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CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION | ||
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Positive:
20
Mixed:
3
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews
IndieWireAug 29, 2018
Season 2 Review:
It may take a little longer to get there than last time, but this new season becomes a worthy follow-up by not only swapping out one anatomical gag for another, but by filing off some of its goofier edges for another grounded look at the other daily challenges of high school life.
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Sep 14, 2017
Sep 14, 2018
Season 2 Review:
The season is less absurdist than its predecessor, and the majority of its characters are less vividly drawn. ... Yet, as before, the mystery is diverting, filled with nifty twists and perfect for bingeing. And, once again, the show’s creators and performers manage to, almost without us noticing it, shift tones and move between moods. What starts out as an ornate scatalogical lark ends like an episode of “Black Mirror,” as produced by a high-school A.V. club.
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Sep 11, 2018
Season 2 Review:
Emotionally and sociologically, it’s a much more complex story, with a lot of insightful and empathetic things to say about a generation of kids who have grown up with social media as part of their lives. And characters like Kevin, Chloe and school basketball star DeMarcus (Melvin Gregg) come to life in poignant and unexpected ways, even considering the emotional pivot Season One took by the end.
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Sep 6, 2018
Season 2 Review:
Once you start watching the eight episodes, it's hard not to get hooked on solving the mystery, even if the show lays it on a bit thick when it comes to opining about the impact social media has on young people growing up in a world that allows them--or is that forces them?--to construct online personas to broadcast their every move via smart phones, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, YouTube and endless selfies.
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Aug 29, 2018
Season 2 Review:
By the second or third episodes I realized I was actually trying to figure out the case, which was never the case with the dick-drawing and the desire to bring the last few episodes became much more about getting answers than just simple amusement. In fact, I barely laughed at all in the season's homestretch, proving that while American Vandal may function as a parody/satire of Serial and The Staircase and The Jinx, it's just as capable of being a moody Encyclopedia Brown for the new millennium.
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Sep 14, 2017
Season 1 Review:
Few shows I've seen catch high school society, with its self-contained seriousness, as well as American Vandal does, as well as the mix of innocence and experience, confusion and certitude that mark that age. It’s as engrossing as the series it set out to satirize and moving in ways you would not expect.
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Sep 14, 2018
Season 2 Review:
American Vandal’s second season has bigger ideas than its first, and the turn toward wistfulness in its final episode feels less forced this time around. But apart from Kevin and DeMarcus Tillman (Melvin Gregg), a black star athlete bused into wealthy St Bernadine’s from a poor neighborhood, Hoop Dreams–style, few of its characters are as well-drawn, and the use of more experienced actors--cast members have recurred on Boardwalk Empire, Sweet/Vicious, UnReal, and L.A. Law--robs it of some of the first season’s amateur authenticity.
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Sep 15, 2017
Season 1 Review:
In its assemblage of footage from Snapchat feeds and other social media sources, as well as its collection of solid teenage performances, American Vandal gets at something true about our obsession with whodunits and how every generation finds a new way to commit very old crimes.
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Sep 14, 2017
Season 1 Review:
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.
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Sep 14, 2017
Season 1 Review:
Yacenda and Perrault create such an unexpectedly engrossing mystery that the eventual muddled resolution is a bit underwhelming, and sometimes the jokes get lost in the intricate details. Over the course of eight episodes, the show develops an impressive range of believable teenage characters, and as silly as the story can be, it’s the grounded reality of the show’s world that makes it funny.
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Sep 10, 2018
Season 2 Review:
By the end, what happened to Dylan Maxwell [in the first season] actually did feel kind of tragic. The second American Vandal, while amusing here and there, isn’t able to do all that. It recycles the same template, but can’t quite convince viewers to invest in everything that transpires at St. Bernardine.
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