This English Teacher Goes To The Head of the Class

And FX Begins the New Season By Raising the Curve to a Standard (That For Any Other Network) Would Seem Too High

After more than a quarter of a century of critical viewing if I had to pick a contender for the most consistent producer of quality TV I think that network would be FX. HBO has had many dramas I found lacking and comedies I just didn’t find funny; Netflix has so much content that the mediocre overwhelms the gems and AMC lost what credibility it had when it embraced The Walking Dead. FX has been not only one of the most consistent producers of great television but the most versatile as well: occasionally relying on spin-offs and showrunners but never making the same series twice. How is the same network could produce the always explosive The Shield and Rescue Me and the slow boil Damages and The Americans? The over the top humor of What We Do In the Shadows and the nuanced Better Things? That’s true even with their most constant showrunners: Ryan Murphy’s full volume camp that makes American Horror Story unappetizing to me doesn’t seem to be the same showrunner when he has taken on American Crime Story or Feud.

In July FX made history when for the first time it lead all networks and services for most Emmy nominations. This comes with a slight asterisk because of their collaboration with Hulu but I’ve never seen any real difference between the kind of shows they produce on Hulu then the ones I see on the franchise network. It has a chance to make a history unheard of in the era of Peak TV: become the first network to win the top prize in Drama, Comedy and Limited Series. And given the creative arts Emmys over this weekend (which I’ll go over before the big prize) they seem on the verge of leading all comers when it comes to Emmys on Sunday. And unlike so many other cable networks and services there is no sign that FX is going to experience a gap in quality any time soon. Indeed this past Monday a new comedy premiered which gives all the signs of being a contender for the awards that will make up much of the end of 2024.

English Teacher is the brainchild of Brian Jordan Alvarez, who is both the star and the head writer for the series. He has made it in partnership with Stephanie Koenig who I’m more familiar with over the past few years. She had minor roles on The Flight Attendant and played Fran, Elizabeth’s colleague who becomes her friend on Lessons in Chemistry last year. Alvarez is a relatively unknow quantity to me, though that may have been my own fault. He had a critical role on Epix’s critically acclaimed reimagining of Get Shorty, a recurring role on the continuation of Will & Grace and has been present in such hit films as M3GAN. He also wrote several films and previously the TV series The Gay and Wondrous Life of Caleb Grillo which he and Koenig collaborated on. Now he and Koenig are working together on this comedy series which has already earned comparisons to such classics as Parks & Rec and Abbott Elementary. Having seen the first three episodes I can testify that while it deserves comparisons to each, it is entirely — and delightfully — its own animal.

Alvarez plays Evan Marquez, the title character who works as a high school teacher in Austin. Like Alvarez himself Marquez is gay and his sex life is a subject of discussion — and for Texas a red flag. But that’s far from the biggest problem Evan faces at high school.

As he discussed with Gwen (Koenig) “the kids are worse than ever this year.” Gwen agrees telling him as an opening line that they wanted her to teach both sides of the Spanish Inquisition. I have to say some of the best moments on this show are whenever we see inside Evan’s classroom or indeed the kids as a whole because they demonstrate the worst aspects of everything I truly believe the next generation is. To give one of the best examples the football coach (I’ll get back to him, trust me) chases down Evan and asks him to discuss to his gym class what non-binary is. Evan is offended that his friend went to him with this and is reluctant to do so but goes along with it. Even before the lecture begins he finds it hard to believe these kids don’t know what non-binary is but still goes on to define it. Eventually they admit the truth — they do know what non-binary is, they just wanted him to screw it up so they could film it and put it online for the purpose of embarrassing him. Needless to say they put his lecture online anyway.

Evan is already in trouble with the faculty because the mother of a graduate has targeted him for kissing his then-boyfriend in front of her son and she thinks that this is the kind of behavior that should get him fired. Evan realizes very quickly that the student was gay and his mother is blaming him for ‘turning her son gay’. (This is Texas, remember.) Evan spends the entire episode being forced to write an apology and expecting to be fired only to find at the end of the episode the complaint was dropped.

