“Abbott Elementary” Is a Classic in the Making
During its recently-wrapped first season, ABC sitcom Abbott Elementary garnered enormous critical acclaim and developed a passionately devoted fanbase. Here, I reflect on what makes the show work so well and why it feels like a classic in the making.
The art of the network television sitcom has evolved dramatically over the last seven decades and their cultural dominance has markedly declined in the last two. Gone are the days of “Must See TV” when Friends and Seinfeld were garnering 25–30 million viewers a week and swept the Emmys. Nowadays the minority of people who still watch network television are generally watching sports, reality television, and procedural dramas.
That’s certainly not to say that there have not been good network television sitcoms since their heyday (which arguably lasted from the early 1970s to the late 1990s). The last 20 years have given us well-regarded series like Fox’s Arrested Development; ABC’s Modern Family and Black-ish; NBC’s The Office, Parks and Recreation, and 30 Rock; and CBS’s How I Met Your Mother and The Big Bang Theory. But the reality is that network television comedies aren’t nearly as ubiquitous or high-quality as they once were. In the last 10 years, only 18 of the 70 nominees for Outstanding Comedy Series have gone to series that aired on network television. Nowadays, cable networks and streaming platforms are consistently the best producers of high quality short-form comedy.
Given the state of things, I was more than a little surprised to discover that the best new comedy series I had seen in ages was a new ABC sitcom that arrived with relatively little fanfare.
Abbott Elementary is the brainchild of the gifted Quinta Brunson, a 32-year-old writer, producer, comedian, and actress who gained prominence with her self-produced Instagram series, her appearance in various BuzzFeed videos, and her appearances on the HBO sketch comedy series A Black Lady Sketch Show. Appropriately, the multi-hyphenate is the creator, head writer, and star of the series, and is also one of its executive producers.
The series is set at a fictional and very underfunded elementary school in Philadelphia (where Brunson herself was born and raised) and follows the school’s quirky but hard-working staff. Brunson anchors the show as Janine Teagues, a second grade teacher whose optimism is simultaneously admirable and naive. She is close friends with Jacob Hill (Chris Perfetti), a nerdy and socially awkward gay man who teaches history. She is in perpetual awe of Barbara Howard (Sheryl Lee Ralph), a deeply religious veteran teacher who is full of wisdom and grace. She occasionally runs afoul of Melissa Schemmenti (Lisa Ann Walter), her fellow second grade teacher who is a tough-taking Italian divorcee who is deeply ingrained in the city’s working class white community. The bane of Janine’s existence is Principal Ava Colman (Janelle James), a sassy, immature, and social media-obsessed woman who only scored the job because she blackmailed superintendent Denzel Collins (Reggie Hayes) after discovering that he was having an affair.
In the pilot episode, a disgruntled first grade teacher kicks a student and subsequently gets fired. Gregory Eddie (Tyler James Williams), an uptight but kind and contempt substitute, shows up to fill in for her. His journey to get to know the teachers and understand the culture of the school essentially serves as a surrogate for the viewers’ journey. By the end of the season, Gregory is smitten with Janine, dating Barbara’s daughter, and seething with rage when he finds out why he lost the position of principal of Abbott Elementary to its current incumbent.
The highlights of the impressive ensemble are undoubtedly Janelle James, who steals nearly every scene that she’s in with her fully-realized and wholly original take on the role, and Sheryl Lee Ralph, who brings dignity, exasperation, and sharp wit in equal measure to her role. With that said, the entire ensemble is excellent. Brunson proves to be just as good an actress as she is a writer, with her perfectly pitched performance that expertly anchors the series. Lisa Ann Walter has a pair of fantastic showcases and more than her fair share of savage one-liners. Tyler James Williams and Chris Perfetti perfectly embody their characters and I have a feeling we have only seen the tip of the iceberg in terms of what the are capable of. And it must be said that the vast ensemble of child actors that play the students of Abbott Elementary are superbly cast.
The plot lines for the series are relatively straightforward. This is not 30 Rock or Modern Family, where each 21-minute episode is jam-packed with cutaways and frenetic interconnecting. Things are simple here. Janine tries to start a gifted program in one episode. Ava takes over Janine’s step class in another. Barbara struggles to use new technology mandated by the school board. A new TikTok trend causes safety concerns at the school. Ava has to make a big presentation before the school board that she is disastrously ill-prepared for. But despite the relative simplicity of the plot setups and mechanics, the writing is textured and complex.
