Abbott Elementary Review: Pilot (Season 1 Episode 1)

Abbott Elementary Season 1 Episode 1, “Pilot,” bursts onto the scene with the charm and dark humor that’s been missing on the small screen. 

The half-hour mockumentary comedy follows the design of workplace comedy darlings Parks and Recreation and The Office. The new ABC show paves a new path because it is set in an environment that is universal: elementary school.

We haven’t all worked in an office, and we haven’t all been involved in local government. But, I can guarantee we have all had a teacher try and quiet down an out-of-control classroom!

Abbott Elementary Season 1 Episode 1 takes us to universally familiar places like the stalls of a school bathroom, and as a result, each joke flushes through our systems just right.

Importantly, the cast of the series reflects the population that it portrays. Most of the educators are Black women and the student body is composed of majority POC. It is refreshing to see diversity, including age diversity, among the cast

Like Parks and Recreation‘s Leslie Knope, Ms. Teagues’s rose-colored perspective allows us to see the loveliness of her very messed up environment. We can laugh at the deeply disturbing reality of a janitor teaching a group of kindergartners because charm and hope have also been revealed. 

The choice to have Janine Teagues, portrayed with nuance and sincerity by Quinta Brunson, be a product of the same school system that she now teaches in is brilliant because we get an example that the kids will be alright.

We don’t have to worry too much, because if Janine could make it and still love school, there is likewise hope for all the children.

The humor is dark, but the light at the end of the tunnel is ever present on Abbott Elementary. 

The principal at Abbott Elementary is the most zany and outlandish character on the show so far. This too is refreshing because on many shows about teachers, like Teachers, the characters are really wild. The humor often comes from crazy situations that would never really happen. 

On “Pilot,” the conflicts are ordinary. Kids throwing up, moldy lunch pizza, underfunded schools, are very real conflicts. The characters react to these ordinary, deeply relatable, issues in very reasonable ways. It is hilarious!

A key thing that the freshman series gets right is that the teachers like their students and their work.

All of the teachers, even the one who ends up punting a student and getting fired, don’t aim their resentment and irritation at their students. The system catches their ire, not the kids. 

As a person who has taught high school in a district similar to Philadelphia’s, this is true to life. People who commit their lives to working with children aren’t the disgruntled haters that we too often see on screen (looking at you A.P. Bio). It isn’t work for the teachers to like the kids and we love to see that. 

Abbott Elementary very smartly places the “bad kid” label squarely where it belongs, the broken public school system itself.

The excellent pilot episode doesn’t give us enough opportunities to see the relationships between the teachers.

We see and hear Janine’s adoration for Ms. Howard loud and clear. But, we don’t get a sense of the “trauma-bond” between Janine and Jacob. Likewise, teacher Melissa Schemmenti seems to be kind of on an island.

This is a small group of people who are with each other every day. Hopefully, future episodes will showcase how they are close-knit and connected, even when they bug the heck out of each other. 

Final scenes like the one on “Pilot,” will be even more powerful once we know that, at the core, the staff at Abbott Elementary will always have each other’s backs.

What did you think of this episode of Abbott Elementary? Share your thoughts in the comments below!

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Abbott Elementary airs Tuesdays at 8:30/9:30c on ABC.

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