Wet Hot American Summer: Ten Years Later Review

As promised so many years ago, it's time for the ultimate reunion as the cast once again returns. They're all playing slightly older roles, yet everyone is still far beyond that in age and it's rather hilarious. This season brings the massive group back and quickly catches us up with what everyone has been doing since their last adventure to Camp Firewood ten years ago. Some are doing better than others in life and as part of the fun, we get to see all that drama unravel very fast. I loved the pacing of the episodes as everything just rolled by and it was a treat to binge.

It also felt conclusive despite running eight episodes in length and I was entirely satisfied by the experience. For those that have watched the movie and the prequel show, you'll absolutely love this return to the camp and I feel that others might also find this hilarious. It's got a variety of jokes, very overdramatic moments and all the clichés one would want to once again see at camp. There were also multiple minor plots going on with some secret moments waiting to be revealed throughout. I honestly felt it went a bit over the top towards the ending, but I suppose that's part of the charm in the series.



I would typically label certain performances though with a cast this large it would be impossible to do so. They were able to have some many memorable characters pop in for a story that weaves together beautifully. Some of the new members didn't quite fit in, yet no one felt out of place and all had clear goals. Fans of the series will love the references and while they had flashbacks to fill in some blanks, they weren't over-used.

I did feel that some scenes could have used some more fullness to them having more actors appear in the background or something along those lines. Many scenes were smaller side stories that focused on a couple members of the cast at a time. I assume this is to work around schedules to make this possible, but it's more of a treat to see everyone get together or even scenes with multiple characters at once. There's a good sense of the camp being alive though as this is just a reunion and a new generation of kids are at camp. You'll see them running around while all these adults deal with their varying issues.

The Conclusion

It was nice to see so many from the cast return for Wet Hot American Summer: Ten Years Later and it's the larger group together that really makes this whole thing work so well. As a fan of the previous parts of the series this was satisfying not only in letting us know what's happened in-between, but also to conclude in a manner that felt right.

The pacing of the episodes was solid, it flowed well and there was never a boring moment. All the plots felt as though they were finished off and while I'll always want more this selection of episodes worked well. I found the series to be funny, the jokes hit the mark and while too dramatic at times that's part of the charm in Wet Hot American Summer.

Wet Hot American Summer: Ten Years Later Review at Home with Streamed Viewing
Screening was Provided by Netflix

Rating Overall: 8.0