American Vandal is a mockumentary series that can be found on Netflix. Like its name suggests, its narrative is centered around a class clown named Dylan Maxwell who has been accused of vandalizing 27 cars belonging to faculty members at his high school. However, the lead character is not Dylan but rather another high school student named Peter Maldonado, who is interested in finding out what really happened.
Here are five things that you may or may not have known about American Vandal:
It Is a Satire
American Vandal is a satire. To be exact, it is a satire of true crime documentaries, which explains its name. With that said, making a successful satire calls for an excellent understanding of the material that is being satirized, so it should come as no surprise to learn that American Vandal happens to be an excellent mystery in addition to its satirical nature. Something that is in spite of the fact that its stakes are perhaps not as high as those in most other mysteries.
The Creators Had to Promise that It Wasn’t Just a Dick Joke
The satire is the creation of Tony Yacenda and Dan Perrault, who specialized in making short comedy videos for a number of comedy-oriented websites. As a result, when they brought their idea to Netflix in 2016, it is perhaps unsurprising that the people at Netflix agreed to distribute their TV show after being assured that it would be more than just an extended sketch about a dick joke. After all, American Vandal is centered around 27 cars having been vandalized by someone doodling dicks on them, which is exactly what one would expect from a dick joke.
Showrunner Is Dan Lagana
Since the two creators had no experience with working with TV shows, Dan Lagana was brought in to serve as the show-runner for American Vandal. For those who are unfamiliar with his name, he is someone who has been involved with the production, the writing, and otherwise in the production of more than one TV show, with the most recent example being his stint as a showrunner on Deadbeat. As a result, his experience and expertise made him a solid choice for the production of American Vandal.
Avoided Stunt Casting
With that said, the two creators had an enormous role in casting the characters for their TV show, as shown by their choice to avoid anything resembling stunt casting altogether. Instead, they chose the actors who they believed would be the most fitting for the roles. Furthermore, they emphasized those who showed an ability to improvise on the spot as opposed to those who could do nothing but rigidly stick to a pre-written script.
Second Season Has Been Confirmed
There has been some discussion about the potential for a Season 2 for American Vandal for some time, but it was not confirmed until relatively recently. As for how this is possible, well, suffice to say that while Season 1 of American Vandal had a satisfying conclusion, it did not tie up all of its loose ends, meaning that there are plenty of directions that it could go from this point forward. In a real sense, its failure to tie up all of its loose ends connects it even further to its sources of inspiration, which often fail to answer all of the questions presented within them as well.
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