KEEP ’EM SEPARATED

Why Is Everyone Fighting on ‘Abbott Elementary,’ TV’s Happiest Show?

The happiest show on TV takes a sour turn this week, as the teachers hit the same post-break wall that all of us have, too.

The world’s happiest show has taken a sour twist. We should’ve guessed that this week’s episode of Abbott Elementary, titled “Fight,” would be a little less chipper than episodes prior. But should we be worried about our favorite Philly schoolteachers, as we head into the back half of Season?

We’re not talking about constantly agitated folks like Melissa (Lisa Ann Walter), nor are we nervous about Ava (Janelle James), since both have built their personalities on starting wars (in the best possible way). This week, though, disagreements broke out between Gregory (Tyler James Williams) and Barbara (Sheryl Lee Ralph), as well as Janine’s (Quinta Brunson) two students.

“Fight” wasn’t the best episode of Abbott Elementary this season, though we’re still celebrating from the series’ three big wins at the Golden Globes earlier this week. The episode did feature a wonderful “milk smash” moment, but other than that, the fights fell a bit flat. Is Abbott setting itself up for a blip in quality with these disagreements?

My guess would be no, never bet against Quinta Brunson. This episode’s humor was more stale than the usually rich, hilarious bits that come with plenty of life lessons in the form of Barbara’s wisdom or Ava’s knack to have her life together. The best part of this episode was clearly Ava and Melissa trying to scam Mr. Johnson (William Stanford Davis) out of a fantasy football win, but as the C-plot of the show, we didn’t get enough meat to the storyline to actually get invested.

Along with his brief tiff with Barbara over the school’s garden, Gregory’s main source of conflict enters the Abbott universe for the first time: his father Martin (Orlando Jones). Though Gregory has been replaced by a fake son in his father’s landscaping business—a family biz makes more money, Martin has found—things are on the up and up for him, after Gregory proves his gardening prowess through the tulips and planting tents in Abbott’s garden.

Martin quickly offers Gregory the opportunity to take over the family business, resolving their father-son conflict without an ounce of hesitation. An unsure Gregory declines, and their dilemma returns to being unresolved; Martin still doesn’t approve of Gregory’s vocation. Though this is the first time we’ve actually met Gregory’s father, the whole arc in this episode feels like a simple rehash of Season 1, with no actual updates on the matter.

Then there’s the main debacle, which happens between two of Janine’s students—who, without spoiling anything, resolve the matter very quickly thanks to one friendly Pixar movie. Abbott never shies away from a Disney reference, from Bluey to Avengers to The Parent Trap. We get to see these two young girls draw portraits of each other (full of poo and farts, potty humor never fails) and physically fight—twice, thanks to the help of their eighth grade sisters—but the comedy never really lands in this arc.

At the end of the episode, though, Abbott reveals that it’s all been leading up to a bigger point of contention in Janine’s life: her sister, Ayesha, who Janine’s previously revealed as a source of anxiety in the past. Ayesha has been mentioning visiting Philadelphia soon. Janine is unsure about it—until she sees her two students make up after fighting for a week.

In the long run, the students fighting and Gregory’s dad issues were a clumsy pair of stories to tell in this week’s episode. But it’s January, we’ve still got brain fog from winter break, and there’s still plenty of time left in the season to get back on track. Abbott has set itself up for bigger plot details, and as boring as it may have been this week, the sitcom is never truly all that dull. We’ve just got to wait and see how these longer storylines play out. Plus, we could get a big actress in as Janine’s sister—an Abbott cameo is always excellent.

Fletcher PetersEntertainment Reporter

Got a tip? Send it to The Daily Beast here.