Documentary Now! proves it can still be great without Fred Armisen and Bill Hader

The A.V. Club

The IFC mockumentary series was essentially The Fred And Bill Show in its first two seasons, with Armisen and Hader acting as a two-man repertory company, says William Hughes. Hughes says Documentary Now!'s third season feels "radical" because Armisen and Hader aren't the focal point. Whereas in previous seasons, either one of them would've played the performance artist Marina Abramović, Documentary Now! was able to enlist two-time Oscar winner Cate Blanchett. "It might take you a minute to notice it, what with famous faces like Owen Wilson and Michael Keaton flooding the screen, but the show’s new reality will eventually settle in: No Fred, and no Bill, to be seen," says Hughes. "And while persistent viewers of the season will eventually get to a handful of Armisen-fronted episodes—three in total, out of the six fake docs on display—recent Emmy-winner Hader never shows up for the show’s third season at all." Hughes adds that Documentary Now! is "heading out into uncharted territory. All parties concerned are clear that, if free time somehow became infinite, they’d welcome the show’s original stars back with welcome arms—although they’d likely continue to integrate them with the wider roster of talent now at their disposal. For now, though, the training wheels are off: Documentary Now! might not be easy to define, but whatever it is, it’s coming into its own—and when you’re talking about a show that was already one of the best and most interesting series on TV, that’s something worth celebrating, regardless of what’s been lost."

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