It's a metric for the kind of
institutional memory that Abbott Elementary has that the most recent
episode opens with Jacob hosting a PTA meeting and apparently keeping it on
track. We already know (from the now classic Season 4 sequence) that every
single PTA meeting ends in line dancing. Jacob tries to preempt this by playing
a song that he says: "No one can dance to this song." Naturally the
segment ends with everyone, including Jacob, line dancing to this song. I won't
tell you what it is because I have no doubt its already gone viral and as
always you need to see it yourself.
Abbott Elementary has now entered its sixth season,
usually a time when even the greatest comedy series finally begin to lose their
freshness. I suspect Quinta Brunson is aware of this and will at some point
begin plans to wrap it up. But what's astonishing is even after five years plus
Brunson still keeps finding ways to mine laughs out of her working class comedy
and the fact that not a single one of her characters has lost any of the joy
around them. By the rules of diminishing returns I should be starting to find
the comedy at least a little stale but she keeps finding ways to make me laugh.
Brunson's Janine remains just as
much a go-getter since we met her five seasons ago. In the season premiere we
saw her spending most of her time and energy to put together a jungle-themed
classroom, despite everyone of her colleagues discouraging her. Eventually she
was going to take it down but then Mr. Johnson (please give William Standford
Davis an Emmy nomination) told her if he'd had a classroom like that he might
have become President "or even better, the highest paid janitor in the
country." So she kept the classroom up and the theme is there. In the
second episode when one of the best students at Abbott was playing hooky and
lying to her about it, she went to Ava – who is increasingly becoming a very
good principal despite herself – who told her what was going on and then said
she was going to talk to her. Ava did just that, while Janine not very covertly
listened in. Then she offered to be a supportive ear because that's who she is.
Gregory (Tyler James Williams
needs to finally get that Emmy this year) took on his new job as assistant
principal and demonstrated on his first day on the job he was actually more
competent at it in a way that caused Ava to be afraid. This was immediately
dismantled when we learned he'd hired a Chatbot to be his replacement. Naturally
he thought he could be both an assistant principal and keep his old job but it
took one day for him to realize he couldn't. Ava was right. (That sentence
doesn't sound right but it's becoming more regular in Season 6.) Gregory
admitted his flaws and Ava gave him help with only slightly less humiliation
then usual. She hid an AI teacher among his potential replacements.
Jacob and Melissa continue to be
one of our favorite odd couples and much of the second episode showed the two
of taking their work life bickering involving chewing gum into the classroom
and then coming home and acting exactly like a husband and wife going through a
tough time. The fact that Jacob's cousin was there having dinner and was acting
exactly like a child drove the point home. So after watching Couples Therapy
on streaming they realized what was going and solved their problems.
Jacob seems to be settling a
little bit more into the responsibilities he had a little better than usual but
there's no reason to think he isn't going to stop being all the fun he's always
been. During last night's episode when Jacob, Gregory and Janine realized that
their new substitute was a nun (Miranda Cosgrove work that penguin suit well) Jacob
began to panic the most because he went to Catholic School and it was a
nightmare. "We missed recess for all of second grade because our teacher
told us we broke a commandment and she wouldn't tell us which one. There are ten
of them!" This followed a hysterical night out when the three of them
went to their favorite bar which is of course called Bonertown and all of them
were embarrassed by the names of their drinks. (To be clear 'Sex on the Beach'
was the mildest drink that was ordered.) It didn't help that Janine
admitted she'd gotten high and was so afraid that the new nun would tell God if
she found out. After some hysterical embarrassment the three of them decided to
begin bad behavior to drive the new sister out and Jacob, as always, ridiculously
overacted. I guess you never forget your first love of improv.
Barb (Sheryl Lee Ralph) is still
following her instincts and still making mistakes. In the season premier she
tried to cover up the fact that a car nearly hit her while she was looking at
her phone by demanding a crossing guard and when the truth came out she used
the new crossing guard to cover it up. Last night both Barb and Melissa decided
to take a course for special needs certification which they thought was stuff
they already knew and it would give them an extra $2000 a year. Of course then
the teacher (please let Ali Wong show up more often!) was annoyed by their
behavior and kicked them out. Then they saw one of their special needs students
having problems and their training actually paid off. So in an acknowledgement
of being humble the episode ended with them returning to class and putting an
apple on their new teacher's desk. That was game recognizing game.
As always the fun comes whenever
Ava's at the center. (Will this finally be Janelle James year?) This week
during her step class she saw Mr. Johnson was teaching them for a try out a
reality dance competition. Ava, for once, was reluctant to go along with
putting her kids in the spotlight mainly because she was afraid of what would
happen when they inevitably lost. She carried that mood right up to the
aftermaths of the tryouts and had a conversation with Mr. Johnson where for a
change she was actually the voice of reason. She knew these kids were going to
have heartbreak in their lives and she didn't want them to find it out any
earlier then they had too. Mr. Johnson said that it was more important to have
hope no matter how remote. So Ava went along with it and sure enough the kids
did make it to the next level. Ava is still optimistic but she's more of a
realist then we've seen her be.
I couldn't be more delighted that Abbott
Elementary now has the revival of Scrubs as its lead in. When it
debuted in 2001 Scrubs was very much the prototype of the working class
comedy, balanced humor with real life – something as any fan knows it still
hasn't lost twenty years later. Both shows have the gift of balancing the
reality of the workplace while adding things we all know just happen. For
example in a moment that I'm sure has already gone viral, the second episode of
the series began with the remote to the TV in the Teacher's Lounge lost and it
was stuck on General Hospital. At first everyone was complaining and by
the end of the teaser the entire faculty was obsessed with the ridiculous
nature of the plots so when the remote was found none of them wanted to change
the channel.
The Emmy category for Best Comedy
is going to be a bit different this year. Hacks has ended its run; Widow's
Bay won't be eligible for this year and it's not clear The Studio will
have episodes in time. Abbott Elementary is going to be there again this
year. Maybe this is the time it becomes Most Likely to Win Best Comedy. I know
it's early in the semester but we all have our favorite students.
My score: 5 stars.
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