People love sitcoms, especially when they feature moments viewers can relate to. Releasing its 5th season earlier this month, Abbott Elementary brings laughter and joy to its viewers. Abbott holds onto the usual aspects of a workplace sitcom while also touching the hearts of its fans with every conflict the staff encounters inside and outside of school. 

The TV show follows the daily life of the staff and students at an underfunded elementary school in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Each episode revolves around a main plot, like a field trip, a staff member leaving for whatever reason, or an in-school event. Within the same episode, there will be a sub-plot that follows a few staff members in silly adventures like learning how to ride a bike, starting a school garden, or a competition between themselves. Within each of the stories told through either of the plots, the creator, Quinta Brunson, touches on harsh topics like family issues and the troubles of running a school with limited funds from the district.

Teachers

The staff members at Abbott are the main focus of the episodes, showcasing the different types of teachers that exist within the same building. Each staff member has their own unique personality,  differing from character to character. For example, Janine Teagues, a second-grade teacher, has a very bubbly, bright, and optimistic personality. Whereas Melissa Schemmenti, another second-grade teacher, is more stern, blunt, and very judgmental of others. The list of staff members and personalities goes on. The variety of traits gives a sense of realism to the characters on the screen. When asked about the topic, Mr. Lindsley, a math teacher at Blake, said that “The personalities of the characters are similar to people I’ve worked with before.” He’s interacted with one or more of the types of teachers displayed in Abbott, showing the accuracy the writers have of actual teachers. With that in mind, if you plan to watch the show, there’s a chance you will find remnants of your favorite or least favorite teacher in one of the staff members at Abbott.

Due to the majority of Abbott’s cast being teachers, the show features many scenes of the teachers instructing their respective classes. For example, Barbara Howard, a kindergarten teacher, has to teach with more sparkle and colors due to her students being extremely young and needing to learn all the basics. On the contrary, Jacob Hill, a middle school teacher at Abbott, has to teach in a way that makes his students exercise their literacy skills since they already know the basics. Different ways of teaching are also present depending on how long the teacher has been teaching. Like how Gregory Eddie and Janine Teagues are new to teaching, so they have more questions about how to teach and are actively finding their preferred teaching style. Melissa Schemmenti has been teaching for years and knows exactly what she’s going to teach her class and how she will go about it. But even with that seniority, there is still a need to adjust. Such as in season 2 episode 3, Story Samurai, though the main plot is of a group of storytellers that act out said stories in a very eccentric way, the side plot is Melissa having to teach both a 3rd grade class at the same time as a 2nd grade class. The responsibility is given to her due to there not being enough 3rd grade students to create multiple classes. Before all that, Melissa was only trained to teach 2nd grade, so throughout the episode, we watch Melissa begin to adjust to teaching 2 classes at once.

Students

Though they aren’t the main focus of the show, the students at Abbott have their own charm that’s enjoyable. In most shows, writers try too hard to make the students or younger characters be appealing to actual young people in the audience that it’s painfully obvious and “cringe.” Abbott Elementary doesn’t do that. All of the students feel like real people you can encounter in class or when picking up your younger sibling from school. The lines given to them sound like an actual thing a child would say. Their words flow naturally and don’t feel forced. 

The actions of the students feel real, too. Like in season 2 episode 12, Fight, two students in Janine’s class simply don’t like each other. They pick on each other by stealing each other’s things or calling each other names. They cannot get along, no matter what Janine tries to do to get them to like each other. They eventually get their older sisters, who are in middle school at Abbott, to fight each other. Students fight all the time for many different reasons. In this case, the older girls fought each other because their little sisters told them the other girl was making fun of them. This could very likely be an actual story somewhere, because fighting for the sake of their younger siblings is a reasonable thing to fight about to a kid. Another realistic situation students might get into is smoking. This is shown in season 3 episode 4, Smoking, a middle school student sees that his friends smoked, so he wanted to see if it was any good. Many students smoke, there’s a chance you know people in your class who smoke, and many students can be influenced to smoke due to their friends smoking. People will test it out just to see how they feel, which is exactly what that student did. He tried smoking to see what the hype was about, and ended up not liking it. He was still suspended, but the truth about why he smoked was only uncovered when Melissa and Gregory actually gave him a chance to explain himself.

The attitudes students have towards teachers also reflect how you may feel towards teachers you may have. For example, in season 3 episode 3, Gregory’s Garden Goofballs, a group of students start to hang out in Gregory’s room during lunch or any free time they have. A lot of students here at Blake do that exact thing. They have a favorite teacher, so they start to eat lunch in that teacher’s room because they like the teacher and enjoy being in that classroom. Those students enjoy Gregory as a teacher, so they hang out in Gregory’s room because they want to. Another example is what Jacob’s students call him. Even though his last name is Hill, Jacob’s students call him Mr. C because Jacob is corny. They believe Jacob says and does corny things as he teaches, so they gave him a fitting nickname. The nickname isn’t a plot point in any specific episode due to the students always calling Jacob “Mr. C” whenever they interact with him. Jacob doesn’t mind the nickname, so he lets his students call him that.

