Review: Abbott Elementary, "Wrong Delivery" | Season 2, Episode 2
A basic episode summary hides a new setup for Janine's quixotic quest to improve the school
According to this week’s Abbott Elementary episode description on Hulu, “Janine wants to fix up the school.” Considering the very premise of the show, one could argue that that’s technically the description for every episode of Abbott Elementary. In fact, as someone who is currently watching David E. Kelley’s Boston Public for the first time, if you were to just change the name in the episode description from “Janine” to “Lauren,” “Marilyn,” “Ronnie,” or “Michelle Monaghan’s character,” it could also easily describe an episode from that series. I suppose it’s the “challenge” of the workplace sitcom, as the struggles of a particular workplace are intentionally as commonplace as they get. But much like the season premiere episode description was about Ava’s “side hustle” (again, an established concept for the show), this week’s episode description lends itself to a kind of “duh” moment.
But that’s also why you can never just rely on an episode description for depth and the whole picture. The Janine plot of “Wrong Delivery” does provide more depth than expected from the description, especially as a story that will surely be continued throughout the season. After mentioning the charter school down the street (Addington Elementary) in the season premiere, this week’s episode gives a utopian face to it.
