FX has more than earned the benefit of the doubt when it comes to comedy. Not only have they displayed a willingness to embrace creative voices with all-timers like “Better Things” and “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia,” but they’re arguably the most critically acclaimed home for the genre of the current decade with the trifecta of “Reservation Dogs,” “What We Do in the Shadows” and “The Bear.” So when a show like “English Teacher” comes into view, one without an obviously notable pedigree or all-star cast, its broadcast home alone makes it worth consideration. The problem is that comedy often takes time to find its voice. After six episodes of “English Teacher” screened for press, I still don’t know exactly what to think of this “Abbott High School,” a show about teachers navigating the treacherous waters of what it must be like to teach the Extremely Online generation. Every episode made me laugh, and that’s all that really matters I suppose, but it’s not quite consistent enough yet to deserve placement among the FX best. It’s certainly not an A, but it’s also nowhere near flunking. It may be a critical copout, but the truth is that this class is still in session.
“English Teacher” was created by its star, Brian Jordan Alvarez, a likable screen presence who plays Evan Marquez, a high school English teacher in Austin, Texas, a place where, well, education in general has been a bit of a hot button subject. Yes, “English Teacher” is ready to make light of the political pitfalls of being an educator in a state that often seems anti-learning, which sometimes makes it feel like it’s dancing in a comedy minefield. Every time that it feels like “English Teacher” is going to drown in the treacherous waters of mocking a culture that has redefined the word “woke,” Alvarez and his team find a way out of it, whether it’s by upending the expectation or just avoiding the hot button issue altogether. It can sometimes feel like “English Teacher” lacks teeth, but it’s also an impressive balancing act in that it also avoids feeling didactic or condescending as so much expressively left-leaning humor has a habit of doing.
Evan battles the unpredictability of being an English teacher in 2024 with faculty allies that include his best friend Gwen (Stephanie Koenig), gregarious PE teacher Markie (Sean Patton), and relatively supportive Principal Moretti (the great Enrico Colantoni). The star of “Veronica Mars” plays world-weary goodness well, the kind of guy who encourages Evan to carefully pick his battles but will back him up when he goes to war.
The series opens with an investigation into Evan’s behavior when he kissed his boyfriend (Jordan Firstman) at a school function, reportedly, in the eyes of a deluded mother, turning one of his students gay. The idea that modern, self-centered parents are talking out of both sides of their mouths when it comes to education—both insisting they want education for their kids while obsessively sheltering them from the real world at the same time—gives “English Teacher” some of its best cultural fuel, but it does sometimes feel like a writers’ room playing hot-button darts with a whiteboard. The second episode uses the Southern tradition of the male athletes dressing up like women for a pep rally into an unpacking of drag culture that doesn’t quite work on a macro level, but the show regularly clicks on a micro one. It’s a program with smaller comedy beats that really work—a subplot in one episode about Gwen freaking out about a secret student-generated ranking of the attractiveness of the teachers is a gem—that often feels like it’s getting dragged back into the topicality that likely got it green lit in the first place. The two shows don’t always click together.
I have a feeling that will change. “English Teacher” can only mock Southern-Fried Soccer Moms so many times before running out of ideas, and the character-driven version of this show is stronger, and already showing signs of taking over after only six episodes. An arc in which Evan grows increasingly attracted to a fellow teacher (Langston Kerman) is charming, and hints at what this show can be when it’s a little less concerned about being current and can focus solely on what so many FX comedies are: great.
Six episodes screened for review. Premieres on September 2nd at 10pm EST on FX, streaming the next day on Hulu.
