This matches my feelings exactly. I really liked this show. I recommended it to other people. Then I read the Vulture article, and my interest in the show went to zero. I think it’s almost impossible to separate art from the artist in this case. Especially with his best friend teacher being a significant part of the sexual assault piece. (Basically she gaslit the victim) The actor is a lot like the character he plays. I just can’t do it. I suspect this show will get canceled after 2 seasons. I doubt it had a big audience and now they’re going to lose a lot of it.
It was kind of bizarre seeing him pop up on Celebrity Jeopardy last week as well — I kept wondering when that had taped and if it pre-dated the Vulture piece or if he was booked afterward and everyone was just ignoring the elephant in the room? (This also reminds me of a few years back when Robin Thicke was one of the “celebrity” contestants on the LEGO Masters Holiday Bricktacular — do the non-celebrities who get assigned a celebrity partner know who these people are ahead of time? If you got asked to participate and then it was sprung on you that you were paired with, or even had to play against, a known or alleged sex-pest, what is your recourse?)
I wanted to get this up before I had an afternoon commitment and forgot to make a note on the Jeopardy appearance. That was ALSO extremely weird, and it came on when I was at the gym which was a real jump scare moment.
Thanks for covering this, Myles. Given the timing, they must have renewed the show early and were already deep into S2 when the allegations came out. But even still, I can't believe they didn't just shelve it. It's Disney and the show can't cost that much; just take the write-off.
Aside from the morality of it, this puts everyone else involved in the show in a terrible spot. Are they going to do press for this show? Do they think no one will bring this up with literally everyone involved? Among the allegations are that Alvarez assaulted his victim *on set*. You can't even pretend it was a matter of his private life.
Thanks for this - I (a teacher) loved the show and told lots of people to watch it, but I don't see how it's possible to disentangle Alvarez himself from the series. It's his vehicle through and through, and his responses in the Vulture article aren't even denials - it reads like he doesn't even understand he did something wrong (over and over again).
Agree with all of this. I'd been following BJA since Caleb Gallo, so I recognized Jon Ebeling when the story came out. But I'm done with all of that. Fortunately my opinion of English Teacher never lived up to the critics' esteem, so it's no great loss for me.
Oof. My wife and I watched the first episode of this on her sister’s recommendation, didn’t think it was bad but felt underwhelmed, and bailed. Certainly not regretting that decision now!
This matches my feelings exactly. I really liked this show. I recommended it to other people. Then I read the Vulture article, and my interest in the show went to zero. I think it’s almost impossible to separate art from the artist in this case. Especially with his best friend teacher being a significant part of the sexual assault piece. (Basically she gaslit the victim) The actor is a lot like the character he plays. I just can’t do it. I suspect this show will get canceled after 2 seasons. I doubt it had a big audience and now they’re going to lose a lot of it.
It was kind of bizarre seeing him pop up on Celebrity Jeopardy last week as well — I kept wondering when that had taped and if it pre-dated the Vulture piece or if he was booked afterward and everyone was just ignoring the elephant in the room? (This also reminds me of a few years back when Robin Thicke was one of the “celebrity” contestants on the LEGO Masters Holiday Bricktacular — do the non-celebrities who get assigned a celebrity partner know who these people are ahead of time? If you got asked to participate and then it was sprung on you that you were paired with, or even had to play against, a known or alleged sex-pest, what is your recourse?)
I wanted to get this up before I had an afternoon commitment and forgot to make a note on the Jeopardy appearance. That was ALSO extremely weird, and it came on when I was at the gym which was a real jump scare moment.
I saw comments that Celebrity Jeopardy taped back in October. ABC's announcement for the contestants also predated the Vulture piece by a day or two.
Thanks for covering this, Myles. Given the timing, they must have renewed the show early and were already deep into S2 when the allegations came out. But even still, I can't believe they didn't just shelve it. It's Disney and the show can't cost that much; just take the write-off.
Aside from the morality of it, this puts everyone else involved in the show in a terrible spot. Are they going to do press for this show? Do they think no one will bring this up with literally everyone involved? Among the allegations are that Alvarez assaulted his victim *on set*. You can't even pretend it was a matter of his private life.
This is shameful.
Thanks for this - I (a teacher) loved the show and told lots of people to watch it, but I don't see how it's possible to disentangle Alvarez himself from the series. It's his vehicle through and through, and his responses in the Vulture article aren't even denials - it reads like he doesn't even understand he did something wrong (over and over again).
It kills me that this show gets a 2nd season while "How to Die Alone" is canceled.
Agree with all of this. I'd been following BJA since Caleb Gallo, so I recognized Jon Ebeling when the story came out. But I'm done with all of that. Fortunately my opinion of English Teacher never lived up to the critics' esteem, so it's no great loss for me.
Oof. My wife and I watched the first episode of this on her sister’s recommendation, didn’t think it was bad but felt underwhelmed, and bailed. Certainly not regretting that decision now!