The source of this was Markie Hillridge, the football coach who has been described as the show’s Ron Swanson. It’s true Coach Hillridge is an outdoors type and the least politically correct person on the faculty. He is often called out for his behavior by Evan himself. But Hillridge is all incredibly loyal. He goes to see the student’s mother and essentially blackmails her, telling her that if she follows through with her complaint he will out his son. Evan is horrified by this and in a lesser show we would judge him. Instead Evan calls him — and in a way so many other leftists — on the way they would rather have their principles rather than do what is necessary to fight for them. Alvarez covers this by having the Coach use a football metaphor that is lost on Evan but he does realize what has happened and is grateful.

There’s also the fact that Hillridge has a situational awareness that Evan can’t pick up on it. In the main story of last night’s episode Evan is teaching Love in the Time of Cholera when one of his students Chelsea says he shouldn’t teach this because Kayla has a disease and its triggering. Evan tries to deal with this and asks Kayla what it is. (This follows so much back and forth in which everything Evan does is the wrong thing in the eyes of the kids.) Kayla finally tells Evan that she has ‘asymptomatic Tourette’s’ which according to her is like Tourette’s but you don’t exhibit any symptoms. Evan immediately senses this is crap but the atmosphere is so hostile he keeps it in. He then goes to see Hillridge automatically expecting support; Hillridge actually thinks it’s an actual disease but agrees to observe his next class.

Things have accelerated quickly by the next day. Chelsea now tells Evan he can’t refer to it as ‘asymptomatic Tourette’s’ because it’s offensive. Rather he should call it KS. When Evan tries to ask what that stands for he’s told it is offensive to ask and offensive not to ask. Finally he learns it stands for ‘Kayla’s Syndrome’. The look on Marquez’s face is hysterical as you can just see he wants to say: “Why do I have to put up with this?” but is afraid of the consequences. (Naturally no one has done the reading because they’ve all been so worried about poor Kayla.) When the class is dismissed Evan asks Hillridge’s what’s going on. And the coach relays in a hysterical fashion that all of this is about the twisted relationship between Chelsea and Kayla and the power dynamic between them. The punch line comes when Evan says: “You figured this out in 20 minutes?” Hillridge scoffs: “I got in ten.”

This actually speaks to Evan’s great flaw: for all of his willingness to help his students he can be incredibly blind to the point of foolishness regarding so much including himself. At the start of last night’s episode he sees Harry, the new teacher who is also gay drop his towel and he gets a peek at him. Evan has been forbidden from dating other teachers and he goes into a spiral that Harry did this in order to seduce him and that they can’t spend any time together. Naturally, they’re forced to start planning prom. Evan then has a dinner where he doesn’t not want to do even the bare interaction, has an erotic dream while he is driving to school the next day, and then panics by telling the principal every detail of it despite his absolute unwillingness to hear it. On homecoming he is alone with Harry and Evan goes on a rant about his seduction. When he pauses Harry tells him he has a boyfriend. Evan pauses and goes on another rant before leaving him alone. Much of the humor is based in Evan’s ability to be humiliated for a laugh; he’s also very good at humiliated himself with no help.

The cast is more than up to everything Alvarez writes for them but my favorite performer so far is Enrico Colantoni as Principal Moretti. I have no basis for context but I truly believe Moretti is what I think a bureaucrat in the modern school system is like: forever put upon by every aspect of his job, the children, the parents, the school board, the teachers. He is terrified of saying the wrong thing and these days everything is the wrong thing. His nervous stammer and lack of a spine are something I’ve never expected in twenty years of watching Colantoni play Keith Mars and Elias on Person of Interest and he’s hysterical in every scene he’s in. The best humor comes from him often in subtle ways. After everything involving Evan in the pilot unfolds Evan asks him if he wants to see his statement. Moretti reads its to himself, says ‘very nice’ — and in one motion puts it in the shredder.

So much of this show does remind me of parts of Abbott and Parks & Rec — at times it’s like watching the teachers at Abbott having to teach students in Pawnee with all the frequent stupidity that inhabited that neck of the world that Leslie Knope unconditionally loved. But it has a style and good-heartedness that is all its own and it is a far more polished product in its first three episodes than Parks was over its first season and a half. It’s still rough around the edges but critics have responded to it with the same love and wonder that both shows earned very quickly. Hopefully FX will give it the chance it needs to become the kind of cultural sensation the other two comedies were. Unlike so many of the students at the school English Teacher is set at, this one is more than deserving of high grades.

My score: 4.5 stars.