Documentary Now! will finally return for season 4 in 2022

The mockumentary from Fred Armisen, Seth Meyers, Bill Hader, Rhys Thomas will air a new season on IFC and AMC+

By Saloni Gajjar  |  February 10, 2022 | 4:45pm
TV News Documentary Now!
Documentary Now! will finally return for season 4 in 2022
John Mulaney and Reneé Elise Goldsberry in Documentary Now! season 3 Photo: Allyson Riggs/IFC

IFC’s Documentary Now! has been off the air for almost three years now. The third season came out all the way back in early 2019—ah, pre-pandemic times. At the Television Critics Association’s winter press tour, the cable network has finally announced that a long-awaited season four will arrive later this year.

Created by Fred Armisen, Seth Meyers, Bill Hader, and Rhys Thomas, the Emmy-nominated Documentary Now! is a mockumentary-style series. Hosted by Helen Mirren, each episode spoofs celebrated documentaries by parodying its format with a fictitious subject. Executive produced by SNL’s Lorne Michaels, season four is currently in production and consists of six new episodes.

Some of the documentaries featured in the new outings include My Monkey Grifter, which follows a filmmaker who forms a deep, emotional, and financially taxing relationship with a monkey who may have ulterior motives. It draws inspiration from the 2020 Netflix original, My Octopus Teacher, about a filmmaker who forges a bond with an octopus in the wild.

Two Hairdressers In Bagglyport is a fly-on-the-wall portrait of a hair salon owner and her staff in the small coastal village of Bagglyport as they prepare their yearly stylebook. It pays homage to fashion documentaries like 3 Salons At The Stateside (a moving film about the staff and customers of three hairdressing salons) and The September Issue, which chronicles Anna Wintour’s preparations for the 2007 fall-fashion Vogue issue.

Then there’s a parody of the 1996 sports documentary When We Were Kings about a heavyweight championship match. How They Threw Rocks is about the Welsh sport of Craig Maes, also known as Field Rock.

IFC will reveal more information about Documentary Now!’s other parodies and the star-studded lineup soon, according to the press release. The previous seasons’ all-star roster includes John Mulaney, Maya Rudolph, Michael Keaton, Anne Hathaway, Cate Blanchett, Reneé Elise Goldsberry, Paula Pell, Natasha Lyonne, Tim Robinson, Richard Kind, and Owen Wilson, among others.

 
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