Abbott Elementary

Quinta Brunson's ABC sitcom about underfunded Philadelphia elementary school teachers, shot mockumentary-style in the lineage of "The Office" and "Parks and Rec." Brunson plays Janine Teagues, a second-year second-grade teacher who's chirpy, over-eager, and convinced she can fix a district that's been broken since before she was born. Around her: Sheryl Lee Ralph as a veteran kindergarten teacher who's seen every reform cycle, Lisa Ann Walter as a South Philly lifer with mob-adjacent connections and a laminator, Chris Perfetti as an anxious history teacher, Tyler James Williams as the reluctant substitute-turned-teacher across the hall, and Janelle James as Principal Ava Coleman, who got the job through blackmail and treats it like a hobby. The pilot sets up the format cleanly. New school year, no supplies, no help coming.

Janelle James is the reason this show breaks out of "good little network comedy." Ava is a genuinely great sitcom creation, selfish and useless in ways the writers keep finding fresh angles on, and James delivers every line like she's daring you to laugh. Sheryl Lee Ralph does the opposite job beautifully, playing Barbara with the kind of dignity that makes small moments hit. The Brunson-Williams will-they-won't-they is written with actual patience, which is rare now. And structurally, the show respects the mockumentary form instead of just borrowing the aesthetic. Cold opens land. Talking heads are used for punchlines, not exposition dumps. Episodes are 22 minutes and act like it.

Janine as written can be a lot. Brunson's a warm performer, but the character's peppy-optimist wattage occasionally overloads the scene, and the writers lean on her cluelessness as an engine longer than they should. Some episodes about District Issues (funding, charter schools, standardized testing) do slow down to let a character explain the problem, and you can feel the pace drop when it happens. The supporting kids are mostly wallpaper. And once you've clocked the format, later seasons hit familiar beats: the field trip, the assembly, the outside consultant who's a fraud.

If you liked "Parks and Rec" more than "The Office" because the ensemble actually liked each other, this is your show. If you want prestige-drama density or antihero misery, you'll bounce in episode two. It's a hangout comedy with a job attached, closer to "Superstore" than to anything HBO's ever aired. Good background for folding laundry, better if you actually watch it.

WORTH IT because the craft is real. The scripts are tight, the cast is doing character work instead of catchphrase work, and the show earns its themes about a collapsing public school system by sticking them inside jokes and small human scenes rather than monologues. When Barbara talks about why she stays, it plays as character, not lecture. When the show wants to be angry about charter schools, it makes Ava the vector so the anger arrives wearing a wig and a bad attitude. That's how you do it. It's not reinventing the form, and it doesn't need to. A network sitcom that remembers network sitcoms could be good is, in 2026, worth your time.