This week I learned several things: 1) making your own guac in Lowry is worth the effort, 2) I should not start seven page papers two hours before they’re due, a lesson I keep forcing myself to relearn and 3) Documentary, Now! is a delight of a show and is now available to watch on my favorite streaming service and most intimate companion, Netflix. (Sometimes I imagine this scenario in which I take Netflix home to meet my strict Catholic mother, and it manages to impress even her, and we have a spring wedding; Netflix, run away with me.)
That story was tangential nonsense, but my real point is that Documentary, Now! is wonderful and well worth watching. Don’t add it your queue. It doesn’t deserve to get lost in between Thirteen Going on Thirty and that pretentious documentary you added to impress that one guy you managed to convince to come over to Netflix and chill. Just watch it.
The show originally premiered on IFC in 2015, and stars SNL veterans Fred Armisen and Bill Hader. Each episode opens with a Turner Classic Movies-esque introduction (Does that reference work with Millennials? Who cares!) by Helen Mirren, who introduces a parodied version of famous documentaries in which Hader and Armisen play the principal characters. Seth Meyers and John Mulaney are among the writers, and the result is predictably hilarious.
I should mention that you don’t need to know the documentaries being parodied to enjoy the show. I can comfortably admit that most of my documentary exposure is limited to March of the Penguins, and honestly I stopped watching that after all the migrating penguins left that one behind to die — pour one out for the homie, man — and I still find myself laughing. Bill Hader is too good at impressions for this show to not be on point.
The show mocks a range of documentaries, from The History of the Eagles to early films like Nanook of the North. But one of the strongest episodes is the season opener, in which Hader and Armisen parody Grey Gardens, the classic 1975 documentary about an eccentric, reclusive mother/daughter duo living in a disintegrating mansion in East Hampton, New York. The 20 minute episode quickly transitions from quirky comedy — Hader, wearing a pair of sweatpants on his head, falls through the rotting ceiling of the house onto the kitchen table, ruining Armisen’s lunch as he loudly proclaims, “You got floor in my lima beans!” — to (very) low budget horror.
For college students, spring is a busy time of year. Between papers and exams, formals and parties, job hunting and interning, many of you are way too busy to watch anything on Netflix. But I know that my fellow slackers are out there, looking for another series to half listen to as you play a game on your iPhone. Instead of reading another Facebook status about an engagement or one of your younger peers landing an impressive internship, give Documentary Now! a shot. Netflix will always have your back.