Its
seems that I am going to run out of superlatives to use on Abbott Elementary
far quicker than Quinta Brunson and her merry band are going to run out of
ways to make me laugh and be in awe of them. The opening of last night’s
episode alone had enough material to be one of the highpoints of 2024. It starting
with a meeting of the PTA which was, as seems to be the standard now, being
emceed by Janine’s ex-boyfriend Tariq. Discussion began involving the building
of the new golf course which started last week and is no doubt going to be a problem
during Season 4. Tariq came up with what was a typically Tariq strategy – he would
become Bagger Vance and find a way to win over the Matt Damon character to his
side. Janine said that was a stupid strategy and Gregory added that it was a
great Will Smith performance. (In West Philly Will Smith is still a legend.)
There was a discussion of Will Smith’s other performances and naturally Barbara
thought Will Smith starred in Elf. Janine then brought up Wild Wild
West and Barbara said that movie inspired a line dance. Tariq said he was
going to bang his gavel. Cut to the camera aside where Tariq says he brought this
gavel to every meeting in case things get out of order. He then adds: “I’ve
never gotten a chance to use it because every PTA meeting ends the same way.”
Cut to the gym where the entire PTA, Abbott faculty, parents and Tariq are line
dancing to Will Smith’s Wild Wild West.
I think
I’ve run out of synonyms for perfection and bliss after three seasons of
watching this incredible show which is shocking because usually by Season 4 any
comedy, particularly a broadcast one, starts to run out of energy. And it
certainly looked like things were going to get worse because as anyone who
knows in the Season 3 finale Gregory and Janine finally got on the same page
and have spent the summer hooking up. Naturally Janine tried to fake the viewer
out but because Quinta Brunson is a kind and merciful ruler she had Gregory
show up and say ‘Just Kidding’ before we could begin to believe it. Of course
Janine and Gregory tried to keep it on the down-low at Abbott and of course
they fooled absolutely no one as every single regular made it very clear on
camera they were aware of what Janine and Gregory were doing but were being
polite. Ava was the most concerned, of course, but only in the pure Ava fashion
that she didn’t want HR coming down on her for this. This is a supreme delight
because as we all know, Ava.
So of
course Ava called the district in order to deal with this particular situation
and then we saw the Janine we love – and frankly missed when she spent most of
Season 3 at District. She was more concerned about her yearly plan for her new class
and was worried that she’d left it at home. She was also afraid to leave the bubble
and tell anyone. Gregory then became childlike in his nerves – could Janine
possibly not be as committed to this as he was? This led to Janine’s typical
humiliation in front of the entire faculty when she made it painfully clear
about their relationship to her embarrassment and of course everyone but Ava
(she never misses a chance to humiliate Janine).
Last
night’s episode ‘Ringworm’ would be the greatest episode of any series but Abbott
Elementary. Jacob (always superb Chris Perfetti) was teaching the Constitution
and went off on a tangent on the Greek lawmaker Draco. (Naturally everyone
thought he was talking about Harry Potter.) He noticed that one of his kids had
ringworm and sent him home. When he casually mentioned this at the teacher’s
lounge, everybody became horrified, particularly Ava who wanted to assume
disaster protocols. Barbara was alarmed but boasted immunity to ringworm. Melissa
was irate because she had a date with a man with a ‘built-in hot tub’. Both Ava
and Janine wanted contamination protocols in place and Gregory became Howard
Hughes. No I’m serious: he basically quarantined himself in his classroom,
somehow managed to find locks for his doors, put buckets on his hands, and made
a joke that fully justified the camera’s presence for the last three years.
Jacob
refused to allow for the possibility of the problem until the child returned from
his class and made it clear he was touching other people. Later on Jacob
allowed the child to go to the bathroom, he then came back having not gone to
the bathroom but made contact with two other students. Ava’s reaction was to call
The Atlantic to promote herself and to tell her students that the Purge
was in effect. Naturally it ended with every single member of the faculty
getting ringworm.
