It’s incredible that Wet Hot American Summer: First Day of Camp exists at all. The Netflix series consists of eight episodes of inspired absurdity with a star-studded cast that other comedies could only dream of obtaining. This may have only been possible given the future success of the original film’s cast: Amy Poehler, Bradley Cooper, Paul Rudd, Elizabeth Banks, Jon Benjamin…all were still up-and-coming at the time, but are huge draws in 2015. Alongside the more established cast members at the time, including Janeane Garofalo, David Hyde Pierce, Christopher Meloni, Molly Shannon, and most of the cast of The State, Wet Hot American Summer’s cult status has only grown with the success of its actors.

To see all of these actors return with a whole slate of new big-name cameos speaks to the reverence these comic actors have to the original movie. Still, working around so many people’s busy schedules is incredibly difficult (see: season 4 of Arrested Development). Somehow Wet Hot American Summer manages its star availability in a way that it is invisible to the viewer. Like the movie, there really isn’t a central plot to the series, just a vast number of subplots that interweave from time-to-time. Since Wet Hot American Summer feels like it can jump around freely to whatever weird thing it feels like doing, it’s completely fine if we don’t check in on every character in every episode.

The various subplots are inspired, too, even moreso than the film. While the movie shares the same anarchic comedic spirit as the series, most of its plotlines are still meant to spoof the teen camp/sex genre. Here, the genre is simply a framework for State-alums David Wain and Michael Showalter to base their stories in. The two spoof whatever genres or narrative conventions pop into their heads: courtroom dramas, undercover reporter narratives, war movies, political thrillers, anything. It’s much closer in spirit David Wain’s Childrens Hospital (a series I would HIGHLY recommend to those who enjoy Wet Hot American Summer), which begins as a hospital show spoof and quickly becomes an outlet for whatever creative impulse its creators have.

First Day of Camp is also clever in the way that it subverts expectations based on its sequel, and for how completely indifferent it is to the actual narrative. It’s continuity is in and of itself a satire of continuity, and the whole idea of the prequel. The silliest things from the movie, such as the talking can that only Gene can hear talking to him, have a real-world explanation in First Day of Camp.

Certain characters are given a history, such as Elizabeth’s Banks’ undercover rock music journalist, that should inform their characters in the sequel, but really don’t. Since prequels, by definition, are created AFTER an original work is a success, they’re never necessary to make their chronological successors work. As meaningless as all this new information is to the function of the original movie, is any of it really any more extraneous than The Phantom Menace’s explanation of midi-chlorians, or Sauron’s gathering of power in The Hobbit movies? The difference is that First Day of Camp is aware of its lack of real purpose and uses it as a joke.

The series does not often function as a traditional comedy, with set-ups and punchlines, but Wain and Showalter’s ability to go beyond these simple formats and layer their show with ideas that are funny unto themselves is a treat by itself. Wet Hot American Summer: First Day of Camp is absolutely not for everybody, but for those who enjoyed the movie and can get on its creator’s wavelength, it’s a blast.