NZ Herald
  • Home
  • Latest news
  • Herald NOW
  • Video
  • New Zealand
  • Sport
  • World
  • Business
  • Entertainment
  • Podcasts
  • Quizzes
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
  • Travel
  • Viva
  • Weather

Subscriptions

  • Herald Premium
  • Viva Premium
  • The Listener
  • BusinessDesk

Sections

  • Latest news
  • New Zealand
    • All New Zealand
    • Crime
    • Politics
    • Education
    • Open Justice
    • Scam Update
  • Herald NOW
  • On The Up
  • World
    • All World
    • Australia
    • Asia
    • UK
    • United States
    • Middle East
    • Europe
    • Pacific
  • Business
    • All Business
    • MarketsSharesCurrencyCommoditiesStock TakesCrypto
    • Markets with Madison
    • Media Insider
    • Business analysis
    • Personal financeKiwiSaverInterest ratesTaxInvestment
    • EconomyInflationGDPOfficial cash rateEmployment
    • Small business
    • Business reportsMood of the BoardroomProject AucklandSustainable business and financeCapital markets reportAgribusiness reportInfrastructure reportDynamic business
    • Deloitte Top 200 Awards
    • CompaniesAged CareAgribusinessAirlinesBanking and financeConstructionEnergyFreight and logisticsHealthcareManufacturingMedia and MarketingRetailTelecommunicationsTourism
  • Opinion
    • All Opinion
    • Analysis
    • Editorials
    • Business analysis
    • Premium opinion
    • Letters to the editor
  • Politics
  • Sport
    • All Sport
    • OlympicsParalympics
    • RugbySuper RugbyNPCAll BlacksBlack FernsRugby sevensSchool rugby
    • CricketBlack CapsWhite Ferns
    • Racing
    • NetballSilver Ferns
    • LeagueWarriorsNRL
    • FootballWellington PhoenixAuckland FCAll WhitesFootball FernsEnglish Premier League
    • GolfNZ Open
    • MotorsportFormula 1
    • Boxing
    • UFC
    • BasketballNBABreakersTall BlacksTall Ferns
    • Tennis
    • Cycling
    • Athletics
    • SailingAmerica's CupSailGP
    • Rowing
  • Lifestyle
    • All Lifestyle
    • Viva - Food, fashion & beauty
    • Society Insider
    • Royals
    • Sex & relationships
    • Food & drinkRecipesRecipe collectionsRestaurant reviewsRestaurant bookings
    • Health & wellbeing
    • Fashion & beauty
    • Pets & animals
    • The Selection - Shop the trendsShop fashionShop beautyShop entertainmentShop giftsShop home & living
    • Milford's Investing Place
  • Entertainment
    • All Entertainment
    • TV
    • MoviesMovie reviews
    • MusicMusic reviews
    • BooksBook reviews
    • Culture
    • ReviewsBook reviewsMovie reviewsMusic reviewsRestaurant reviews
  • Travel
    • All Travel
    • News
    • New ZealandNorthlandAucklandWellingtonCanterburyOtago / QueenstownNelson-TasmanBest NZ beaches
    • International travelAustraliaPacific IslandsEuropeUKUSAAfricaAsia
    • Rail holidays
    • Cruise holidays
    • Ski holidays
    • Luxury travel
    • Adventure travel
  • Kāhu Māori news
  • Environment
    • All Environment
    • Our Green Future
  • Talanoa Pacific news
  • Property
    • All Property
    • Property Insider
    • Interest rates tracker
    • Residential property listings
    • Commercial property listings
  • Health
  • Technology
    • All Technology
    • AI
    • Social media
  • Rural
    • All Rural
    • Dairy farming
    • Sheep & beef farming
    • Horticulture
    • Animal health
    • Rural business
    • Rural life
    • Rural technology
    • Opinion
    • Audio & podcasts
  • Weather forecasts
    • All Weather forecasts
    • Kaitaia
    • Whangārei
    • Dargaville
    • Auckland
    • Thames
    • Tauranga
    • Hamilton
    • Whakatāne
    • Rotorua
    • Tokoroa
    • Te Kuiti
    • Taumaranui
    • Taupō
    • Gisborne
    • New Plymouth
    • Napier
    • Hastings
    • Dannevirke
    • Whanganui
    • Palmerston North
    • Levin
    • Paraparaumu
    • Masterton
    • Wellington
    • Motueka
    • Nelson
    • Blenheim
    • Westport
    • Reefton
    • Kaikōura
    • Greymouth
    • Hokitika
    • Christchurch
    • Ashburton
    • Timaru
    • Wānaka
    • Oamaru
    • Queenstown
    • Dunedin
    • Gore
    • Invercargill
  • Meet the journalists
  • Promotions & competitions
  • OneRoof property listings
  • Driven car news

