Many of 2022’s most-anticipated shows have already premiered (Stranger Things, Hacks, the Muppets episode of Holey Moley), but don’t forget about Documentary Now!. The mockumentary series on IFC, created by Fred Armisen, Bill Hader, Seth Meyers, and Rhys Thomas, is “basically perfect,” although you can get rid of the qualifier for season three’s “Original Cast Album: Co-Op”: it is perfect (more like Richard KING).
The episode was written by Meyers and John Mulaney, who worked on another episode for season four. It’s based on Werner Herzog’s Fitzcarraldo, which the comedian described on Late Night with Seth Meyers as a “narrative film” about his “actual film crew [moving] a steamship over the mountains of part of the Amazon River, which was very hard and crazy to do.” There’s also a very good documentary about the making of the film, Burden of Dreams. The Documentary Now! episode stars Alexander Skarsgård as a “Werner Herzog-type who is trying to make a CBS network multicam in the middle of suburbia.” He has to “fly in a studio audience from Van Nuys, Calfornia” to make it work.
Move over, Better Call Saul series finale. This Documentary Now! episode is suddenly the TV event of the year. You can watch the Mulaney interview above.