Okay, first an apology: You know how Netflix has those auto-playing previews that literally everyone hates? Well, I had paused on this briefly, with literally zero intention of watching it, and then the preview played, and I was like, “huh, that’s interesting,” and my wife had the same reaction, and so we watched it. I HAVE PROVIDED DATA TO NETFLIX SAYING THAT THE AUTO-PREVIEWS WORK TO DRIVE ENGAGEMENT.

So what I saw in the preview was a kind of very meta quasi-documentary retelling (think Drunk History style, but just arch instead of drunk) of the filming of Animal House. Because this is a kind of biopic about this National Lampoon guy, but where I would have zero interest in watching a regular standard biopic about him, one that’s done in a meta, jokey way seemed like it could be interesting.

And it was! The show’s frustrating to watch at times, because he’s a self-destructive asshole, but really, that’s where the ironic distancing narration works well. (It also works to let them call out things like the degree to which National Lampoon was basically entirely white dudes.)

It’s funny, and it goes places that I wasn’t expecting. Way, way better than I expected it to be, even based on the preview that lured me in. Recommended.