American Vandal Season 2 Review

The first season of American Vandal was certainly a pleasant surprise and that random true crime documentary parody style continues with the second season. Instead of trying to find out who exactly drew the dicks, this time the two man crew is attempting to solve the mystery of who is the "Turd Burglar". This is based around a very serious matter of laxatives being mixed within the general population's food at a catholic school. It causes mayhem obviously and the team decides to take this as their next project.

It's once again told with a serious documentary style, yet it doesn't quite capture the magic of the first season. It's still very funny and well done, it just doesn't carry that same edge. The tone is great and I like how serious everyone is. I would have liked the mystery to be more present as this seemed to be a forced viewing perspective. I say that as the cast is introduced slowly instead of giving a wide layout of who's involved. This feels more led as opposed to a discovery through interviews. Here we're given the situation bit by bit which works well, but I would have liked more of a chance to solve things myself.

I thought the general visual presentations were slightly toned down this season and they seemed to re-use footage multiple times which was disappointing. This isn't long, so most of it should showcase fresh scenes. I felt their science based areas were also more limited and less of a focus. They definitely went more modern as well which should reflect a possible key issue of current times.

I didn't like some of the philosophical aspects as the one documentary member would go into lengthy monologues at times which felt out of place. I get the style they're making a mockery of, but they could have used more grit instead of inspiration within the speeches. It was well shot, the acting was fine. I didn't get attached to the cast as much this time around, but there were some interesting members. I generally enjoyed the pacing as the episodes were easy to work through and it did keep me interested, despite having less of a hook.

The Conclusion

American Vandal Season 2's presentation and mystery isn't quite as great as the first one was, but is still an entertaining experience. I liked the setup, they came up with a creative new mystery to solve and it'll be interesting to see if that evolves further in the future. It had great moments of humor and many exciting segments along the way in this modern focused exploration into just who exactly the "Turd Burglar" is.

The cast was fine, I thought they could have been introduced better to give more of a chance for us to solve or come with ideas though it was decently presented. I really do enjoy this show and it would be great to see more adventures into the weird and perhaps more dangerous.

American Vandal Season 2 Review at Home with Streamed Viewing
Screening was Provided by Netflix

Rating Overall: 7.4