Review: Abbott Elementary, “Career Day, Parts 1 & 2” | Season 3, Episodes 1 & 2

Change—but not too much change—is in the air at Abbott Elementary

Credit: Disney/Gilles Mingasson

Welcome back to Episodic Medium’s coverage of ABC comedy Abbott Elementary, which returns for its strike-delayed third season. As always, this first review is free, but future reviews are exclusively for paid subscribers. To learn more, see our full winter schedule.

“Welcome back to the house that Ava built.”

One of the biggest struggles Abbott Elementary’s second season faced was its attempt to balance its sitcom need to always return to the status quo with its desire to tell new and interesting stories, to continue to be an exceptional entry into the genre itself. This struggle really manifested itself in the charter school storyline, which presented an interesting threat to Abbott Elementary—as well as an interesting storyline challenge to Abbott Elementary—as we knew it. On paper, the charter school story provided an interesting adversarial aspect to the show that could lead to plenty of potential shifts in said status quo. But in practice, Abbott Elementary truly made clear just how beholden to that status quo it had to be, as those potential shifts would have made Abbott Elementary less about Abbott Elementary at all, even with the same characters around.

I’m most reminded of the comment from my review of Season Two’s “Festival” that figured the episode couldn’t really be the end of the charter school storyline (it was), as it was “too clean;” surely, it couldn’t be that simple to put an end to an impending threat to Abbott, especially as it was a story reflecting a genuine piece of the unfortunate reality of the public education system. My argument at the time, from my own personal experience in writers’ rooms, was that it being “clean” was the exact reason why it would be the end (and that “clean” would’ve been the exact terminology that would’ve been used when pitching it). It was the cleanest version of wrapping this story—a story that technically didn’t lend itself to being clean at all, given the subject matter—up. I really think there was a situation at play of the charter school story possibly being “too big” for Abbott Elementary, at least still only two seasons in. It was a big swing that simply couldn’t be as big as it arguably should have been or that certain audiences possibly would’ve wanted it to be—because other audiences would also want the show to just remain the same.

At least from these first two episodes of Season Three, it seems like Abbott Elementary learned from those struggles of Season Two. The school district fellowship introduced here in “Career Day” is clearly Abbott Elementary’s attempt (and choice) to have its cake and eat it too, both changing the status quo and keeping things as much the same as possible. A key element is that Abbott remains the center of the series’ universe, as it should with its titular basis, but another key is how it works Janine into that equation. As I’ve highlighted a big struggle of last season, I would be remiss to ignore the big success of it, which was how it worked to have Janine grow as her own person (in addition to as a teacher, a more obvious component of the series) throughout it. “Career Day” continues that path of growth for Janine, with her accepting the fellowship and taking a step back from Abbott.

Of course, as I mentioned the having its cake and eating it of the storyline, there is the combination of the finite length of the fellowship—allowing Janine to return to her second-grade class once all is said and done—as well as the cherry on top of the fellowship allowing Janine to be at Abbott once or twice a week. So she can still have emotionally charged, end-of-day wrap-ups with Gregory, still go to Barbara for sage advice (or the not-so-patented “Barbara Bummer”), and still be clowned on by Ava (and even Philadelphia Eagles). Plus, once everything’s in place in this two-part premiere, we’re already four months into Janine’s fellowship. So things are “different,” but they’re not too far away from the same for Abbott Elementary.

Part 1 is the episode I find more interesting in this premiere though, because it does allow Abbott Elementary to tell a story just slightly differently. As I know Episodic Medium’s fearless leader, Myles McNutt, always has something to say about the mockumentary aspect of the show, I’ll just note a moment in Part 1 that went from being one of my favorite beats to having me questioning logistics to becoming one of my favorite beats again.¹ It’s the scene in which Janine, Gregory, and Jacob are hanging out at the bar together. I actually found myself wishing there were more “hangout” scenes like this for the characters, outside of just the teachers’ lounge or school-related activities. There was a casual vibe to it that pinged for me in a way I’m sure a scene between “The Brunchy Bunch” would’ve as well. But then I wondered if the camera crew would really follow the three of them around in such a situation. (However, considering the documentary’s subject matter, I do think these casual moments for teachers outside of school definitely make more sense than a camera crew filming a sick Janine or her fractured relationship with her sister.) However, the reveal that this particular filming was the impetus for the documentary crew getting their camera equipment stolen is exactly what ended up making it all worth it.

