Review: True Crime? When the 'Family Jewels' Are Painted on Cars - New York Times

Netflix’s “Making a Murderer” shares the credit, or blame — along with HBO’s “Jinx” and public radio’s “Serial” — for the current surfeit of true-crime documentary series. Now it’s the streaming service, Netflix, that is out in front again, with a true-crime mockumentary series: “American Vandal,” an eight-episode comedy (more or less) about a high school student accused of spray-painting penises on 27 teachers’ cars.

Created by Tony Yacenda and Dan Perrault, whose experience is in online video — Mr. Yacenda has directed for “CollegeHumor Originals,” Mr. Perrault has written for the popular “Honest Trailers” — “Vandal” crosses a clever satire of the true-crime genre with elements of gross-out teenage comedy.

It’s a funny idea, and when it clicks, in the early episodes, “Vandal” is pretty amusing. It’s not an idea that stretches effectively over eight episodes, though, even at a half-hour each. There are other things going on — including a critique of the motives and methods of the documentarians, in this case a couple of student film geeks — but they’re not all that interesting.

What keeps you watching is how thoroughly and meticulously the show appropriates and subverts true-crime conventions. The ominous title sequence, the slow pans and zooms, the B-roll of empty rooms and solitary, moody characters are pitch perfect. The “filmmakers” re-enact the “crime” to test the time frame. They even produce an animated re-creation of an alleged instance of third-base sexual contact on a summer-camp dock. (It goes to credibility.)

If you’re a true fan of the genre being sent up, a lot of this will be pure delight; if you’re not, it’s likely to seem broad and more than a little pointless. But you can’t fault the execution — Mr. Yacenda, Mr. Perrault and the showrunner, Dan Lagana, never let the facade slip.

They’re not as reliable with tone, however. In their exploration of a couple of other genre tropes — the class divide between accusers and accused, and the narrative of partial, qualified redemption — they let the show slide into a semi-seriousness that’s kind of a drag. In the end, the truth crowds out the satire.

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