It’s been a strange, sparse year for TV, as the short-term impact of 2023’s Hollywood strikes compounds the effects of a contraction within the streaming industry that was already well underway when actors and writers hit the picket lines. The fallout has ranged from delayed seasons of hit shows like The Last of Us and Severance to the abrupt cancellation of beloved series. From This Fool and Rap Sh!t to Our Flag Means Death and Minx, sitcoms—notably, acclaimed ones that featured diverse casts and explored progressive themes—were hit especially hard. And so far, in 2024, there’s been a dearth of new comedies to replace them.
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Enter FX’s English Teacher, premiering Sept. 2. Created by and starring the actor, comedian, and viral bard of sitting Brian Jordan Alvarez, it isn’t a dramedy or an action comedy or adult animation but a genuine sitcom set at a high school in the suburbs of Austin, Texas. While comedy series tend to take a season or two to find a rhythm—and this one certainly has room for improvement—English Teacher radiates confidence from the very beginning, striking a savvy balance between funny character beats and timely observations from the increasingly politicized realm of public education. It is easily the year’s best new sitcom to date. More importantly, it’s a must-watch for anyone who yearns for television that elicits actual, audible laughs.
Alvarez anchors the show’s compact ensemble as Evan Marquez, the eponymous young English teacher determined to make a difference in the lives of his students at Morrison-Hensley High. One obstacle in his path is, well, those same students. Evan and his best friend and fellow teacher Gwen (Stephanie Koenig) note in the premiere that the kids are suddenly less “woke”; now they demand, for instance, to be taught “both sides” of the Spanish Inquisition, and it’s impossible to tell when they’re being ironic. A generation gap between earnest millennials and nihilistic zoomers has been palpable for years in the public square that is social media. English Teacher is one of the first TV shows to authentically depict that clash of worldviews. In one scene, Evan, a cisgender gay man, is drafted to “explain nonbinary” to a class he doesn’t even teach. But, of course, the students know at least as much about gender identity as he does. They just want to bait their teachers into saying stupid things while they record it for TikTok.
Another problem for Evan is his colleagues, who aren’t all on board with his liberal agenda. The wonderful Enrico Colantoni (Veronica Mars, Just Shoot Me) plays Principal Grant Moretti, an empathetic but exhausted administrator who projects strategic neutrality. When a conservative parent complains about Evan kissing his then-boyfriend Malcolm (Jordan Firstman) in front of students, Grant lets the investigation play out. Gym teacher Markie (Sean Patton), the school’s resident libertarian (imagine a less charismatic Ron Swanson), advises Evan to fight back with a self-righteous letter proclaiming: “I am being targeted for harassment because I am a proud gay man.” His response: “I’m not that proud.” The resolution entails Evan, who’s just happy to keep his job, agreeing to abstain from dating co-workers—a promise that’s immediately threatened by the arrival of a hot, new teacher (Langston Kerman’s Harry) who seems to be into him.
Alvarez has a knack for picking conflicts that feel relevant without being gimmicky, and for exploring them in ways that don’t feel sanctimonious or preachy despite his left-of-center perspective. In one episode, Evan clashes with Markie over a gun club that the former finds unconscionable amid an epidemic of school shootings. But Markie, who leads the group, frames it as a “firearms safety program” and reminds him that this is Texas, where plenty of kids are going to have access to guns whether they’re taught how to use them safely or not. Another episode casts RuPaul’s Drag Race star Trixie Mattel as a friend of Evan’s who comes to train football players in the ways of drag queens after the school’s LGBTQ+ group complains about the boys’ sexist performances in cheerleaders’ uniforms at the annual powderpuff football game.
Each issue is a little thornier here than it would be on a show like English Teacher’s most obvious antecedent, Abbott Elementary, where the kids are younger, the culture war feels relatively remote, and the faculty, despite their many differences, always pull together for the benefit of their underfunded school. Alvarez is smart to situate his school in a conservative suburb of a famously liberal city, where many demographics and political agendas overlap. He understands the bad-faith manipulations of rich parents, as well as the cynicism of some teens who’ve been training all their lives for the oppression Olympics. (One of Evan’s students claims to have “asymptomatic Tourette’s.”) Instead of railing against this state of affairs, which is clearly bad, the series finds the absurd humor in so much junior-varsity posturing and power play.
While the structure is solid, some of the show’s details could use refining. Koenig gives a likably sunny performance, but after screening six episodes (out of eight in the first season), all I really know about Gwen is that her husband just lost his job. The final member of the faculty crew, guidance counselor Rick (Carmen Christopher), is a generic douche-bro, gobbling protein bars, spamming everyone with dubious stock tips, and never quite meriting a storyline of his own. (In Parks and Rec terms, if Markie is Ron Swanson, then Rick is Tom Haverford.) These oversights are easily fixable. All English Teacher needs to evolve into a more balanced show is the same, increasingly rare resource that every sitcom that has ever become a classic enjoyed: time.
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