Review: Abbott Elementary, "Egg Drop" | Season 2, Episode 8
The writers confront Janine’s toxic positivity (and other stuff)
Credit to Abbott Elementary “Egg Drop,” as I spent a good portion of the episode worried that any of the pushback to Janine’s behavior in the A-plot wouldn’t take her to task for her toxic positivity. In fact, during the very scene where Gregory brings it up, just moments before he does, I’d written in my notes, “I’m guessing ‘toxic positivity’ won’t be a lesson in this show anytime soon.” Which is not an attack on the show but instead a reaction to how intense and illogical Janine specifically is in this episode. In fact, it was earlier in the episode—in the moment when Gregory tries to tell Janine that she can’t “positive-attitude” her way through physics—that I was reminded just why I was completely over Leslie Knope by the fourth season of Parks & Recreation (if not sooner, to be perfectly honest) and could imagine how the types of viewers who consider Janine “the villain” of Abbott Elementary would have a field day with this episode.
It’s interesting, because while …