The first way that the scripts exhibits real complexity is in the characterizations. By the end of the first season, each of the six main characters has become richly nuanced.We learn about the deep well of insecurities instilled in Janine by her cold mother and watch her grapple with letting go of her longtime boyfriend Tariq (Zack Fox), who she outgrew a longtime ago. We see Barbara have a major values clash with her daughter and struggle with whether it is time to retire and hand over the reins to a younger generation. We see Melissa’s vulnerable side as she is racked with anxiety over the prospect of dating again and her deep care for her students that belies her tough-talking facade. We see Gregory’s sadness over his father’s disapproval and his quiet yearning for Janine. We get a glimpse of Jacob’s relationship with his boyfriend. We learn that even Ava (who is the show’s zaniest comic element) has a rich interior life complicated by her caretaking for her ailing grandmother and her own self-doubt. Even Mr. Johnson (William Stanford Davis), the school’s eccentric custodian, is revealed to have a fascinating history of different careers. The slow and steady revelations of these character details not only enhances viewer investment but also are themselves an investment in a long run for the series as countless potential plots are immediately evident from them.
The second way Abbott Elementary’s scripts demonstrates real complexity its through the rich commentary and satire they present. The fourth episode “New Tech” centers on Barbara’s struggle with a high-tech new reading program only for it to be revealed at the end that the program was actually designed as a predictive tool to find out which of the inner city kids would end up in jail. The sixth episode “Gifted Program” garners endless laughs and insights related to the pros and cons of separating students based on their intellectual prowess and perceived potential. And the show’s penultimate episode “Ava vs. Superintendent” takes some wickedly clever jabs at the petty game-playing and political maneuvering that occurs at even the smallest levels of government.
The show goes beyond clever jabs, however, and manages to be bold without being dramatic or preachy. The show focuses on the resilience and determination of a historically underserved group — the staff and students of our largely neglected public schools — and it calls to task the government and public alike for not giving them enough respect and support. The ensemble cast reflects the real world of Philadelphia, with a majority black cast. (There’s actually only one white, straight character on the whole show.) And, even if it wasn’t intentional, showing an immensely kind and competent gay elementary school teacher is an act of progressiveness and defiance when there is a horrific movement afoot to label sexual minorities as “groomers” of young children (see Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay Bill”).
Despite how extraordinarily high the quality is and deceptively bold the subject matter is, Abbott Elementary actually fits into the modern network television landscape. It is filmed in the tried-and-true mockumentary approach that long-running network television comedies like The Office, Parks and Recreation, and Modern Family popularized. Despite being a bit overly familiar, the gimmick works quite well here, as the asides to the camera generate big laughs and facilitate character development. It also isn’t very edgy or controversial (usually a bad thing for network television), at least at first glance. In fact, one could even call it wholesome. At least, it is wholesome in a Ted Lasso-esque way, meaning that its characters have a genuine respect for each other and are seeking to do and be good.
Abbott Elementary’s 13-episode first season premiered on December 7, 2021 and concluded on April 12, 2022. It proved itself to be a modest hit by network television comedy standards and saw impressive growth when delayed viewing via DVR and streaming were factored in. Its ratings were impressive enough to quickly secure a renewal for a second season, which was announced in March. Even if it had garnered minimal viewership, though, it would likely have secured a second season for one simple reason — the reviews were that good. The first season of the series has a 97% critical approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes and an average 78/100 score on MetaCritic. These scores are very impressive for any comedy series, especially one on network television. (The last time one scored this type of critical adoration was NBC’s philosophical satire The Good Place.)
The show seems well-poised to be a big player at the forthcoming 74th Primetime Emmy Awards, although it will have some stiff competition in the form of the second season of reigning champions Ted Lasso and Hacks, the first season of Only Murders in the Building, the final season of Insecure, and the new seasons of prior Emmy winners like Barry, Atlanta, and The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel. Its strongest chances appear to be in Outstanding Comedy Series, Supporting Actress (for the brilliant Janelle James), and Writing (specifically for Brunson’s work on the pilot episode).
But even if the show doesn’t win big at the Emmys this year, I suspect it will eventually. It has been many years since I saw a series that managed to be genuinely clever, uproariously funny, and deeply emotionally engaging all while having a setup and cast of characters that seem capable of generating a long and healthy run.
Ultimately, Abbott Elementary is something genuinely special and unexpected. And I strongly suspect that the best is yet to come.
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