To say
that every single character was hysterical from beginning to end is like saying
Abbott is underfunded: by this point every character has their own nuances and
crisis always brings out the hysterical. It’s a toss-up to know who was the
funniest during this period: every scene Tyler James Williams was in, of course
or the wonderful scene where Barb and Melissa got into an argument about God and
ringworm as Melissa undercut every time she disagreed with God with an aside
that she didn’t mean it. She walked away muttering in Latin and crossing
herself. (I swear if the Emmys don’t nominate Lisa Ann Walter this year…)
Every
time I watch an episode of Abbott Elementary I am reminded why this show
has, with the possible exception of Hacks, the best comic ensemble in
the business. Quinta Brunson has created one of the funniest shows this past
decade and yet for all intents and purposes she’s the straight woman in
this cast, mainly because she’s the most earnest about her job and the most
sincere about what she does. Everyone else at Abbott is to a degree but they’ve all got a certain
level of jadedness to them that each character has a completely different way
of playing. Janelle James’s Ava is hysterically determined to make everything all
about her. Sheryl Lee Ralph is both
wonderfully devout about her beliefs. Jacob is still convinced that he is
groundbreaking in his truth telling and Gregory – well at this point Tyler James
Williams rivals Jack Benny for being able to speak volumes by saying absolutely
nothing.
And even
now it keeps astonishing us: the opening scene of Season 4 had what may very
well have been the first white student to enroll in the school in the memory of
the institution. Ava thought she was being punked, Mr. Johnson thought they
were being audited and Jacob and Melissa tried to ask very politely without
mentioning why the parents were doing so her. Janine is handling it as best she
can but in a very awkward scene with his drawing a picture – well, let’s just
say certain crayons aren’t used and leave it at that. The issues with the golf
course may very well become this season’s outstanding storyline; given the
havoc it’s already wreaked on the school and the parent’s outrage at the PTA
meeting this has the potential to be the equivalent of the ‘Leg—end- ary School’
storyline that caused so much struggle in Season 2. But it’s already given a chance
for hysteria as the owner presented himself with polite obsequiousness and essentially
donated twenty computers. “What are you doing?” Ava asked when it was going on.
“Taking a bribe,” Melissa told the principal.
After
little more than three years Abbott Elementary keeps crossing new
boundaries. It hasn’t just rejuvenated the network comedy; it’s become such a
phenomena that it draws crowds at Comic-Con. And even now it seems
determined to make its very crossover with another iconic series: It’s
Always Sunny in Philadelphia. There’s logic to this, of course: in addition
to sharing a city Kaitlin Olson is already working for ABC on the new hit
series High Potential and it won’t take much persuasion to bring the cast
along for the ride. But part of me wonders if it will gel. To be sure both
series involving working class folk who are struggling to survive. But Philadelphia
is such a dark and often unpleasant comedy which would seem to be a
contrast to the cheerfulness of Abbott. Then again given the
commonalities of many of the characters, including the scheming nature of Ava
and the criminal undertones of Melissa, they might have more in common then I
think.
It’s now very clear that regardless of how
much television has changed during this new era it is still breaking ground in
comedy. And not just that but the style of comedy we got used to during the 2010s.
We’ve left behind the unpleasant world of Shameless and the darker
worlds of Silicon Valley and Veep. In its place is a comedy of
kindness and understanding where we laugh with the characters as they struggle
not because they deserve to fall on their faces. Perhaps that’s the reason the
audience response to The Franchise Armando Iannucci’s most recent HBO
comedy has been so lukewarm while critical reception has been (slightly) higher.
We want to leave behind the world of the Selina Meyers and the Nancy Botwins. Instead
we laugh not only at what happens at Abbott Elementary but the misadventures
at the Arconia in New York, the struggles and triumphs of Deb and another Ava
on Hacks and the brilliant struggles on Shrinking. (I’ll get to
Season 2 soon.) Yes these characters are
often humiliated but the laughter is somehow kinder because we are rooting for
these characters in a way we just couldn’t for the Larry Davids of the world. Abbott
Elementary is nothing short of sublime because it creates a world of
characters who are underpaid working in the poorest of situations, who suffer the slings and arrows
of just going to work every day, and not only are they not broken but they find
a way to smile and laugh at the world around them. That’s something to be celebrated
in any show; that it does so without becoming sappy or cynical – and has become
a cultural phenomenon – well, it’s enough to make you dance in a gymnasium
yourself.
Grade:
A+ (sorry couldn’t help myself)
No comments:
Post a Comment