English Teacher: Season 2

What even is television in 2025? A critically-acclaimed sitcom — which I imagine is not a huge investment cost-wise for FX — that makes a big leap in season two gets unceremoniously canceled just when it’s getting started and basically makes not a blip. An actual decent sitcom, mind you, that built a small ensemble that felt complimentary and was really vibing. It’s like the third level in the school workplace comedy continuum of level one, Abbott Elementary, and level two, A.P. Bio. An adult comedy — albeit one that is probably meant for a more millennial audience than my old-ass gen-x self — that found the balance between the jokes on the page and speaking to the modern culture and the ongoing battle of millennial open-mindedness and gen-z’s steadfast focus on self.

Look, I’m not going to pretend this show is going to solve all the world’s problems. We may already be over the horizon on that one. But it made me laugh. It pointed at the absurdities of an aging millennial cohort and their vision of themselves as the only generation that matters. Always told how smart and special they were. Always winning. Always expecting things to be the way they want and expect them to be. But, no, there is a whole new gang of youngsters who know more. Are, in fact, more woke. More self-absorbed. More unimpressed with the generation before them. And, again, as a gen-xer I can appreciate Brian Jordan Alvarez’s take on a generation that is renowned for their lack of self-awareness becoming aware. That maybe they don’t know everything. That perhaps they are not the coolest and most open-minded generation. And that relationships are always won. There are no trophies for losers.

But, honestly, this is all subtext. The show itself is not that much different than season one, but has sanded off some of the rougher parts and instead of thematically basing episodes on LGBTQ or political narratives, they’ve just made the fact that Evan (Alvarez) is a gay man in Texas be part of the fabric of the show and a natural story point if it happened to fit with what was happening on screen. Both he and his character seemed more at ease and comfortable just being a teacher in a show who happens to be gay rather than a show about a gay character. That gave the series a much better flow and the laughs felt less forced and more organic. It also allowed his character to sit more in the pocket and be less of an occasional clanging in the mix. Mostly because — as it happens — he plays the straight man in the series. Not literally, of course, but in a group of pretty wacky co-workers, he’s generally the most grounded and real feeling. Yes, he’s a bit of a narcissist and is anxious and probably not the best to his hirsute partner in his open relationship, Malcolm (Jordan Firstman), but he is still the audience avatar as his exasperation boils over with each ridiculous (and mostly fantabulous) claim one of his high school students make about something quintessentially gen-z.

The rest of the cast is typical sitcom, but becomes much better drawn in the second season. Which is pretty typical for the second season of any sitcom. But they manage to make these people both funny and likable without resorting to meanness or stereotypes. Each with their own struggles and small victories. It’s a smaller cast than something like The Office or Superstore, but the writers manage to round out the supporting cast in ways that some of the more cartoonish background actors in these series are never rounded out. I think it’s a matter of each bringing their own specialty to the screen and really chewing it up when given the opportunity. I could honestly watch Carmen Christopher do what amounts to an extended version of his character from The Bear for hours. His terrible-at-his-job college counselor character with his many side hustles is endlessly entertaining. And everyone gets their turn in the spotlight and they all kill it. What am I gonna say: it’s a funny show. But now it’s dead. I’m sure FX has its reasons, of course. But in the past landscape this feels like one of those series that would be picked up by a Showtime or like a Comedy Central or even like a TBS. But those were the old days. So I have to assume it’ll remain dead. RIP.