American Vandal‘s first season was a great Netflix debut. The true-crime documentary satire was intricate, characters played by a great cast, and it told a story full of twists and turns. And despite being absolutely comedic, it still managed to be touching at points. Living up to the standard Season One set off was always going to be a challenge for Season Two. So did the show pull off the impossible and achieve the ridiculous standards it set in year one? The answer depends on whether you are okay with sacrificing some comedy for a more compelling story.

Season Two has an almost entirely new cast, with only Peter Maldonado and Sam Ecklund returning. They answer the call from a student at a Catholic school in Washington state to investigate whether the wrong student has been convicted of being the “Turd Burglar,” an anonymous online figure who has victimized the school with multiple poop-related pranks. The key features of Season One are still there: conflicting evidence, questionable tactics, multiple suspects. Peter and Sam use clues big, and small to try and determine who is responsible for poop vandalism that began with “The Brown Out,” an incident where poisoned lemonade forced students to excrete their bowels all over themselves, and all over the halls of the school, in a sequence that is far more graphic and over-the-top than anything in Season One.

A couple changes make the season feel different. For one, Sam and Peter feel removed from the events, because it is not their school this time, and for the first few episodes their presence is hardly felt. They were two of the funniest characters with some of the best scenes from Season One, their reduced role is noticeable. But, they get more involved as the show goes on, which is a main reason why the show gets funnier as you watch it.

Another major change is the person being accused. Unlike the main suspect of season one, the dumb, drug addict, high school bully, Dylan. The student claiming innocence this time is Kevin McClain, played by Travis Tope. Kevin is weird in a way that makes you see him as a victim right away. So right off the bat you see how Kevin doesn’t have any friends and he has a rough school life. Kevin does not evoke laughs as much as he does sympathy. As this season is much more harrowing in a sense, given the typical high school environment it provides a chance to address current issues high schoolers face today. The show explores bullying, racism, classism, cyber bullying, and a number of other struggles students encounter everyday.

I think overall the show did a great job on season two, it had a little more seriousness to it than the other season and had a bit more meaning to it all in all. I rate this season a nine out of ten stars.