ABBOTT ELEMENTARY character poll

i've never wanted to see it! do i need to see it? do they talk to the camera? i might not want to see it if they do.

They do but it's still good.

Got to be Ava or Barbara, right?

i voted for ava, shes incredible

Though I put my thumb on the scale for Ava, I actually think that none of the characters are dispensable. But if we’re going laughs per episode…

Yes

Ava has so many of the best scenes. She is flippant and dismissive in every scene she's in. Her response to Jacob telling her he has a boyfriend is "So he Knew you and then was like, More?" And she is on fire when she goes in front of the school board to dress them down over the school being defunded

Barbara is pretty great too

They all talk to the camera and sometimes just look into the camera, and they also talk just off to the side of the camera. It's cutesy in the way of Modern Family and most of the acting is very cringey, so you have to be ok with that kind of thing

Never heard of it, but I'd watch a series about teachers, especially "dedicated, passionate teachers"...I hope it's as good as Room 222.

Let's not forget that Quinta Brunson (Janine Teagues) masterminded all of this. It's the first network TV show in a while that has been somewhat interesting

most of the acting is very cringey

Really? I think the performances are uniformly solid, unless you're talking about the children, who run the usual gamut (for kid actors) from natural to showy and forced.

I guess I might agree that Walter goes a bit broad sometimes, with the Philly accent and thuggish mannerisms, but her character is written that way (and is generally funny).

Ava & Barbara are both next-level great great great

hard to choose

but lowkey Shemmenti gives such good Philly realness

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

aw. i mean ava rules obv but can we do it again & give everyone equal votes?

BARBARA WAS ROBBED. She's incredible, and also not loathsome which just tbrr I could not stand a real-life Ava but Barbara is the essence of every career teacher/church lady/style icon.

truth

Barbara and Gregory and maybe Melissa are who we root for. Ava is brilliant and her supreme expressions are the sarcastic element that the show needs, and Jeanine Teagues is important as the grounding element

Jacob I'm ambivalent about, he is just so cringey. Mr. Johnson, Manny, Tariq, etc and the kids - I like them but they are all essentially sidekicks

Jacob is funny precisely because he’s so cringey. To echo a recent comment I made in another thread regarding Bill Konigsberg’s Openly Straight novels, Jacob is an affectionate parody of try-hard liberals (though Jacob would insist, “actually I consider myself a progressive”). I love the moment when he comes to terms with the fact that he’s “corny.”

It’s also notable that twenty years ago (if that) the very fact of Jacob’s queerness would have been the basis for most, if not all, of the comedy surrounding his character, even on a show that took an even nominally pro-queer stance (see Will and Grace). Today, his sexuality isn’t the target of a single gag.