Last Updated on 03/09/2024 by Arun jain
Few enemies are more vindictive than the queen bees of the school, especially the adult versions. Have doubts? Cross the PTA president at your kids’ school and find out what evil lurks behind his fake smile.
Warning: There will be consequences. You’ll be ostracized by the moms who host the town’s annual “girls night out.” (For the uninitiated, this still happens, at least in the NYC suburbs, where grown women call themselves girls and drinking requires a sanctioned activity.)
The good news is, as a parent who challenged an actual school ruler, I can attest that, like Gloria Gaynor, you too will survive.
However, standing still carries more risks for teachers, including losing their jobs. in English teacher, J Premiering two of eight episodes on FX on Monday, September 2 and airing weekly before streaming on Hulu the following day, Ivan Marquez Dare to Buck the System.
Marquez treats his students very well Austin, TexasHigh School and engages them honestly and respectfully. Not to worry, the series doesn’t wallow in painful passion and is delightfully free of twee sentimentality. Instead, Brian Jordan Alvarez, creator, executive producer, director and star, takes a slick approach to workplace comedy.
And it’s a lot of fun doing it.
“I just thought it would be an interesting world,” says Alvarez on the Television Critics Association summer tour. “I think it’s an interesting non-uniform environment. Therefore, it is a place where people of all backgrounds are forced to interact and work together for the common goal of educating these students. And I think Austin gave this kind of liberal place to a very conservative big place, and it’s very similar to where I grew up.
“I also went to high school in this little town in Tennessee called Sewanee, and it was a very liberal place in very conservative Tennessee,” he continues. “And so, with that interplay, I knew we could play in these gray areas, and that’s part of what makes the show great, in my opinion.”
His charm and acerbic observations on how often public schools are at the mercy of wealthy parents also make him great. They donate money or services and then assume they know more than the trained teachers and should be running the place.
Marquez is an amazing teacher, the kind I wanted to help guide me as a teenager. He is also the principled, smart, compassionate teacher I would want for my children. Finally, an opportunity to be exposed to great literature and complex ideas about why we send our children to school. (Forcing them to tackle an advanced algebra formula they’ll forget after the final—I’m less sure.)
As Marquez, Alvarez is endearing and flawed in the six episodes available for review. The actor has proved that he has perfect timing; For those who need more proof or just crave more Alvarez, watch the episodes on his revival. Will and Gracewhere she played Jack’s (Sean Hayes) lover.
English teacherLike any solid workplace comedy, it’s rooted in reality.
Monday’s premiere does what Alvarez needs to do by establishing who his friends and enemies are. In the pilot, he first encounters many obstacles in his quest to become a noble-minded teacher. Queen bee Linda Harrison filed a complaint against Alvarez. His high crime? Her older son, who has graduated, saw Marquez kissing a man—her partner at the time—on the school grounds.
The principal makes it clear that parents win when it’s teachers versus parents. Incidentally, these school bullies don’t speak with the Southern accent Linda Harrison injects her venom into; They also shout in thick New York accents, muttering complaints along with f-in’. Linda Harrisons are everywhere, and—if we’re lucky—even Evan Marquez. He wants to help, teach and guide students. Sometimes, it even protects them.
It proves this when The gun club is practicing. This serves as a sobering reminder for schools in an age of mass shootings. Marquez initially reacts in terror, as any sane person would. You can see the adrenaline pumping through it. Then, it is trained. He tries to save the students, pushing the kids into the hallway and ordering everyone in the classroom to get down on the floor.
Teenagers are vulnerable. They know this was the voice of the gun club and have been practicing for active shooters since they were in preschool. The series didn’t need to dwell on how mindlessly tragic this is; It is woven into the plot.
Even when Marquez takes an unpopular stance, as he does in this episode, he’s undeniably likable, as is a solid supporting cast of students and teachers.
Gym teacher Marky (Sean Patton, Marron), a bear of a person who delights in uttering offensively dated homophobic and sexist slurs, still has a decent read on most situations and people. Marky understands adults and teenagers, even if they are hilariously stupid.
