From left: Sean Patton as Markie Hillridge, Brian Jordan Alvarez as Evan Marquez, and Enrico Colantoni as Principal Grant Moretti in the second season of English Teacher.Disney+/Supplied
Has any other subscription service ever been in the crosshairs of cancellation as often as Disney+?
The first time that comes to mind was in 2022 when Chrystia Freeland, finance minister at the time, suggested cash-strapped families could follow her lead in cutting the House of Mouse’s streaming service to save a few bucks. The comment backfired on her badly.
But then, of course, Donald Trump came back like the cat in the Fred Penner song, and all his 51st state threats led a swath of Canadians to follow in Freeland’s footsteps and cancel their Disney+, too – along with other American streaming services – for patriotic reasons.
Canadians who nevertheless clung to the home of Marvel and Star Wars on demand had yet another ethical conundrum on their hands last week – when Disney subsidiary ABC briefly pulled Jimmy Kimmel Live! off the air under political pressure.
J. Kelly Nestruck: Jimmy Kimmel’s suspension is a chilling moment for free expression in the U.S.
That led to the biggest anti-Disney drive yet internationally – with She-Hulk herself, Tatiana Maslany, calling on folks to smash their subscriptions, and John Oliver urging folks to Disney- on his HBO show Last Week Tonight.
(That must have been a mite awkward for Bell Media’s Crave – the Canadian home of Oliver’s show – which just launched a Crave and Disney+ bundle on Aug. 27.)
But now, of course, Kimmel is back on the air.
For those weighing whether to uncancel their Disney+ streamer in response, here’s a reason to do so because of, you know, there being something good to watch on it: The first three episodes of the second, brilliant season of English Teacher have dropped there. (New episodes are coming out in batches on the linear FX channel Thursday nights, then on Disney+ on Fridays.)
This FX comedy centres on Evan Marquez (played by creator Brian Jordan Alvarez), a gay, Latino high-school teacher living in the liberal-ish Texas city of Austin whose progressive politics are revealed to be flimsy each time his personal pride comes into play.
In the season premiere, Evan stands up for his students’ freedom of expression to his long-suffering principal Grant (a majestically deadpan Enrico Colantoni) when they want to do Tony Kushner’s Angels in America as the school play.
But soon the kids get bored of Kushner’s masterpiece set at the height of AIDS – and decide, collectively, to pivot to performing an original, more relatable pandemic-related creation called Covid in America. Hurt, Evan becomes petulant to the point that he nearly cancels the play.
Similarly, in an episode later this season, Evan rails against the U.S. Supreme Court decision to end affirmative action in college admissions – and encourages his students to highlight their whole selves in their application letters nevertheless.
But after he accidentally discovers that he was a “DEI hire” at his school, Evan’s self-confidence melts down and his position shifts. A student tries and fails to comfort him: “You’re the best gay, Latino teacher I’ve ever had.”
What really stands out about English Teacher is not its clever plots or its satirical sharpness, however, but its style – which has become even more polished in its second season.
Alvarez writes for his own unusual ability to speak dialogue clearly at a clip – leading to a higher joke-per-minute ratio than most live-action sitcoms.
In this, English Teacher stands in marked contrast to the slowpoke mockumentary style that has become so popular this century – with its awkward pauses and jokes so often underlined by a character turning to the camera and making a cringe face.
English Teacher’s rat-a-tat-tat rhythm is closer to that of screwball comedy of the 1930s – named after a type of baseball pitch that suddenly moves in a surprising direction.
Stephanie Koenig, a long-time collaborator of Alvarez’s, immediately nailed this style as history teacher Gwen, Evan’s girl Friday – but now the rest of the supporting cast is fully in sync as well, the particular standout being Carmen Christopher as Rick, a squirrelly guidance councillor.
There is a wrinkle to my recommendation: While English Teacher, based on its quality and hilarity alone, seems to me a decent reason to subscribe to Disney+, others will cite it as yet another reason to click cancel.
In the lead-up to the show’s premiere last fall, it was the best-reviewed new comedy of the season.
But the day before the premiere, an actor named Jon Ebeling, who had worked on a previous project with Alvarez, filed a sexual-assault report against him with the Los Angeles Police Department over a 2016 incident on the set of a web series.
Ebeling’s allegations came out publicly in detail – and were denied by Alvarez – in a New York magazine story in December.
There have been no charges laid and FX, a subsidiary of Disney, renewed the series in February – but English Teacher was nevertheless blanked at the Emmy Awards, much to the benefit of Apple TV+’s The Studio.
Should you cancel Disney+ because Disney didn’t cancel English Teacher? Well, there’s always some reason or another, isn’t there?