The Emmy Award-winning mockumentary sitcom series continues to shine a spotlight on the challenges faced by educators in underfunded schools, delivering plenty of laughs along the way
Abbott Elementary is back with another season of learning and laughter. The third season of the show has established that Abbott isn’t just a mockumentary sitcom television series; it’s a relationship. Over the course of two seasons, the audience has built a strong bond with the wonderfully weird teachers at the underfunded and predominantly Black Philadelphia public school — Willard R. Abbott Elementary.
The teachers at this school are known to work under difficult circumstances and struggle to provide the education that the kids truly deserve. But nonetheless remain undeterred in their attempt to educate, especially Janine Teagues (Quinta Brunson, also the show’s creator), the overly optimistic second-grade teacher, who tries to extend beyond her capabilities to provide for her kids, but often ends up creating bigger problems for herself and the whole school. In an episode from the first season, an impatient Janine tries to fix a lightbulb in the hallway instead of waiting for the electrician, and causes a full power outage in the school. Classic Janine!
Ava does the job she was hired to do
Then there’s Gregory Eddie (Tyler James Williams), a now full-time, first-grade teacher at Abbott with green fingers. He and Janine have developed a ‘will-they/won’t-they’ dynamic over the course of two seasons, a glimpse of which can also be seen in the newest episode. Ava (Janelle James) is the school Principal, who is less of a disciplinarian and more of an influencer. The problem isn’t so much that she’s bad at her job but the fact that she bullies her teachers, especially Janine, having obtained her job as Principal by blackmailing the superintendent. So, not much hope there.
Melissa Schemmenti (Lisa Ann Walters) is the veteran teacher with questionable yet resourceful connections and possibly the biggest Philadelphia Eagles fan anywhere. Jacob Hill (Chris Perfetti) is the queer and passionate History teacher who likes to be cool with his kids, and pursue a one-sided friendship with Gregory. Blessing the school with her experience, there’s Barbara Howard (Sheryl Lee Ralph), a religious veteran teacher who often acts as a mentor to Janine. And finally there is the mysterious janitor Mr. Johnson (William Stanford Davis), a man of many talents who is much more than what meets the eye.
The first episode of the third season opens with ‘Career Day’, a day for the kids of Abbott to understand their future options. ‘Career Day’ is arranged by Janine who now works for the school district. How did this happen? Cut to five months earlier. During ‘Development Day’ at Abbott, Ava introduces the school to Manny, a too-nice-to-be-true representative of the school district who is at Abbott to collaborate with the teachers on improving the school.
Not as obnoxious after all
The biggest plot twist at this point is that the usually obnoxious Ava is not as obnoxious. She isn’t making any inappropriate comments about Gregory’s fine body or trying to skip work for an Insta Live session with her fans. She’s actually doing the job she was hired to do, or rather the job she secured by coercion, but nonetheless she’s doing her job! Why? She claims to have matriculated at Harvard and gotten a degree in Education over the summer and is now trying to lead, but as it turns out, “the only thing worse than Ava being an awful Principal is Ava is being a good one.”
Ava has everyone jumping hoops to comply with the current yet outdated curriculum. She is seen confiscating laptops, restricting garden use (to Gregory’s disappointment), forbidding free periods and refuting out-of-campus lunches. Annoyed by these changes, the teachers decide to take things in their own hands. First, Jacob tries to tempt Ava with money, then Mr. Johnson attempts to lure her with tickets to an Usher concert. But when nothing seems to work, they have to bring in the big guns — Gregory’s biceps. The A-team has Gregory take off his sweater, lean against Ava’s door and expose his flexed biceps in an attempt to seduce Ava into her old ways. All they need is one sexual comment.
But Ava is determined to not succumb to these temptations, no matter how attractive they might be. Then Barbara Howard (Sheryl Lee Ralph), the veteran kindergarten teacher, comes up with an ingenious plan. The team diverts Ava to the gym, and plays Ava’s favourite track, Back That Thang Up by Juvenile on the speakers, and there it is, Ava cracks to the beat, and returns to her normal insincere self.
Serenaded by Philadelphia Eagles
Meanwhile Manny (from the school district) approaches Janine for a Robeson Fellowship where she can work with the school district and make a real change across all the public schools in the state. At first, she turns it down, because she can’t imagine leaving her kids behind. And this brings the fans to one of the finest lines of the episodes, where Jacob tries to convince Manny to give him the fellowship, “If it’s about diversity, let me tell you that I’m queer.” “It’s not.”
Janine does end up accepting the fellowship and is happy to keep visiting the school a couple of days in the week to stay on ground and connected to the system. But before she leaves for the fellowship, she approaches Gregory to ask if he would still be open to exploring a relationship with her, something that Gregory had expressed an interest in during the previous term. Janine had turned him down out of fear of losing their friendship. This time around Gregory turns her down for the same reason, to avoid the complexity of losing their friendship altogether.
Back to the present — ‘Career Day!’ Every teacher is assigned a working professional by Janine — a Botanist for Gregory, a Cosmetologist for Barbara, a Marketing professional from the Philadelphia Eagles for Melissa, Mr. Johnson for Jacob on his special request and a Zoologist for Janine’s class. ‘Career Day’ concludes with the most epic cameos in the series by Jalen Hurts, Brandon Graham and Jason Kelce from the Philadelphia Eagles who serenade all the classes with their presence, and even play heads up with the kids over zoom. Lucky kids.
Written with love for each character
The episode ends on a sweet note as Janine and Gregory rekindle their friendship after a brief awkward phase. They both express how much they miss talking about their day to each other, and once again they have the audience at the palm of their hands, hooked to ship them for another season. (We don’t mind).
The only worrisome issue is the format of the show. In an article titled ‘Abbott Elementary, and all sitcoms, should ditch the mockumentary,’ Joshua Rivera makes the excellent point that even though the talking head asides do provide the characters the opportunity to talk about the institutional issues and about their interpersonal relationships, “Abbott’s writers, however, deeply care about the show’s characters in a very traditional sitcom way, with their personal lives bleeding into their professional ones in ways both funny and uncomfortable, and this is where mockumentaries strain themselves the most.” With such a well-written set of characters, the mockumentary format might impede exploring the richness of their characters and their personal relationships.
Of course, this is only a minor hiccup, and will most likely not affect the resilience of the show. Abbott Elementary, and all the great shows for that matter, are written with so much love and respect for each and every character, it’s impossible to dislike any of them. Every character is allowed to access their full intelligence in their own ways which the first episode displayed perfectly. Abbott doesn’t need a good Principal, Abbott needs a bad Principal; Abbott needs Ava. And Abbott needs Janine and Gregory and all the other amazing but flawed teachers at the school. The characters all bring something different yet indispensable to the dynamic. And that is what seems to be the appeal of it; everyone is worthy, just like in real life.
