Liam Mays

Netflix has reimagined how we watch TV on a number of levels. As opposed to having a traditional television format by showing advertisements from various different products and services, Netflix chose to take a different route. They elected to make money via a subscription based service where people can pay roughly eight dollars a month to have unlimited access to streaming television shows and movies. This method of money making has grown tremendously over the past few years for online services. Previously subscriptions were only for receiving the newspaper and various different magazines.

But, thanks to Netflix and a few other companies, this is the newest most effective way to make money. Now paying for subscriptions online is an extremely common thing to do for anything from streaming music online to having a new fancy pair of socks shipped to you once a month. Because of this revolutionary model for making money, Netflix has pockets deep enough to play around with previously unheard-of ideas. So much so that SNL is making skits making fun of Netflix for throwing their money at every unusual idea that somebody pitches to them. However, the joke is not on them because their unusual shows and movies have frequently turned into ground breaking models for contemporary television. Netflix has found that, when it comes to television genre, the “diversity of definitional criteria suggests that there is nothing internal to texts mandating how they are to be generically categorized” (Mittell 7). And they’ve certainly taken advantage of this. Having TV shows ranging from BoJack Horseman about a horse that stands and talks like a man, to the critically acclaimed Black Mirror, depicting a new futuristic world in each episode.

However, one of the most unusual yet innovative shows Netflix has created is American Vandal. On the surface and without giving the show enough time and consideration, one might consider the show to be extremely immature and raunchy. With characters consistently making sex jokes and pranking each other by flipping a Porta-Potty with someone inside, it’s easy to understand why one would assume its vulgarity. However, once given the time, the show is an extremely well thought out and put together mockumentary satirizing reality crime shows—making a statement about the politics of high school life and the role social media plays in it. The show follows two high schoolers who are trying to solve the mystery of who spray painted phallic images onto every teacher’s car. Their main suspect, who has already been expelled, is a painfully realistic depiction of a stereotypical dumb class clown. “The whole joke of the show, of course, is how deadpan, how gravid, how rigorously precise it remains as, episode by episode, it documents the investigation of an act of phallus-themed vandalism.” (Weldon)

Credit: Scott Patrick Green/ Netflix

Because of Netflix’s obscene amount of money and show release model, this show was given a chance by viewers. If this show was pitched to a mainstream television network, it wouldn’t have ever seen the light of day because they aren’t able to take the amount of risks that Netflix takes. Moreover, after watching the first episode or two live, people would likely give up on the program or forget about it because it’s a little over the top. But because Netflix releases every episode of a season at once with them auto playing the next episode after one is finished, people were almost forced to give this show a chance. “Binging” TV shows only really exists because of streaming services like Netflix that continuously play episodes one after another.

Netflix is known for messing with the guidelines and definitions of genre. Famous for doing this with shows like Stranger Thingswhich is a science fiction supernatural, horror show that also has elements of comedy mixed in. In the instance of American Vandal, the show is immediately considered a satirical comedy. Before long it becomes evident that it’s also a mockumentary, poking fun at true crime shows as well as high school in general. It’s very interesting that Netflix has had extreme success with True Crime shows as well as shows that make fun of the genre. “Popular series that have been among that subscription video-on-demand platform’s most instantly “binge-able” include true crime documentaries like Making a Murderer.” (Adler) After a few episodes, it’s easy to realize that it’s also a mystery crime show. As soon as viewers start to connect with the characters and sympathize with them, the show becomes a drama. Because of Netflix’s excess of funding, they’re able to challenge the guidelines of genre much more than the average network. Outside of streaming services, it’s rare to find a television show that could be considered more than two genres.

Since the show often crosses genre lines, it has aesthetic elements that are typically used in each genre. The show is inherently a comedy because of the humorous nature of the crime. On top of that, it’s hard to not laugh at the main suspect who is considerably foolish for lack of a better term. For the mockumentary portion, the cameras will occasionally shake whenever they’re moving quickly to remind viewers that it’s supposed to look like a documentary. They’ll also interview suspects who will look straight into the camera, showing that there is no “fourth wall.” The show is often shot in dim light whenever there is a discovery being made. Furthermore, they use a bulletin board with pictures of suspects and strings connecting them to certain events that transpired like that of a stereotypical crime show. Although it’s definitely a cliché, it still helps to categorize the show as a criminal mystery. Lastly, once the audience begins to sympathize with the main suspect the tone of the show becomes much darker and tensions begin to rise. This makes it apparent that the show is also a drama. “American Vandalhas a wildly variable tone that feels truer to the drastic, giddy emotional swings of teen hood, and especially by the end of the series, it rubs dizzy absurdity right up against intense, long-simmering pain.” (VanArendonk) The creators of the show really figured out a fantastic formula to combine genres in a way that keeps the show humorous and serious at the same time.

Although the show is rather vulgar at times, it is also unmistakably quirky and clever. Something that few other shows are able to pull off with success. On top of that, it’s a revolutionary example of disregarding genre norms. Most would’ve assumed packing so many genres into one television show would not be successful. The show was without a doubt genius, which is something that would never have been discovered if it wasn’t for Netflix’s subscription revenue model.