Review

• That could potentially be the longest title I’ve ever written…

• So Wet Hot American Summer: First Day of Camp is the 8-episode Netflix prequel to the 2001 teen cult film Wet Hot American Summer.
• And first of all, the premise to this show is genius.
• I know that for years they’ve been wanting to do a sequel to this movie, but doing the prequel is phenomenal.
• The shtick of Wet Hot American Summer is that it’s 20-something or 30-something year-old actors playing 15 and 16 year-olds.
• But now we have almost all 40-something year-old actors playing 15 and 16 year olds.
• When I heard that, I loved it because it added an element of meta that the original Wet Hot American Summer just didn’t have for me.
• When I hear that Bradley Cooper and Amy Poehler are supposed to be acting as kids my age, I think that’s awesome.
• And that premise actually really works for this show!
• After the first episode, everything is working and flowing and you’re into the story. The actors’ ages isn’t distracting, it’s not a gimmick but just a hilarious thing to enjoy in this already enjoyable show.
• And all of the actors, all of the big names, from the original movie are back for this show. And they’re all great back in their roles.
• Especially Paul Rudd, who actually only looks about two years older than he did in the original movie… Paul Rudd was hilarious to be back in his rebellious role.
• All of the characters were great though, and they each had a chance to shine.
• I attribute that a lot to Netflix too.
• This show is 8-episodes long and it all takes place over the course of one day, but it feels like it’s the perfect length.
• Each episode is 25 or 27 minutes which offers enough time but doesn’t feel like it drags.
• You put that together and you’ve got 200 or more minutes of entertainment where each character gets their chance to shine in each episode.
• There’s plenty of subplots with all the different characters, but you like each one of them.
• There are some characters that they introduce and immediately you’re like, “is this gonna feel forced…?”
• But it’s not!
• They could have maybe taken out one of the subplots, but I say that vaguely because I’m not entirely sure which one I would want to take out… Maybe the one with Molly Shannon and Christopher Meloni, but that one was still so funny!
• Everything is spaced out enough too. Like they don’t throw every character at you in Episode 1, but space some out in really effective ways.
• When a familiar character comes in, you’re pleasantly surprised. You’re really excited for that character to be brought in, but you still love everything that’s happened with the other characters up to that point.
• It’s really hard not to spoil what I’m talking about…
• If I had to nit-pick, I’d say that there’s this one sub-plot with this rival camp. It was really entertaining, but it felt like they could have introduced it in maybe Episode 3 or 4 and it would have been slightly more effective than Episode 1.
• That, and there’s this one annoying red-head kid that’s picking on the nerd. The red-head kid wasn’t a huge problem, but sometimes his scenes lasted a second or two too long. But I’m also a nerd and I hate it when kids like that pick on other nerds…
• Like I said, I’m nit-picking though!
• There was this weird thing at the beginning of (I think it was) Episode 5, and I’m like, “how is that gonna tie into the show?” And it doesn’t. But then I re-watched the movie and died laughing. So maybe re-watch the movie after you see the show too?

In Conclusion

• In Conclusion guys, I enjoyed Wet Hot American Summer (the movie) for what it was, but it got messy here and there.
• Wet Hot American Summer: First Day of Camp (the show) is a Netflix series that I TOTALLY enjoyed and can’t wait to binge through for a second and third time.
• The cast was phenomenal. Paul Rudd was hilarious, Elizabeth banks was great, Bradley Cooper and Amy Poehler were so good together, Michael Showalter was really the lead of this thing and he was great. Even the kid actors were good.
• There were so many other actors that showed up for smaller roles too, who I won’t tell you about because it’s better to be surprised…
• The scripts were hilarious, there were at least a few times I burst out laughing.
• The directing was really crisp, and I feel like they shot this whole thing in like 10 days. Very simplistic but very effective.
• Overall guys, Wet Hot American Summer: First Day of Camp is Awesome and Worth Checking Out Multiple Times.
• I couldn’t imagine this being a non-binge show though… Like you can get through the whole season (or series?) in one night, or one afternoon. If I had to wait week to week for this, it wouldn’t feel as cool or flow as well.

***

So guys, those are my thoughts on Wet Hot American Summer: First Day of Camp! What are your guys thoughts on this show if you’ve seen it, and who’s your favorite character? Let me know in the comments down below, and as always, thanks for reading guys.