Hulu has been cranking out a lot of solid offerings as of late, as Only Murders in the Building returns to much acclaim and Tell Me Lies seems like it’s going to do pretty well. But arguably its best new addition is English Teacher, which has arrived with 97% positive reviews from critics on Rotten Tomatoes, which is, actually, higher than this season of Only Murders.
English Teacher follows Evan Marquez, a gay English teacher in Austin, Texas, navigating the complexities of life in 2024 ranging from homophobia and discrimination to perhaps overly woke students trying to compensate. This is a comedy, to be clear. And it’s funny, it’s very funny.
I’ve watched both episodes out right now, the first where Marquez is under investigation for kissing his boyfriend in front of students once, where a mom believes it has turned her son gay. The second has a Powderpuff football performance turn into a drag show.
Right now there is only a single negative review out of all of them, which has taken it down from 100%, something no other new show is boasting right now except for Apple’s new season of Slow Horses.
Interestingly, the show was created by its star, Brian Jordan Alvarez, who is excellent as Marquez, and he’s directed two episodes and written three. That’s…very impressive. Stephanie Koenig, his co-star, was a collaborator on this project and has written an episode herself. So a lot of people are doing double or triple or quadruple duty here. Before this, you have likely not seen Alvarez in more than an episode here or there in various shows. He had a 13 episode arc in Will and Grace when it briefly returned for a stretch starting in 2018.
It’s easily to highly recommend this comedy so far, and no, it is not for the LGBTQ crowd only. It’s just very funny in general, and at times feels like an R-rated version of Abbott Elementary, a sharper edge with commentary on the public school system as well.
The show will run through mid-October and will no doubt aim for a second season. This is yet another FX/Hulu collaboration, the network that gave us a bunch of seasons of What We Do in the Shadows and Reservation Dogs, so I have hope this will end up being an easy renewal.
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Pick up my sci-fi novels the Herokiller series and The Earthborn Trilogy.
