One of the most delightful—and refreshing—additions to the TV landscape in the last few years is the IFC comedy series Documentary Now!. The brainchild of Bill Hader, Fred Armisen, Seth Meyers, and Rhys Thomas is based on a conceit that I’m still kind of shocked actually made it to television: each episode is a parody of a famous documentary. The first season took on such classics as Grey Gardens and The Thin Blue Line, with Hader and Armisen taking the lead roles in each episode, and the result was some of the funniest comedy filmmaking we’ve seen in years. And the best part about the series is that although a familiarity with the documentary being “spoofed” enhances the comedy, it’s not necessary to still find the show unbelievably funny.
IFC, bless them, quickly renewed the series for two more seasons, and now our first look at Documentary Now! Season 2 has arrived with a clip from the premiere episode “The Bunker.” This is a parody of the 1993 documentary The War Room, which chronicled Bill Clinton’s presidential campaign, and in the Documentary Now! episode we follow the inner-workings of an Ohio gubernatorial race in hilarious fashion.
The show’s second season also sees Hader, Armisen and Co. taking on Jiro Dreams of Sushi (titled “Juan Likes Rice and Chicken”) as well as the 1969 doc Salesman, a concert documentary take on the Talking Heads doc Stop Making Sense, and a two-part spin on The Kid Stays in the Picture about a filmmaker trying to make Oscar-bait films.
This all sounds incredibly delightful, and based on this debut clip, we’re in for one hell of a treat when the show returns to IFC on September 14th at 10pm ET/PT.
