Abbott Elementary’s hattrick at the Golden Globe Awards 2023 comes as no surprise for its millions of fans around the world. Nor to its creator, showrunner and lead actor Quinta Brunson, it appears. To accept the award for Best Actress in a Musical or Comedy Series, she got up on stage at the Beverly Hilton Hotel, and triggered a laugh when she said: “Thank you for believing in this show about a group of teachers from Philadelphia. It has resonated with the world in a way that I couldn’t even imagine it would have—but let’s be real, I did imagine; that’s why I sold it to you (i.e., Disney).”
Abbott Elementary is a mockumentary about a group of teachers striving against all odds to educate their wards at one of America’s most underfunded and mismanaged public schools.
What could’ve been a scathing commentary on a broken educational system is instead a warm, big-hearted and laugh-out-loud sitcom that channels Brunson’s memories of her mother as a kindergarten schoolteacher.
With exceptional writing, a solid performing cast and Brunson’s single-minded vision, Abbott Elementary is the sort of network TV show that whole families across generations can relish together—a rare thing in the era of solo streaming.
At the Golden Globes 2023, Abbott Elementary also won the award for Best Musical or Comedy Series, and Brunson’s castmate Tyler James Williams took a trophy for Best Supporting Actor in a Musical, Comedy or Drama.
With its three Emmy wins last September, and an ongoing superlative second season, Abbott Elementary has already cemented its place in American comedy history.
But if you’ve not signed up to this cult yet, here are four reasons to binge-watch the 20-minute episodes of Abbott Elementary, streaming on Disney+ Hotstar.
1. Abbott Elementary has one of the most sharply-etched cast of characters in English-language comedy right now
Whether it is the beatific compassion of Barbara; the experienced cynicism and hustle of Melissa; the awkward wokeness of Jacob; the wide-eyed shock of Gregory; the camera-grabbing tactics of principal Ava; or the relentless and often corny earnestness of Janine—few other comedies on American TV right now boast a better-written ensemble of characters.
It’s a community, even if it’s an absurd one. They’ve all got back stories, they’ve all got their private motivations, but they also have a common cause and common enemies (for example, the new charter school in their ’hood).
They help each other out in planning classes, growing plants, lobbying for funds, managing toilet crises, holding Shark Tank-like auditions for limited funds and often even come to the rescue (mostly Janine’s) when “genius” ideas come crashing down like failed egg-drop experiments. As they learn, un-learn and teach together, they’re a delight to watch, not least because their chemistry defies all laws of science.
2. Abbott Elementary is for fans of the mockumentary form
With This is Spinal Tap, Rob Reiner invented it for modern pop culture in the UK; Canadian sitcom Trailer Park Boys introduced it to mainstream consciousness further West; and the American version of The Office perfected it. The mockumentary has been a recurring and efficient vehicle in American comedy—applied effectively to all kinds of strange, under-covered ideas and spaces, whether it is the showbiz buffoonery of Curb Your Enthusiasm, the modern family in Arrested Development and, well, Modern Family, and more closely, small-town government as workplace comedy in Parks and Recreation.
Abbott Elementary takes this popular format into a prototype of the inner-city school to realise the motivations of its cast of characters more fully, with hilarious results. Or as Brunson told Deadline in an interview: “It’s one thing to laugh at teachers, it’s another thing to laugh with them. And I feel like having that mockumentary style gives our audience the ability to laugh with them, they are a part of the school.”
3. Abbott Elementary is a masterclass in optimism and resilience
Set in a public school (the kind that doesn't have the resources that privately funded schools do), Abbott Elementary might bring to mind the best of American movies built around urban schools, from Dangerous Minds to Dead Poets Society and Coach Carter. Each of those popular films follows one schoolteacher—played by Michelle Pfeifer, Robin WIlliams and Samuel L. Jackson, respectively—fighting against mammoth odds like rigid hierarchies and the despair of the disadvantaged, to bring about a small, but vital change.
In Abbott Elementary, the humour is a few shades warmer, partly because the teachers aren’t contending with rebellious and/or under-privileged teenagers, but kindergarten kids. Spiked with their innocence, and their teachers’ dedication, the central conflict here is the indifference of systems. But little can stop Janine Teagues and her band of misfits when she’s decided to fix things for better or worse—but mostly better and always comic.
4. Abbott Elementary will make you even more grateful for your (and your kids’) schoolteachers
Abbott Elementary premiered in November 2021, in the middle of the pandemic, when a lot of us—parents and kids alike—had had it with the idea of home- or remote-schooling. A short-lived experiment of the second decade of the 21st century, we were all more than grateful to return to the playpen.
The timing of Abbott Elementary might be one reason why it became such a breakout hit, but its endurance over a year later, has much to do with its empathetic lens on the lives of teachers trying to work systems and instill knowledge into young minds to the best of their abilities.
Don’t be surprised if you suddenly find yourself thinking about that English teacher at school who taught you how to read William Henry Davies’ poem “Leisure”; and exemplified how to live it by playing kabaddi with you at recess.
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