School Environment

Despite being a TV show, the classrooms within the show look like an actual classroom you would walk into. There are posters on the walls with the alphabet or basic math. Most of the classrooms have the drawings of children that they made for their teachers. The bookshelves in the classrooms are always full, with a carpet and chair in front of them. The desks of the teachers always have something on them and aren’t always neat. The format of each classroom is different for each teacher, with different seating arrangements.

Abbott is an underfunded school, and with being underfunded, the show demonstrates the struggles of that kind of school. In season 1 episode 3, Wish List, the teachers at Abbott get the chance to ask the community for things they need for their classrooms since the district won’t supply them. Many teachers have to buy classroom materials out of their own paychecks, so the chance to have your community bring them for you is nice for the teachers who usually have to buy the supplies themselves. Another great example is in season 2 episode 12, Fundraiser, Barbara and Abbott’s principal, Ava Coleman, has to sell candy bars to raise money for a field trip. The school doesn’t already have the money for said field trip. On the topic of not receiving things from the district, in season 3 episode 3, Gregory’s Garden Goofballs, the subplot of the episode is Janine trying to get an ASL interpreter for one of Jacob’s students who is hard of hearing. It takes a while for Janine, who is working for the district at this point in the show, to hire an interpreter for a singular student due to her finding the process very difficult and tedious. Jacob requested an interpreter due to his concern that his student wouldn’t be able to socialize with other students without needing her tablet. 

Just like most public schools, many things break at Abbott. Like in season 1 episode 2, Light Bulb, there’s a flickering light in one of the hallways. Janine tries to fix the light all on her own despite all of her coworkers telling her not to. Janine ends up making all the power in the school go out. She originally asked Mr. Johnson, the school’s janitor, when he was going to fix it, but he responded that he would get to it later. Another thing that broke at Abbott is the toilets in season 2 episode 5, Juice, when Janine introduces a new juice for the students to drink during their lunch, but it ends up making the kids need to use the bathroom very often. All the toilets and bathrooms overflow, making them unable for the students to use them. Accidents happen too, like in season 2 episode 15, Fire, Barbara accidentally starts a small fire in the teachers’ lounge with her shawl and Jesus candle. It’s a small thing that was resolved quickly, but accidents like that can leave people pretty shaken, which is how Barbara felt after the situation was fully handled.

What is so important about Abbott Elementary?

Despite being a show taking place at an elementary school, Abbott can bring light to certain topics by allowing the viewers to see some parts of the personal lives of the teachers. These aren’t necessarily parts of one specific episode, but are shown throughout the show in bits and pieces across multiple episodes. Family is a big one; both biological family and found family are shown throughout the show. Janine has an estranged mother who was implied to be very controlling, especially to Janine’s sister, since it’s said that her sister ran away from home, leaving Janine to deal with their mother alone. It’s also implied that Janine’s mother wasn’t always present due to Janine being surprised to see her in the episode titled “Mom” (s2 e21). Janine’s mom tries to get Janine to pay her phone bill since her phone got cut off right after Janine excitedly told her about the Memorial Day vacation she was saving up for. It’s a tough decision for Janine, but she ends up compromising. Because of that kind of relationship with her mother, Janine sees Barbara as her work mother. Janine is seen multiple times going to Barbara for advice or looking up to Barbara like a child would their parent. It’s also shown that Gregory doesn’t have a great relationship with his father. In the pilot, when Gregory was only a substitute, he was on FaceTime with his dad, talking about how he wants to be a principal, but his dad only showed disappointment. The only time Gregory’s dad ever recognized him was when he figured out Gregory was maintaining the school garden. Viewers can take those experiences and how they’re dealt with by the characters and see how the solutions could be applied in their own lives. If one of the familial dynamics shown in Abbott feels similar to what someone’s own experience is, they can use what’s said and shown in the show to resolve problems. If they can’t resolve the problem, they can at least know how to approach it.

Another interesting feature in Abbott is the romance side plot of the whole show. For the entire first season, Janine is dating a guy named Tariq, who is clearly not good for her. He never pays rent when he lives in Janine’s apartment. He always puts himself first. In Light Bulb (s1 e2), Tariq is shown complaining about being hungry and gladly taking the lunch Janine packed for herself. He didn’t pay attention when she was telling him to at least look at the billing chart that she set out, using the excuse that “he doesn’t wake up until noon.” Gregory is also shown having trouble holding a relationship with Barbara’s daughter, with her eventually ghosting Gregory. Melissa is very hesitant to start dating again after having been divorced twice. She even rejects her boyfriend’s wedding proposal in front of her whole class and Eagles quarterback in Career Day (s3 e1/e2) in fear of that marriage not working out, even though she loves her boyfriend. Viewers see these relationships and how they’re handled, seeing how they could use the implied message in their current or future relationships if needed.

All of those aspects make Abbott Elementary a great show for anyone to watch. Even with all of the topics included, it does its job as a sitcom by making the viewers laugh at the jokes or actions of the characters. Abbott doesn’t have a laugh track, so the funny scenes feel more natural and have a better chance at landing. Most of the time, people even have a better understanding of their own problems if there’s a comedic aspect to it. Overall, the relatable and comedic nature of the show makes it a show worth watching.