Every month Netflix releases so many Original Series that it’s hard to keep track. Some of them, including House of Cards, Stranger Things, and Making a Murder, gained traction and are now fan favorites and Emmy nominated television shows.
However, some fly under the radar and are overshadowed by the more popular titles.
In a binge watching society, this one show in particular proves that its crazy subject matter and controversial commentary on the justice systems within public schools possesses the ability to pull viewers in .
After roped into the series, it will have the audience members asking questions for hours after the show has finished.
That show is American Vandal.
The show centers on an investigation by two sophomore students into a car vandalism case.
Sure, on the surface it seems like a typical crime show, until viewers learn that the details of the vandalism focuses on the drawing of twenty seven phallic symbols on twenty seven teacher’s cars.
Viewers may be thinking that this must be a raunchy, juvenile documentary on shows such as Making a Murder.
What the show begins to appear as at first takes a jolted turn into one of the most thought provoking television shows Netflix has ever released.
Seriously.
Viewers will be obsessed with trying to solve this fictional case as if it was a true story, and that is what makes American Vandal the must watch television show of 2017.
In the first 5 minutes of the show, high school senior Dylan Maxwell is accused of the vandalism from the get go.
There are four keys elements that originally linked him to the crime outlined in the show; you will have to watch or infer for yourself, there are hardly any spoiler alerts here.
However, the two sophomore investigators, Peter and Sam, attempt to debunk these four elements, leaving themselves to wonder whether Dylan was framed or if he actually did do it.
Their main goal is not to exonerate Dylan but to find the truth through an investigation of the students and the teachers.
Unlike common or previous crime documentaries, American Vandal stays ahead of its audience at all times, making it almost impossible to predict the culprit until the ending episode is revealed.
New evidence is uncovered episode by episode causing viewers to abandon their theories and create new ones constantly.
The first scene of the show features Peter and Sam interviewing students on the vandalism and whether they think Dylan did it. So many of them are quick to believe it due to Dylan’s reputation.
The show provides an interesting commentary on reputation and how with only circumstantial evidence the school is so quick to accuse Dylan.
The question is, is reputation and circumstantial evidence enough to convict a student on such a serious charge?
American Vandal tackles this concept by introducing not just students, but teachers as viable suspects to the crime while still keeping the idea open that Dylan very well could have committed the crime.
American Vandal on the surface is an extremely entertaining and comedic show with characters that hold onto the stereotypes associated with high school while also developing them enough to see past their surface level facade.
Everyone is a suspect, no matter who they are and everyone has things to hide whether they are linked to the vandalism or not.
It is the viewer’s opportunity to decide what evidence they feel goes along with the case and what pieces of evidence are just red herrings.
When the show comes to an end, viewers will continue to debate whether the implied culprit did have something to do with the vandalism, whether other pieces of evidence suggest otherwise, or whether an entirely different theory is plausible.
With so many direction and paths to consider, American Vandal keeps its audience tangled in a web so complex that not discussing the show for hours afterwards is almost impossible.
American Vandal is eight episodes long, each episode lasting for about thirty minutes.
It is the perfect show to binge watch and some would argue it can only be binged watched to fully enjoy it.
Do not let this show go unwatched for any longer.
It is exactly the television show audiences have been waiting for: Funny, outrageous, gutting, and binge worthy.
IMAGE TAKEN from Netflix.com