Part 2 is more of a standard episode of Abbott Elementary—with a nice enough Philly-centric cameo—but as it’s past the part of the premiere that is all the moving pieces, there is a stasis that comes with it. While Part 1 has the task of getting the audience up to speed as to what happened in the “five” months (it’s been more in real time—there were a couple of union strikes) and how things have changed, Part 2 settles into that change.² (The big “change” in Part 1 is the “by-the-books” Ava, which is brilliant in its own right.) And while things like the general concept of the Career Day (as Janine’s first big district move) and where Janine/Gregory’s relationship is (which is “weird,” until it goes back to less weird) work, the same can’t really said about subplots like Melissa not wanting to get married and Barbara getting a makeover from a cosmetologist. Part 2 suddenly puts a lot of weight on Melissa’s relationship with vending machine Gary which doesn’t quite land. This is nothing against Lisa Ann Walter’s or Bruno Amatos’ performance in the episode, but there was never anything to make the audience all that invested in their relationship; there’s also not much there to make the same audience invested in their potential engagement and eventual break-up. The episode is clearly leading to the heartbreak, but despite the cuteness of the pair, there’s no reason to really be affected by it. Barbara’s “makeover,” on the other hand, is so much more low stakes—and really just a half a step above the other interactions between the teachers and their Career Day proxies—but it’s also lacking in the comedy front. Part 1 simply makes better use of both of these characters and the ensemble as a whole. It helps that they have a common goal of stopping the new and “improved” Principal Ava.

I just have to say, the visual of Ava dancing along to “Back That Azz Up” and just succumbing to her true form is perhaps one of the purest bits of joy I’ve seen on television in quite some while. As lovely as it is to see all these characters once again after all these months, Ava’s return is arguably the most exciting. Because, of course, even a more by-the-book, professional version of Ava is still Ava. (Love the touch of her “Harvard” sweatshirt with the bedazzled “AVA.”) It’s a change that obviously isn’t going to last for long, but it’s also a change that reminds us why Ava can’t really be anything other than Ava. Again, on the subject of character growth, Season Two had quite a bit of that for Ava and actually figured out a way to make her a decent educator and boss without removing the quirks that make her character still so unsuited for this principal job. As we see here, an Ava that completely plays by the rules is in no way a better principal, as all the official mandates are all the things Janine and the new school district representatives are trying to change.

Credit: Disney/Gilles Mingasson

Which brings us to those new representatives of the school district, Manny (Josh Segarra), Emily (Kimia Behpoornia), and Simon (Benjamin Norris). (Segarra is the obvious casting coup, but Behpoornia and Norris are some heavy-hitting comedy casting choices in their own rights.) As is my curmudgeonly way, while I’ve done my best to give the show props when I can for its will-they-won’-they situation¹ with Janine/Gregory, I’ve also made pretty clear that I (at best) don’t really care about the pairing when all is said and done.³ (I was the same way about Jake/Amy when I wrote about Brooklyn Nine-Nine for The A.V. Club, only I will say Janine and Gregory have a more solid foundation than Jake and Amy did, by virtue of Gregory not being a manchild who can somehow barely even function in the adult world. Yeah, people didn’t appreciate my lack of shipping Jake/Amy for logical reasons.)

I bring this up because I briefly imagined a situation in Season Two in which Janine ended up dating Leslie Odom Jr.’s Draemond, but now I am all in here on Janine dating Segarra’s Manny. From what we get of Manny in these two episodes, there’s quite of bit of the character that reads as Male Janine-coded—and the whole district team falls just on the right side of things, character-wise, not coming across as “disruptors” who think they know better than everyone else in education—and it works without being a weak facsimile. For those unfamiliar, Segarra also recently played the most loveable (and patient) boyfriend ever on The Other Two. And yes, I kept hoping Manny would dab just once during these episodes:

