TV Rewind: Wet Hot American Summer: First Day of Camp Was the Rare Comedy Revival that Earned Its Comeback

The comedy of Wet Hot American Summer that Showalter and Wain developed with co-star Michael Ian Black in their troupe Stella was head-turning in its off-kilter, parodic intensity; set on the last day of a summer camp in 1981 Maine, Wet Hot frequently breaks the boundaries of its genre pastiche with nonsense absurdity, punishingly elongated and self-aware gags, and plenty of screaming. The film was met with little love upon first release, but it built enough of a cult following for Showalter and Wain to successfully pitch a follow-up to Netflix. What’s more, every adult cast member of the original makes a repeat appearance in First Day of Camp (the film is set on the last day of the same summer), including megastars like Cooper and Rudd, who had just debuted as Ant-Man weeks prior.

Another reason why First Day of Camp escapes the ire directed at other comedy revivals is that it’s so smartly assembled. A core component of the original parody was that all the adult cast were playing 16 and 17-year-olds, something that was present in ‘80s summer camp movies but not intended to be funny. Fourteen years on from Wet Hot, the crappy wigs and crass teenage dialects feel far more egregious from a cast of 40-somethings who are technically supposed to be eight weeks younger than they were in the film. It is expertly carried by the winning chaotic tone and dozens of recognizable actors (new additions include Jon Hamm, Michael Cera, Bruce Greenwood, Chris Pine, Jason Schwartzman, Kristen Wiig, and Lake Bell) who switch between broad, earnest pastiche with stabs of blunt, naturalistic confusion and frustration.

The ensemble format of Wet Hot allowed for a lot of bizarre, tonally clashing storylines that became funnier once they slotted alongside each other. In First Day of Camp, Showalter and Wain take advantage of their elongated, near-four-hour runtime by doing this tenfold. Across the prequel’s eight episodes, the stakes include a nasty corporation poisoning the camp with toxic waste, a landmark court case against the colluding U.S. government, a covert assassin prowling the camp grounds, a rock star folk hero emerging from self-imposed exile, a rival uppercrust summer camp waging violent war on our characters’ camp—alongside a staff musical going off without a hitch, a couple of obnoxious counsellors losing their virginity, and an anxious young camper courting his crush against the wishes of a mean bully.

First Day of Camp feels overstuffed in a good way, showing the clear faults of the ensemble comedy format by revealing how disconnected and alienated its storylines are from one another. This fractured story structure is the only way that all the cast could appear in the series; as a result of impossible scheduling, many new and returning actors never interact with each other, and you can easily tell that Cooper has shot all his isolated scenes in a shorter amount of time than his less famous co-stars. 

Central to First Day of Camp’s comedy is a conflicted sense of sincerity—every returning performer has a lot of love for this world and the original film, but a prequel like this only works if treacly, sentimental nostalgia is rejected and undermined at unexpected moments. Ten years after its release, First Day of Camp stands apart from the dawning wave of resurrected TV comedy because it was the rare property that benefited from expansion, from returning to a unique comedic style and seeing what it could generate before wearing itself out. Showalter and Wain honor their own legacy with a miniseries that is amused by how incongruous it is to the original, despite the returning characters and a faithfully reconstructed spirit of stupidity. First Day of Camp knew there was more to discover in the memories of summers long ago.

Rory Doherty is a screenwriter, playwright and culture writer based in Edinburgh, Scotland. You can follow his thoughts about all things stories @roryhasopinions.