In one episode, a student announces that she can’t do the job because she suffers from Kayla Syndrome, which she is naming in her honor, but is actually “asymptomatic Tourette’s”. It is as real as it sounds.
As students explain her discovered condition and why she can’t do the assigned work, they reveal that she is easily triggered. There are many of them, who have been brought up to believe that nothing More important than their feelings. These children are praised for completing the most elementary tasks and are expected to be applauded for whatever they do.
When students don’t do the assigned reading and write godawful papers—which he says are AI-generated—Marquez flunks some and gives others a fair, which means a bad grade. The children and their disillusioned parents are terrified. They are used to report cards that sound like a Swedish pop band—A, B, B, A.
“I didn’t even know that was a grade you guys could still give,” one student says of the F.
“You can’t do this,” insisted another.
And this is wonderful psychobabble as one tries to be the voice of mature understanding and say, “Mr. Marquez, your feelings are valid. We have all learned our lesson here.”
Alvarez perfectly captures his humble tone, born of entitlement. It was the teachers’ sole prerogative to issue good, bad or mediocre grades. Very occasionally, parents were called or even asked for a meeting. Once, however, administrators sided with their staff when it came to grade-grubbing.
For a long time, it seems.
Here, the school principal (Enrico Colantoni, Veronica Mars) defines fuzzy. He would sooner fire someone than complicate his life. Also, she actually runs the school, parent Linda Harrison (Jane Lyon, claws). It is a major donor because public schools cannot meet government allocations. English teacher Set in the suburbs of Austin, where it’s easier to cut teachers than NYC, but these parents are everywhere.
Harrison is the embodiment of these mothers that their children are special than you. Their kids will go to whatever college they want most—grades and ability be damned—if they have the money and the connections. Marquez is an obstacle to that goal because his grades reflect the students’ actual work.
Harrison is rendered so perfectly that I hope we see her again with her cascading Trump tresses, long gun and pink lip gloss. She complained that The Great Gatsby Too vulgar to teach in class. With his somehow scandalous kiss and daring to give his son a bad grade, Marquez is squarely in Harrison’s crosshairs. Also, this is not just a turn of phrase.
Harrison called Marquez into a meeting, and the principal warned him that he had to go or he would quit. Marquez maintains that he is right (after all, he is) but attends. Harrison’s approach to welcoming someone into his confidence – because how could anyone resist? – doesn’t work.
The scenes with her are funny, spot-on commentary on public schools. Marquez and his best friend, history teacher Gwen (Stephanie Koenig, Chemistry lessons), meet Harrison at his restaurant. The cash-only eatery’s specialties are deep-fried steak nuggets and fountain sprite with double syrup.
“Mr. Marquez, grad, what are we thinking here?” she asks conspiratorially. “Can’t we change it up a bit?”
He is no fool, except when it comes to workplace politics. Marquez bluntly asks if she is motivated by other reasons, such as her horror that her older son is gay and she suspects that Marquez somehow turned her.
“I don’t care if you’re gay,” she says. Yet she whispers the word gay in the same way she used it decades ago, indicating that it’s somehow such a terrible word that it’s rarely uttered.
“Regardless, I have to stick with the grades as they are,” he replies. “I’m a teacher, and it’s my duty to give accurate grades.”
The next day, Harrison shows up in Marquez’s classroom with a maid, takes notes, disrupts the class, and claims parental rights to be there.
Marquez has acquired a powerful enemy—and he’s about to enter a war just as vicious but no less bloody, as he explains to his reading students. Red badge of courage.
School settings are always appropriate for the series. the witness Abbott Elementary, Room 222, Welcome Beck Cotter, Head of Class, Saved by the Bell, All America and Friday Night Lights.
Like most shows, English teacher Not groundbreaking. It’s something good – simply, quietly excellent. It’s a comedy that packs the punch of an important documentary. Yes, some schools are failing, but that’s not because of an amazing English teacher.
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