This review contains spoilers for the season 3 premiere of Abbott Elementary, “Career Day”
Sitcoms tend to be static as a genre, their conflicts largely resolved within the span of a single episode, with characters changing little over time. Abbott Elementary keeps things fresh by playing with those traditional constraints in its third-season premiere, bucking cliché while allowing for some genuine character development.
Abbott Elementary was one of the first shows impacted by the 2023 Writers Guild of America strike, and creator/star Quinta Brunson had to get creative to explain why season 3 picks up in February rather than at the beginning of a new school year. The two-part premiere “Career Day” cleverly hangs a lantern on the gap: The documentary crew that’s been embedded at Abbott for the past three years had its equipment stolen, and it took five months to save up enough cash for replacements. It’s a cute way of breaking the third wall that adds to the general scrappiness of the series.
The interruption also justifies a split between the start of the year and the present-day, bridged with a bit of footage from the cameras that hilariously shifty principal Ava Coleman (Janelle James) has apparently hidden throughout the school. While the premiere feels a bit like what should have been two distinct episodes jammed together, the time-jump makes the most of a bad situation and accelerates plotlines that might otherwise have taken half a season to get where they are. It’s something I wouldn’t mind seeing applied throughout the rest of the season for character-development purposes – it would particularly benefit awkward history teacher Jacob Hill (Chris Perfetti), who gets the least amount of “Career Day” screentime.
The show is still batting around the will-they/won’t-they relationship between Janine Teagues (Brunson) and aspiring-principal-turned-teacher Gregory Eddie (Tyler James Williams), the Abbott plot that feels most like it was directly cribbed from The Office. After rejecting Gregory in favor of taking some time to herself at the end of season 2, Janine comes back from summer vacation ready for a relationship, only for Gregory to say he’s emotionally moved on. It’s understandable, if somewhat agonizing as a viewer. Things have apparently been frosty in the interim, but Janine and Gregory find the opportunity for some of their old friendly teasing and supportive banter at the end of “Career Day.” At this point, I hope that the writers give up on the romance plot, because Janine and Gregory’s dynamic as friends is deeply satisfying, while the pining is getting tedious.
Evidence that the show might be willing to defy expectations and dump its main romance comes from the relationship between Melissa Schemmenti (Lisa Ann Walter) and her vending-machine-operator boyfriend Gary (Bruno Amato). Weddings are a sitcom staple, but Gary’s repeated hints and big proposal assisted by a video call with Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts end with rejection rather than the traditional happy ending. It’s a funny and emotional reversal that demonstrates the strength of one of the series’ toughest characters.
Eva is always a standout, and she begins season 3 with a new, “serious” persona she claims she developed by studying at Harvard – a process that actually involved taking online courses while squatting on the university's campus. The premiere gets a lot of mileage out of the teachers struggling with their preferred version of Eva – the lazy, embezzling principal versus the-intensely-by-the-book boss of “Career Day” – especially since their methods of trying to get her to revert to her old ways are so goofy. The biggest laugh of the episode comes from an abashed Gregory flexing his muscles in the doorway of Eva’s office, only to retreat in humiliation after she calls him “Jeremy Allen Black.”
But by far the biggest development is Janine’s decision to leave her classroom at Abbott Elementary and start working for the school district at the encouragement of Manny (Josh Segarra), the leader of a trio of new district hires looking to make a difference. Segarra is utterly captivating, oozing a positivity that counteracts the years of harsh experience and bad attitudes that threaten to snuff out Janine’s optimism and enthusiasm.
Manny has an undeniable chemistry with Janine, which seems to spark some jealousy in Gregory despite his supposed emotional distance. (Hopefully Gregory will get over it as the show really doesn’t need a love triangle to further extend the romantic tension). Manny’s so charming he’s even capable of winning over the usually skeptical veteran educator Barbara Howard (Sheryl Lee Ralph). “I am aware of how I come off, but I don’t know any other way to be,” he says with a dazzling smile, launching into a heartwarming story about his motivation to help teachers like his mom. Manny feels like he has the same power to shift the balance of Abbott Elementary the way Rob Lowe and Adam Scott’s characters did on Parks and Recreation. (Though Abbott is on much stronger footing than Parks and Rec was before Lowe and Scott’s introduction.) He could also prove too good to be true: Barbara warns us that she’s always disappointed by district employees who never fully manifest the big ideas they come in with.
Abbott Elementary acknowledges that change is difficult, even as Brunson and the writing staff work to shake up their status quo. The time jump works to allow Janine to move past what might have been an awkward transition into a new job and get right to turning the dreams so often crushed by Eva into a reality that benefits Abbott. Janine struggles a bit with how quickly her former students accept the change – she expects excitement when walking into her old classroom, and is visibly dejected when it doesn’t come. But in one of the sweetest moments of the episode, one of Janine’s former students quietly waves at her, a reminder of the reasons she’s working so hard. Things never go smoothly at Abbott Elementary, but by the end of “Career Day” everyone seems to be in a better place than where they began, ready to face the rest of what the school year (and the season) throws at them.