Credit: Comedy Central

Alas, he did not. But like with Janine/Gregory interactions—and even in the sweeter Janine/Tariq and Janine/Maurice moments of seasons past—it is always nice to see someone appreciate and love Janine for just who she is, when so much of the comedy surrounding the character comes from people dunking on her. Manny immediately comes to Janine on a similar wavelength and with professional flattery; though, to be fair, that professional flattery extends to his interactions with other characters, including in an integral scene with Barbara in Part 1. Meanwhile, Janine and Gregory continue to struggle. to find the same wavelength when it comes to the romantic elephant in the room, which yes, I understand is a staple of the genre. But where we are now in the will-they-won’t-they is in a place after Janine and Gregory have finally addressed their feelings. The Season Two finale made it understandable why the two of them wouldn’t just “go there” just yet, but now, things become more complicated with Gregory shutting the door (as much as the door can be shut in this type of story) on them.

However, outside of relationship possibilities, it’ll be interesting to see how the district representatives factor into this season. As Brooklyn Nine-Nine taught me the the only good cops are the ones inside the Nine-Nine, Abbott Elementary sort of has a way of doing the same with educators. Manny and his district colleagues make a good first impression and even get the reluctant Barbara to trust them, but who knows where this might go? It is a good sign that these characters’ quirkiness and earnestness aren’t too much—which is pretty different from last season’s Story Samurais, who were definitely a cringier beast—but they are still outsiders. And outsiders? Well, they can disrupt the status quo at Abbott Elementary.

Stray observations

• Welcome back to Abbott Elementary coverage here at Episodic Medium, folks. It’s not so much a secret that the entire landscape of TV criticism is not what it once was, but I have been really feeling disillusioned by my place in this world (especially while I am currently working on getting staffed in a TV writers’ room—a lot of disillusionment all around) lately. I will say, as I was writing this review, I wasn’t expecting it, but I was definitely on a high. So I hope this coverage brings even one person as much joy as Juvenile’s “Back That Azz Up” does Ava.

• Ava: “Janine! One of our most… teachers at Abbott.” Ava really was the MVP of Part 1.

• Ava busting out the popcorn to show the footage that made things weird between Janine/Gregory is delightful, but even funnier is just how funny—even funnier than the point of the footage—she finds the mention of the camera crew getting their cameras stolen.

• What is the most Janine moment of the episode? Her not being used to positive reinforcement or her trying out cursing (and it feeling forced)? I’m going with the positive reinforcement.

• As much as I’ve praised Ava throughout this, the best joke to me was Jacob’s excitement to play Common doing “spoken word” on the Korean War and Janine explaining he was actually just “rapping acapella.” I am a person who is constantly thinking about Common’s “spoken word” rap on Kanye’s “Get ‘Em High,” as it’s like he thought he was on a different song completely and just went with that.

• Jalen Hurts is very attractive—and probably very nice. He’s, um, maybe not the best athlete-actor.

1. MM here to note that we have a set visit and panel with Brunson and the producers next week, and I will be asking about this.

2. MM back again to note that I thought it was interesting how they used the “five months” as a way to explain why the season wasn’t starting at the beginning of the school year, which allowed them to jump into “real time” insofar as the show and real-life calendars align.

3. Here’s the thing with a will-they-won’t-they relationship: The goal is to have the audience on that journey with the characters and to want them to get together. People were supposed to want Ross and Rachel together. People were supposed to want Dawson and Joey together. People were supposed to want Jim and Pam together. I’ve never been one of those people. (And thankfully for Dawson’s Creek, it decided to go in a different direction.) I’m not anti-will-they-won’t-they relationships, but I am aware of how difficult it is for a series to sustain such a trope, and to do so while maintaining the spark and intrigue. For me, I often find myself shipping main characters with supporting characters who tend to usually be stop-gaps before the main pairing finds its way back to each other. It’s something that really only served me well with Pacey/Joey. (Thanks to that “different direction.”) I will also say, that unlike those examples I just mentioned, I don’t actively dislike Janine/Gregory; I just can see how the series could unexpectedly write its way into making alternative options more appealing. (It did a good job with the writing of Maurice last season, where it was clear he was a good guy but not necessarily the right guy for Janine.) So even before the series suggests anything with Janine/Manny, it should come as no surprise I’d be interested. It doesn’t help that Abbott is already at a place where it has pretty notable casting, which is why I figured Odom Jr. would be involved in this particular storytelling realm and why I’m already looking that way with Segarra’s casting.