A couple of months back, Andrea and decided to give Abbott Elementary a try. The show was on our radar thanks to the appearance of 3 cast members on an episode of Celebrity Wheel of Fortune and the series and cast getting nominated for award shows. In recent years, virtually almost TV shows that get Emmy nods or nominations at the Golden Globes are shows on cable or streaming. Shows on broadcast network television tend to get overlooked.
Andrea and I finished up season 1 of Abbott Elementary and we both agree the show deserves all it's accolades.
The series is a mockumentary style sitcom that follows the struggles and travails at an inner city Philadelphia predominantly black elementary school.
The shows's creator Quinta Brunson plays Janine Teagues, an overly optimistic second-grade teacher who thinks her youth and new ideas about education will propel her students and her school past the barriers of an underfunded and oft ignored school. Her optimism is frequently challenged. Like with her simple endeavor to change a single light bulb shorts out the power to the whole school.
Janine is also saddled with a long time boyfriend who is not as good at rap as he thinks he is. She can do so much better.
For example, Gregory Eddie, a substitute, later first-grade teacher. As portrayed by Tyler James Williams, Gregory is frequently giving a lot of side eye to the camera for the all the stupid bullshit going at this school.
And there is no greater supply of bullshit at Abbott than from principal Ava Coleman. Gregory was actually up for the position of principal at Abbott but Ava got the job by blackmailing the superintendent. Ava has no clue what it really means to be principal and spends most of her time indulging in self promotion. It's a credit to Janelle James that Ava is not 100% unlikable but damn it's close.
Thankfully there are other people at Abbott who know what the hell they're doing.
William Stanford Davis is Mr. Johnson, the school's custodian with unexpected depths of knowledge, wisdom and talents. Mostly he's just weird and does things on his schedule, not yours.
Lisa Ann Walter is Melissa Schemmenti, a second-grade teacher with a flinty edge but she still loves her kids. And if her kids need anything that Abbott can't provide, well, Melissa knows certain people who know people.
Chris Perfetti plays Jacob Hill, an awkward history teacher who supports Janine. No he turns out he does not have a crush on Janine. Turns out he's gay and yes he really does have a boyfriend who we really do meet.
Sheryl Lee Ralph portrays Barbara Howard, an old-school kindergarten teacher who speaks with a sharp clipped elocution that conveys she's not prepared to put up with any nonsense.
Andrea and I enjoyed season 1 of Abbott Elementary and look forward to catching up to season 2.
I'm just now wrapping up the first season of Community. I've seen clips from the show for years and I've always found those scenes to be funny but never had a chance to watch the series itself until recently.
The show is as funny as those clips indicated but it's also has a sweetness and an emotional depth I had no anticipated.
Jeff Winger (Joel McHale) is a former lawyer who enrolls at Greendale after being suspended by the state bar. He's sarcastic, outspoken, overconfident, narcissistic and manipulative. He forms a study group to work his way into Britta's pants. But he grudgingly becomes close to the members of the study group and grows as a character who will make personal sacrifices to help his unexpected friends.
Perhaps the most unexpected friendship comes from Abed Nadir (Danny Pudi) a film student of limited social skills and an unlimited knowledge of TV shows and movies, and Troy Barnes (Donald Glover), a former high school star quarterback who lost his scholarship to a top-tier university. Troy starts the series trying to be a cool jock type person but his relationship with Abed leads him to embrace his nerdy and carefree side. Many episodes end with a closing credit bit where Abed and Troy are engaged in some kind of nerdy activity somewhat connected to the events of that week's episode.
Community is a genuinely funny show and I'm looking forward to the continuing to catch up on the following seasons.
Confession: I watched a lot of Gilligan's Island this weekend. Some damn cable channel was running a marathon and I was too damn lazy to look for something else to watch.
Confession II: I'm not sorry I watched a lot of Gilligan's Island this weekend. Sometimes the mind needs nothing more than the soft supple charms of Mary Ann and Ginger and the sheer stupidity of Gilligan.
Next week, the Tuesday TV Touchbase catches up the season finale of Superman & Lois.
Until next time, remember to be good to one another and try to keep it down in there, would ya? I'm trying to watch TV over here.
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