Tuesday, March 14, 2023

What I’m Watching: Abbott Elementary

Abbott Elementary: Season 2, Episode 18 “Teacher Appreciation” (B+)

We don’t often get a chance to see all of the teachers together united in a cause, and this was a fun opportunity to see they both on the same page and at each other’s throats. It’s not much of a surprise that Teacher Appreciation Week is a scam, since it encourages parents to send their children with small gifts but doesn’t include anything substantial from the district. If anyone was going to change that, it would be Ava, but leave it to her to only do a tiny bit, getting two courtside seats so that the rest of the teachers went unrewarded and had to deal with the disappointment of not being able to use them. Things getting heated between Barbara and Melissa was a tense highlight, and I also enjoyed how Jacob knew that Mr. Morton was manipulating him but was into his logic anyway. Mr. Johnson ending up with the tickets because apparently everyone voted for him was a humorous result, especially since he managed to get an extra $1000 - plus Barbara’s much-desired $50 gift card - after being asked to name ten cleaning products. We didn’t get any more developments on the Janine-Gregory front aside from her jumping in on the insult train when he tried to pull off a new hat, but there was plenty of drama with Janine and her sister. It’s good to see Ayo Edibiri from “The Bear” as Ayesha, who was not very appreciative of her host and seemed interested in doing anything but hanging out with her. Things got intense and uncomfortable during game night, when apparently only Jacob knew the rules of the game they were playing, but it was a helpful setup for Janine and Ayesha to air their grievances by comparing them to the game. They do seem to be on better terms now, even if Janine continues to be the eternal butt of everyone else’s jokes.

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