A comedy series about educators in public schools can't come along now and not draw comparisons to Abbott Elementary (2021), the hit ABC series from Quinta Brunson. It was interesting because her show came in the wake of the 2020 Presidential election. The aftermath of which saw a lot of politics enter the school system. Leading into Brunson's show, the issue of Critical Race Theory or CRT became a controversial topic, which was a manufactured controversy from Republicans or right-wing activists, that was about down-playing schools talking about racism, particularly racism against African Americans historically or even presently. In 2022, Florida passed the Parental Rights in Education Act, also known as the "Don't Say Gay" law, which was about limiting any instruction or mention of anything related to LGBTQ issues in classrooms. Unfortunately, Abbott Elementary never touches upon those topics. Brunson's show avoids such things. After three seasons, Brunson has proven her show to be rather apolitical, which is fine.
Comedian and filmmaker Brian Jordan Alvarez (Will & Grace and The Gay and Wondrous Life of Caleb Gallo) has gone in the other direction. His show is also about educators in public schools. Instead of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, his show is set in Austin, Texas. Instead centering on a Black woman, his show centers on a queer Latino. It makes sense that these two shows, which have similar premises, would have opposing strategies for storytelling. Brunson was raised in the north, in a politically blue state, whereas Alvarez was raised in the south, in a politically red state. Both have liberal positions, but Alvarez came up in an environment where liberal people had to fight more political battles, not that Pennsylvania hasn't had its problems as well. It makes sense for Alvarez's show to take a more combative attitude.
It's amazing that Alvarez is tackling these issues. However, Alvarez seems to be doing so in a rather hollow way. It all feels superficial and lacking in depth. The first episode is about Alvarez who plays Evan Marquez, an instructor at Morrison-Hensley High School. He used to date a fellow male instructor who later quit. Before doing so, Evan kissed that male instructor at school. Time passes and the parent of one of the students who witnessed that kiss is complaining to the school, which gets Evan in trouble. At no time during that episode do we meet that parent and the student is only briefly seen in a flashback in which he doesn't have any dialogue.
Last year, Texas governor, Greg Abbott signed into law several bills that are similar to Florida's Don't Say Gay law. Those bills are also similar to other laws in other red states, concerning what books should be allowed in public schools, which some have criticized as book bans. Hopefully, Alvarez's show will tackle this book ban issue in future episodes. This first one seems to tackle the issue of whether or not a teacher can express any kind of affection, specifically same-sex affection, on school property. Discrimination based on gender and orientation isn't allowed in Austin, which is one of the most liberal cities in Texas. Discrimination would be more of a concern outside any of Texas' major cities, so in the context of this show, Evan's troubles are more of a straw man. Regardless, it's still an interesting issue to tackle, but again, we get nothing about the parent who complains.
The second episode tackles the issue of powder-puffs, which are football games for girls. The games are restricted to being flag football and are limited to only certain times. It's not as if girls who want to play football get a regular season. Only being flag football and not having a regular season are legitimate critiques of powder-puff games, but Alvarez's show doesn't do much to address those critiques or concerns. They're mentioned in tossed off lines, but the episode frames the whole thing as girls needing to be taught how to play football, as if women don't know how to play the game and as if they don't live in Texas in which shows like Friday Night Lights (2006) have proven that Texas women know just as much about football and enjoy as much as the boys. Instead of centering on the girls and why they're interested in football, the episode is actually about how the boys want to dress up like cheerleaders and basically do drag. There are already male cheerleaders in the NFL, but the issue here becomes about the guys literally putting on wigs and feminine attire. The episode focuses on Evan's character helping to teach these straight guys to do drag. In a story about women in sports and LGBTQ issues, the episode is instead about straight guys. It misses the point.
The third episode is about Evan's relationship with Harry, played by Langston Kerman (The Other Black Girl and Insecure). Harry is another gay instructor at the school who is new. There is an attraction between the two. It feels like an even more awkward beginning to the kind of relationship we've seen in Abbott Elementary between Brunson's character and Tyler James Williams' character. It seems inevitable and perfunctory if you're doing a workplace comedy that you have a workplace romance depicted. Of course, that romance can't begin and be a thing separate from the workplace. It has to be drawn out with a "will they or won't they" aspect that spreads itself over the length of the first season, if not longer. The difference here is that it is a same-sex romance and could potentially explore concepts such as open relationships or poly-amorous ones. It could put something like that to the forefront in a way that Abbott Elementary doesn't, even though Brunson's show does have a queer character, played by Chris Perfetti. Perfetti's character has a relationship that seems to be constantly in the background.
The fourth episode does tackle the issue of guns in school. Yet, it feels like it was about a character who has never lived in Texas before. Evan is allegedly a guy who was born and raised in the Lone Star state. Unless we're meant to believe that living in Austin is akin to living in a liberal bubble, his reactions seem odd. The episode is about how Evan doesn't like that his school has a gun club for students. At the 2024 Olympics in Paris, an American named Conner Prince won a medal for skeet shooting. Prince is from Texas and studied skeet shooting in high school. Obviously, there's a culture for high school kids having guns in Texas. The episode establishes Evan's fear of such culture, given all the school shootings. Yet, it's odd that at no point does anyone reference the recent Uvalde shooting in 2022 and all the issues that arose from that incident. The episode just becomes a glib shouting match between Evan and Markie, the gym teacher and football coach, played by Sean Patton.
It also doesn't help that in that episode all the students are portrayed as woke but cynical bags of ennui. The students come across as disinterested or disaffected by everything. They're all smart alecks who give Evan and other teachers blank stares at any and everything. The students in most scenes don't act like human beings but rather objects for Alvarez's storytelling. Something like Glee (2009) gave us a more well-rounded look at the students than this show, so far. As such, this show feels as though it's going to be more about Evan's neuroses. Abbott Elementary is more about pushing for improving the institution in which it's set and the belief in making teaching better. It's similar to how Parks and Recreation (2009) was about making local government better. Despite Evan claiming to loving his job and loving teaching, his show thus far is not reflective of that fact.
Rated TV-MA-L.
Running Time: 30 mins.
Tuesdays at Hulu.