Please don't spend money on this.

I cannot think of one single thing that I would change about this film. The acting is incomparable, the directing deft, and the writing poignantly brilliant.

A film with more than the usual spoiler issues. Talking about it in any detail feels akin to handing you a gift-wrapped present and saying, "I hope you like it -- It's a thriller about a diabolical secret experiment."

It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

Documentaries are generally a pretty esoteric cinematic experience and co-creator Fred Armisen's comedy is also pretty esoteric. As a result putting those together is going to lead to something that's not easy to appreciate or particularly funny every time out of the gate.While the premise's novelty-- re-imagining popular documentaries with a comic bent -- was enough to get it through the first season, the show usually sinks or swims based on how funny the episode is.With the exception of Michael Moore, Spike Lee, Morgan Spurlock, or Werner Herzog, very few documentaries have ever surfaced to the national consciousness. As a result, many viewers (including myself) are not going to go to know of the original source either, so the comedy often has to stand on its own in a way that most direct parodies don't. I'm not sure if this airs on the IFC TV channel, but the website has a featurette airing the two versions side-by-side which is certainly helpful."The Town, A Gangster, a Festival" approaches the brilliance of Christopher Guest's films (what I'm sure is an influence on these guys) in terms of attention to detail. A whole world is colored in by oodles and oodles of funny characters. This should cater to the wheelhouse of a writing staff-- all SNL alumni (if I'm not mistaken) where creating characters who can display a memorable quirk within a minute or two of screen time is a prerequisite.Without the advantage of the large ensemble format, the show faces a harder challenge with generally only two people front and center. The show can sometimes work brilliance here but some episodes have also fallen flat. Among the most brilliant entries are "Kunuk Now" and "Globesman" as both are hilarious based on stand-alone comic characters and broad reference(the primitive Eskimo in the former, the 1950s image of masculinity and the corporate salesman in the latter) rather than a specific cinematic style. "Kunuk Now" tells the story of a kooky producer who jumps production in Alaska and an intellectually-challenged Eskimo who single-handedly creates all our modern ideas of cinematography. "Globesman" takes the squeaky clean image of the 1950's and turns it into a portrait of sheer obnoxiousness.Among the other episodes that work somewhat well, "The Blue Jean Committee" is an exaggerated character portrait of two men whose lives have gone in opposite directions since fame. It distinguishes itself by being perhaps the only episode in the series with sentimental value (the final hug between the two tugged at my heart strings at least). Armisen is a music obsessive and his effort falls flat in the similarly themed second season episode "Test Pattern" which feels derivative: It mines similar nuances of "Blue Jean Committee" in mining similar nuances of concert culture without giving us a reason to care."Dronez" also roughly works without any source material as it provides a never-ending supply of dumb people and juxtaposes them with an incredibly dangerous situation.Others like "Juan Likes Rice and Beans" and "The War Room" are middling: They work based on the hyper-specific which will vary. In the case of the former, I saw "Jiro Likes Sushi" which helped me enjoy it at a fuller level.The rest of the episodes, including the series premiere, fall painfully flat based on hyper-specificity..

I love this sense of humour based on characters having a great consideration for themselves, looking ridiculous from the viewer's perspective, with a pinch of cruelty and tons of nonsense. In short: the character doesn't know he's in a comedy. It isn't common in US comedy, more frequent in GB. This sense of humour requires a perfect execution in the filming and acting and I think that this series has brilliantly achieved it. I'm not an easy laugher and I'm usually the guy with the poker face in the cinema when everyone is exulting. But watching this show, I think I've disturbed my neighbours with my unpracticed heavy laugh. I particularly appreciate the introductions.

*NOTE*: This review is based squarely on the first episode: "Sandy Passage".In my opinion, IFC has produced some of the best alternative comedy in the past decade. From Portlandia to Comedy Bang Bang!, they've raised the stakes for what alt comedy should/could be. Imagine to my surprise when several months ago, while watching the premiere of The Spoils of Babylon, I saw a promo for a new series called Documentary Now! Starring alt comedy darlings Bill Hader and Fred Armisan, produced by Seth Myers and Lorne Micheals, and presented by Helen Friggin' Mirren! My expectations rose to kilimanjaric levels after seeing it. Now, having seen the first installment, I feel as if I have a firm grasp on this series and can review it in full. So, here we go. "Sandy Passage". A "parody" (using that term loosely) of the 1975 classic about a two- man film crew who set their sights on chronicling a mother-daughter pair of socialites living in a ramshackle estate. The episode essentially plays the film beat-by-beat with Armisen being the mother and Hader being the daughter.It's all very funny, satisfying, and even a bit poignant, but the real kicker comes at the very end, when it is revealed that the mother and daughter are murderers; both responsible for the "disappearances" of their former boyfriends and grocery boys. The ending genuinely scarred me, and as someone who often watches horror movies, that's saying something. Though the twist does feel a bit jarring after having sat through something so slow.Overall, "Sandy Passage" is a surprisingly nice little tribute a trailblazer of the documentary industry, and a nice entrance into the world of Documentary Now! I will definitely be watching further episodes. RATING: B+

Aktham Tashtoush who left a bad review below must not have read up on what this is about. To fully appreciate the brilliant comedy in Documentary Now, you need to watch at least part of (or read about) Grey Gardens for the 1st episode, and then watch an episode of VICE on Youtube to fully appreciate the 2nd episode. Bill & Fred have obviously watched and researched the original characters and have portrayed and mocked what is so funny about original shows. If you like morbid comedy, then this delivers. Bill & Fred are hilarious together, and my only complaint is that there is only going to be 6 episodes it appears.