Wet Hot American Summer: First Day of Camp Netflix Series Review

 

Wet Hot American Summer: First Day of Camp

"He saved friendship with his song!" -Random Camper

 The original Netflix series Wet Hot American Summer: First Day of Camp is a prequel series to the cult classic 2001 film Wet Hot American Summer. Wet Hot American Summer: First Day of Camp (WHAS:FDoC) stars...well, too many people to count on here, but the major actors are Michael Showalter, Marguerite Moreau, Zak Orth, Bradley Cooper, Amy Poehler, Paul Rudd, Michael Ian Black, Janeane Garofalo, Molly Shannon, Jason Schwartzman, Elizabeth Banks, Christopher Maloni, H. Jon Benjamin, Joe Lo Truglio, Ken Marino, (BREATHE IN!!!) and many, many, more!

 Now let me say first of all that WHAS:FDoC is totally ridiculous in premise, characterization, and believability. HOWEVER, it completely works! The 2001 movie was the same, ridiculously hilarious. This said, I think that fans of the original movie will absolutely love this series. If you haven't even seen the movie, which I strongly recommend seeing, you might like it if you like old spoof movies such as Airplane, The Naked Gun, or any Mel Brooks movie.

 The premise of the 2001 movie is basically the random stuff that happens on the last day of Camp Firewood in 1981. The series is the random stuff that happens on the first day in 1981. Yes, you read this right. All 8 episodes of the first season are supposed to take place in one day. The first day of Camp. It's not even a whole day! It's basically from around 9am to 12am.

< Victor (Ken Marino) has the right reaction!

 There are many plots to the series if you can believe it. The main one that is continuous is that Beth (Janeane Garofalo), who is the head camp counselor, and Greg (Jason Schwartzman), who is the assistant counselor, try and stop a company called Xenstar from dumping toxic sldge near camp grounds. Sounds pretty self explanatory right? Nope. It turns out that this sludge dumping (sorry, that sounds wrong) is the work of the US Government and that it's "a bigger scandal than Watergate which happened like 9 years ago." Keep in mind that in the movie it's supposed to be 1981. Craziness ensues and then we have our story. Kinda. This is the only storyline that actually (sorta) makes sense. 

 

 So the characterization in WHAS:FDoC is still absurd. But they make it work somehow. Everyone is a clichéd character from the 80's. There's the badass, the sl*t, the virgin, the jerk, the leader, the veteran, the rock star, the journalist, the weird person (well that's not a really fair thing to say because everyone is weird), and others. AGAIN, the movie and the series is supposed to be ridiculous. They're spoofs. My favorite character is definitely either Victor (who i showed above) or Jonas (Christopher Meloni), the Vietnam Veteran.

 

 Believability is unquestionably one of the greatest factors that makes WHAS:FDoC so funny. From the US Government behind a simple toxic dumping and a really great guest character living in a gross cabin for a looong time to the acting and the age of the characters. Yes, all of the camp counselors are supposed to be 16 or 17 years old. These characters include people played by 30, 40 and 50 year olds Bradley Cooper, Michael Showalter, Michael Ian Black, Amy Poehler, Paul Rudd, Zak Orth, and, well, almost the rest of the cast.

 

 ^These actors playing 17 year olds?^

Another great factor in making this such a funny series are the incredibly well casted guest appearances. And there are plenty of them.

 SPOILER: Watch out for Michael Cera who is always funny as hell. Also watch out for Jon Hamm playing a serious...ly funny hit-man.

< Jon Hamm is so out of his normal stereotypical business man character from Mad Men.

 There is A LOT more to talk about for WHAS:FDoC. As a fan of the original 2001 movie, I clearly loved it. For others who haven't seen the movie, I can see how they would not like it or be interested in it. But give the movie a chance. If you aren't interested in spoof comedies, watch it for the magnificent cast.

Pro

• Stupidly hilarious
• Great 80s music and references
• Plenty of awesome guest characters
• The great cast!

Con

• May be too stupid for cultured and classy people
• I recommend watching the movie (which is also on Netflix)

4.8/5

Watch the promo trailer here

Wet Hot American Summer: First Day of Camp is on Netflix now! The 2001 movie Wet Hot American Summer is also on Netflix now!