Puzzles & Quizzes

  • Puzzles
    • All Puzzles
    • Sudoku
    • Code Cracker
    • Crosswords
    • Cryptic crossword
    • Wordsearch
  • Quizzes
    • All Quizzes
    • Morning quiz
    • Afternoon quiz
    • Sports quiz

Regions

  • Northland
    • All Northland
    • Far North
    • Kaitaia
    • Kerikeri
    • Kaikohe
    • Bay of Islands
    • Whangarei
    • Dargaville
    • Kaipara
    • Mangawhai
  • Auckland
  • Waikato
    • All Waikato
    • Hamilton
    • Coromandel & Hauraki
    • Matamata & Piako
    • Cambridge
    • Te Awamutu
    • Tokoroa & South Waikato
    • Taupō & Tūrangi
  • Bay of Plenty
    • All Bay of Plenty
    • Katikati
    • Tauranga
    • Mount Maunganui
    • Pāpāmoa
    • Te Puke
    • Whakatāne
  • Rotorua
  • Hawke's Bay
    • All Hawke's Bay
    • Napier
    • Hastings
    • Havelock North
    • Central Hawke's Bay
    • Wairoa
  • Taranaki
    • All Taranaki
    • Stratford
    • New Plymouth
    • Hāwera
  • Manawatū - Whanganui
    • All Manawatū - Whanganui
    • Whanganui
    • Palmerston North
    • Manawatū
    • Tararua
    • Horowhenua
  • Wellington
    • All Wellington
    • Kapiti
    • Wairarapa
    • Upper Hutt
    • Lower Hutt
  • Nelson & Tasman
    • All Nelson & Tasman
    • Motueka
    • Nelson
    • Tasman
  • Marlborough
  • West Coast
  • Canterbury
    • All Canterbury
    • Kaikōura
    • Christchurch
    • Ashburton
    • Timaru
  • Otago
    • All Otago
    • Oamaru
    • Dunedin
    • Balclutha
    • Alexandra
    • Queenstown
    • Wanaka
  • Southland
    • All Southland
    • Invercargill
    • Gore
    • Stewart Island
  • Gisborne

Media

  • Video
    • All Video
    • NZ news video
    • Herald NOW
    • Business news video
    • Politics news video
    • Sport video
    • World news video
    • Lifestyle video
    • Entertainment video
    • Travel video
    • Markets with Madison
    • Kea Kids news
  • Podcasts
    • All Podcasts
    • The Front Page
    • On the Tiles
    • Ask me Anything
    • The Little Things
  • Cartoons
  • Photo galleries
  • Today's Paper - E-editions
  • Photo sales
  • Classifieds

NZME Network

  • Advertise with NZME
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • BusinessDesk
  • Newstalk ZB
  • Sunlive
  • ZM
  • The Hits
  • Coast
  • Radio Hauraki
  • The Alternative Commentary Collective
  • Gold
  • Flava
  • iHeart Radio
  • Hokonui
  • Radio Wanaka
  • iHeartCountry New Zealand
  • Restaurant Hub
  • NZME Events

SubscribeSign In
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Home / Entertainment

Netflix find a hit with Wet Hot American Summer: Ten Years Later

Greg Bruce
By Greg Bruce
Senior multimedia journalist·NZ Herald·
29 Jul, 2017 02:05 AM3 mins to read

Subscribe to listen

Access to Herald Premium articles require a Premium subscription. Subscribe now to listen.
Already a subscriber?  Sign in here

Listening to articles is free for open-access content—explore other articles or learn more about text-to-speech.
‌
Save

    Share this article

Wet Hot American Summer: 10 Years Later is funnier than almost anything on TV. Photo / supplied

Wet Hot American Summer: 10 Years Later is funnier than almost anything on TV. Photo / supplied

It was 2001 when Paul Rudd, Amy Poehler, Bradley Cooper, Elizabeth Banks and about a million other soon-to-be-famous comic actors nobody had then heard of starred in a bad movie called Wet Hot American Summer.

The movie was about the high jinks of a group of teenagers on the last day of an American summer camp in 1981 and it probably would have sunk, never to be heard of again, had it not then been adopted and beloved by a generation or two of presumably deeply stoned American college students presumably high on nostalgia for their own summer camp years.

That adoption, combined with the growing famousness of the movie's cast meant it had enough commercial appeal 14 years later to generate a television series, in the form of a prequel, featuring the same movie characters.

