Preparation for most things is key - anyone who's taken four days to prepare a Thanksgiving meal only to have it devoured in 10 minutes will tell you that. No wait; that's my example for "preparation is bullshit." Still, it can't hurt to be prepared for things, and with some sweet retro-style TV action coming up by way of Netflix's Wet Hot American Summer: First Day of Camp in just a few days, you'll need to know a bit of the Wet Hot back story to fully appreciate the show.
Even if you've seen every movie you're "supposed" to have seen, every classic or cult hit, it's likely one or two have slipped through the cracks. I didn't see The Sound of Music until I was 40, and Lord of the Rings Academy Award statuettes were rusty before I even thought to watch the trilogy. But those are the movies that once you've seen them, you can't forget - and if they're good (LOTR -amazing; Sound of Music - meh) you can't stop talking about them and find it shocking other people haven't seen them.
It took me 15 years to finally see Wet Hot American Summer after it's 2001 release and I can't for the life of me imagine why I didn't see it new in theaters, other than I had a small baby at the time and may have been busy buying horrifically ugly turn of the century footwear.
Did I think I was some kind of hip pilgrim? A badass patent-leather Nonna? What was I thinking? I blame breastfeeding brain.
It was made before the stars involved were big names but now reads like a blockbuster credit roll: Paul Rudd, Bradley Cooper, Amy Poehler, Janeane Garolfolo, David Hyde Pierce, Elizabeth Banks, Michael Showalter, Christopher Meloni, Molly Shannon...all of whom have aged little, and while no one is saying out loud they use baby koala bear foreskin cream, I think we can propogate that rumour.
It's a camp movie concerned little with the campers or camping, but rather focuses on the teenagers running the show - the awkward, horny, bossy, teenagers we all knew and were and probably dry humped with in the back of a Ford Econoline van with no rear windows. Wet Hot American Summer appears to be less a movie than a reason for a bunch of likely real-life friends to spend some time together while appeasing their management so why the hell not just make a movie? And yet it's incredibly watchable.
All the action takes place on the last day of camp at Camp Firewood in the summer of 1981 and it's worth a watch for the soundtrack alone. (And also the serious cut off jean shorts and tube socks. As someone with decent thighs but some lower extremity varicose veins happening, I am all about bringing back shorter shorts and tube socks.
The movie will leave you wanting more, and now 15 years later, enter Netflix and a group of celebrities now famous but still willing to get back into it for the sake of Camp Firewood. They've aged (chronologically, at least) 15 years yet still play teens, this time on the first day of camp. Starting July 31, the original Wet Hot crew will appear in an eight episode Netflix original series along with some new faces, like Jon Hamm and Kristen Wiig and the series serves as a prequel to the movies last day of camp.
So glad we're getting more hot; more wet, more summer.
Up your internet package, because the binge watch starts in three days!
Image Sources: Etsy, USA Films
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