since it’s presented with the same seriousness and tone makes for a great satire.

I’m not going to be writing about who exactly drew the dicks and why in this review for obvious reasons. Figuring out the suspects, the locations, possible motives and/or alibis is the whole thrill of the show. I can guarantee that there’ll be at least two times where you change your mind on who the vandal is. American Vandal tells such a great story utilizing only established shots of the school and its parking lot, Snapchat stories, archived Instagram posts, text messages, and interviews

I was surprised by how into the story I was, some characters are unlikeable enough for you to hope they were the vandal while some characters are so likable that you wouldn’t even imagine pinning them for the crime...until more evidence is presented and causes you to rethink the entire situation. It’s a very effective mystery documentary and ends on a satisfying note that can hopefully lead into a second season. Satire like this works really well, you can tell the creators had a real love for the format of a murder-mystery documentary. Whenever something is made with such appreciation for a certain genre or film trope, you can be sure that the homage will play off extremely well.