The TV series still wouldn't have happened, however, had it not been for the emergence of Netflix. It's hard to imagine any other self-respecting broadcaster agreeing to take a risk on a series based on such a bad film, especially given that the cast had become exponentially more expensive in the interim. But, having taken that risk, Netflix found themselves with a 2015 hit.

Adam Scott in Wet Hot American Summer: Ten Years Later. Photo / Netflix
Adam Scott in Wet Hot American Summer: Ten Years Later. Photo / Netflix
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

After the incoherent shambles of the movie, the series was unexpectedly brilliant, funny and endearing, enchanting even, with its string of wacky premises and its fond skewering of conventional summer camp movie tropes, performed with sheer genius by an extremely accomplished cast of 40+-year-old actors playing 16-year-old children.

Next Friday, Netflix will release a second series, called Wet Hot American Summer: Ten Years Later, about a 1991 reunion of the attendees from the original camp.

The characters in the new series, set in the sad and whiny era that was the early 90s, have settled into the career and domestic mundanity and general listlessness that characterises a person's mid-20s. As a result, it's lost some of the joy and hopefulness of the new love and sex at the centre of the teenage lives in the first series, but it's still funnier than almost anything on TV, and so far ahead of the movie as to be almost unrecognisable.

There are many ways to make a bad movie, but a good one is to follow a formula that's worked before, hitting the right beat on the right page of your screenplay, and using relatable characters who attract positive feedback from test audiences. Another way is by creating something that makes little narrative sense, that pushes at the edges of what might be called funny, that includes as one of its core cast a talking can of vegetables.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

You can assume the worst of the audience or you can challenge them to meet your fruity vision. It may not quite work, but by trying, you open up new and possibly fertile ground, and you find yourself, 14 years later, having figured some things out, making a TV series so good that next time you'll only have to wait two years before you get paid to do it all over again.

Lowdown:

What: Wet Hot American Summer 10 Years Later
When & Where: Friday August 4 on Netflix

Discover more

Entertainment

Netflix boss: Kiwi content is coming

19 Jul 08:00 PM
Entertainment

Stranger Things is back in a very big way

23 Jul 07:26 PM
Opinion

Puschmann: Has Netflix found its Breaking Bad?

27 Jul 10:31 PM
Save

    Share this article

Latest from Entertainment

Entertainment

Why Kevin Costner says he'll never stop working

16 Jun 05:33 AM
Entertainment

Bruce Willis’ wife pens emotional Father’s Day tribute

16 Jun 04:51 AM
Entertainment

Soul rock icon Lenny Kravitz announces debut NZ show

16 Jun 12:36 AM

It was just a stopover – 18 months later, they call it home

sponsored
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Latest from Entertainment

Why Kevin Costner says he'll never stop working

Why Kevin Costner says he'll never stop working

16 Jun 05:33 AM

The Hollywood star is 70 but has no plans to retire from acting.

Bruce Willis’ wife pens emotional Father’s Day tribute

Bruce Willis’ wife pens emotional Father’s Day tribute

16 Jun 04:51 AM
Soul rock icon Lenny Kravitz announces debut NZ show

Soul rock icon Lenny Kravitz announces debut NZ show

16 Jun 12:36 AM
William Dart review: How Auckland Philharmonia captivated with Handel and Tippett

William Dart review: How Auckland Philharmonia captivated with Handel and Tippett

15 Jun 05:00 PM
Sponsored: Embrace the senses
sponsored

Sponsored: Embrace the senses

NZ Herald
  • About NZ Herald
  • Meet the journalists
  • Newsletters
  • Classifieds
  • Help & support
  • Contact us
  • House rules
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of use
  • Competition terms & conditions
  • Our use of AI
Subscriber Services
  • NZ Herald e-editions
  • Daily puzzles & quizzes
  • Manage your digital subscription
  • Manage your print subscription
  • Subscribe to the NZ Herald newspaper
  • Subscribe to Herald Premium
  • Gift a subscription
  • Subscriber FAQs
  • Subscription terms & conditions
  • Promotions and subscriber benefits
NZME Network
  • The New Zealand Herald
  • The Northland Age
  • The Northern Advocate
  • Waikato Herald
  • Bay of Plenty Times
  • Rotorua Daily Post
  • Hawke's Bay Today
  • Whanganui Chronicle
  • Viva
  • NZ Listener
  • Newstalk ZB
  • BusinessDesk
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • iHeart Radio
  • Restaurant Hub
NZME
  • About NZME
  • NZME careers
  • Advertise with NZME
  • Digital self-service advertising
  • Book your classified ad
  • Photo sales
  • NZME Events
  • © Copyright 2025 NZME Publishing Limited
TOP