"Teachers" 4/4/06

I thought this was a good episode--funny and entertaining. I enjoyed
this one much more than the prior episode.

archang...

I thought it was as awful as the first, and mostly for the same
reasons: the two male leads are terrible, the quips go over like lead
balloons, and the plots themselves are so contrived there's no real heart
or believability in them.

The leads haven't built characters, they're just a collection of
smirks, and as for comic timing -- ugh. Bartha's so bad he might as well
have a little flag to wave to indicate he's just delivered a punchline.
The main plot was also ridiculously bad: the principal decides to can a
field trip because of one parent... and then reverses herself after
hinting she WON'T all episode long on a whim and after a desperately lame

Obveeus...

That was a bit illogical. One can only assume that the principal doesn't
like the teacher so she was doing her best to make his life hard, but she
does like education so she knew what the righ decision was and made it (and
intended to make it all along).

Meanwhile, the standard plot is supposed to be for the teachers to be
'saved' by a student uprising that brings in all of the other parents to
defend the field trip against one whiny parent. Give the show credit for at
least not going that route.

Tony Calguire...

But they would have actually had to hire extras-- child actor extras!--
to accomplish that.

archang...

That's the standard plot on a show centered around the _students_.
I don't know what the standard plot for a show about teachers is, but I
hope it isn't just a series of illogical reverses.

speech justifying attending the play by Bartha's character.

SoHillsGuy...

Is it just me, or is Sarah Alexander exaggerating her own accent? I've
seen her in several other UK series, and she just doesn't sound quite
the same as she has in the past. It's almost like they want her to
sound *really* British.

r_heuer...

Not just you. I definitely noticed something weird about her in this
series - I chalked it up to "overacting" but maybe it is an exaggerated
accent.

Obveeus...

I think she sounds the same as in 'Coupling'...it is just that the accent
stands out more when everyone isn't using it. As for 'Teachers'...the
problem is that her character is exaggeratted/overwritten. I think she is
just acting it the way she is being told to act it. Maybe the
writers/director are doing it to emphasize change as her character matures
(hopefully quickly) rather than that the writers/director are really just
that 'over the top'.

Laddy...

I didn't say this. The first poster in the thread did. No biggie though.

Some of the humor was recycled from other TV shows but any sitcom today
will have to do that.

Laddy...

It was better but it's still not making me chuckle like Scrubs does and
Kitchen Confidential did.