Just as kids are going back to school so are TV audiences. ABC’s hit series “Abbott Elementary” won’t be back until October 9, but until then there is FX’s new series “English Teacher.”
Created by and starring Brian Jordan Alvarez, “English Teacher,” focuses on Evan Marquez, a high school English teacher at an Austin, Texas school where his personal life gets mixed with his job and political views of working at the school.
Everyone, the teachers and especially the students, has an opinion about how he should handle a problem in his personal life He’s late every morning – and instead of beginning the lesson for the day, his students are distracted by Mr. Marquez’s problems. A parent wants him fired when he accidentally kissed his ex-boyfriend the dance teacher in front of his class last school year. In one of the best parts of the series that could be called “afterschool book club,” where the book of discussion is “1984,” the students try to help Evan with his situation. “Just claim that they’re attacking you because you’re Hispanic and they have a racist agenda,” on student says. Industry vet Enrico Colantoni plays the school’s Principal Grant who is forced to place Evan under investigation. His students try to help him beat the allegations. The situation ends with Evan being forbidden from dating faculty members from now on, just as he is introduced to the new teacher who has relocated from New Orleans.
The other teachers, Mark (played brilliantly by Sean Patton,) is tough-as-nails alpha male gym teacher. “They’re the inmates who want to run the asylum” he tells Evan of the students. He helps Evan with the investigation by less than ethical means. “Life is a football game and you keep showing up in a goddamn tutu….I saved your job man because you’re a friend. That’s what friends do, we help each other out. If that’s not part of your f**ing code, then I don’t know what else to say to you dude.”
Gwen, (Stephanie Koening, who also writes the second episode) is Evan’s best friend and a fellow teacher at the school.
Alvarez describes Evan as “a good guy who’s trying to keep calm and he’s failing most of the time.” That appears to be true.
The series is smart, funny, well written. It will remind you of your high schools and will help you realized how much things have changed. With the resources available on the internet, the students educate the teachers in social skills.
Comparisons to “Abbot Elementary” are inevitable. Think of the show as Abbott’s students graduating to high school. The kids at Abbott hang out in Gregory’s (Tyler James Williams) class between classes, during lunch and after school discussing relationships and problems.
The series shoots on location in Geargia with Cristina Spiridakis as the series’ costume designer.
“English Teacher,” a definite must-see, airs Mondays on FX and the next day on Hulu and Disney+.
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