And on the 7th Day of Holiday Viewing
I DVR’d the “Abbott Elementary” Holiday episode, and rewatched it again. This tv series, done in the mockumentary style that “The Office UK” brought back into vogue, has batted a thousand since it’s debut a few seasons ago. It tackled situations that happen in public schools with humour, insight and with respect for the people and its setting. The show also gets huge points for showing what I usually call the “other side of things.” An episode had a girl who was hyperactive and just wreaking havoc. Typical shows about schools would have had a “very special episode” where the girl is neglected at home or punished beyond reason or placed on meds because she has adhd. The teachers, who paid attention to the girl and her actions as well as applying their experience, understood that the girl needed to be moved up grade because she was bored by school work that was too easy for her. Once moved to the new grade, she settled down and flourished.
The holiday episode was actually two holiday episodes. One was focused around the holiday concert, with a B/C plot about how Melissa was hosting the Christmas dinner and she made so much food that she had to store in various fridges throughout the school. One of the best moments of the episode concerned Mrs. Howard and one of her students. The student named Khadija is Muslim and couldn’t participate in the Christmas concert as it was. Mrs, Howard, who is one of the oldest teachers and the most practicing of Christians, wanted this girl to have the opportunity not to be left out. Other shows would have have Mrs. Howard shame or otherwise make this girl comply with everyone else. Or they would’ve portrayed Mrs. Howard as someone who was a total bigot. The show opted for the “other side”/third option where it’s possible that Mrs. Howard is the most Christian of Christians that respects the practices of non-Christians. She even stopped the other kids from picking on Khadija and found a way to include her in the annual concert. The concert itself, was a typical grade school holiday concert experience made hilarious by the fact that it was marginally talented Tariq-Janine’s ex-boyfriend who is the head of the PTA that saves the concert by leading the students in the WTH song that they created themselves. Did I say that the concert also included a stepshow?
More “other sides” were seen in the side plots concerning Jacob and his brother (Jacob was jealous of him and the attention he received through the years) and Ava and O’Shon, the district school’s tech guy. The former managed to work through their family issues and became close again. You do see that Jacob was the one who inherited the brains in the family. The latter learned that both were capable of generous spirits. In Ava’s case, O’Shon learned that Ava knows something of the TMOC.
Part Two takes place on Christmas Day. The episode opens with the main cast sneaking into the school to retrieve various things-extra toilet paper, milk, food (Melissa was picking up the various dishes she stashed in various fridges for the family dinner) and Ava taking the Christmas tree in the teachers’ lounge.
The Big Fat Philly Italian Schementi Christmas Family Dinner went off as well as you’d expect. Again the writers could’ve trafficked in the typical and worst stereotypes but did not. The Howards came as special guests along with Jacob and his brother Caleb. There was the bigoted Uncle but he was of the Archie Bunker type and the family banished him to the bedroom. Hilarity later ensues when they think he died and the firefighter that Melissa was dating shows up due the 911 call and we are reminded that Jacob, not his brother inherited the brains. Or, at least knows how to take a pulse. Bonus points for Talia Shire, who played the Schementi matriarch in a way the felt like it was a hilarious mashup of Connie Corleone (“The Godfather” Sagas), Patti LuPone in anything and Marie Barone (“Everybody Loves Raymond”). One of the best lines was when she said that Melissa was clearly happily dating because no single woman cooks food as well as she did for the dinner.
Meanwhile, this is Janine and Gregory’s first Christmas as a couple. They spend it at Janine’s place where they wear matching Christmas pajamas (yes, Gregory really loves Janine) and were settling in to watch holiday shows, when Ava shows up-unannounced and uninvited. They accommodate Ava who can’t help but pick on Janine’s choice in pajamas, her “Charlie Brown Christmas Tree” and lack of general coolness. We learn that Ava’s alone on Christmas and that Gregory had his hair cut by Ava’s estranged barber father (played by Keith Frickin’ David!!!), whom she wants nothing to do with. Janine, Gregory and Ava passed some of the Christmas evening watching movies until the party bus comes and Ava runs off to be with the cool people, leaving Janine and Gregory to finish their holiday, together in each other’s arms in peace.
There’s a funny through line with the janitor dressed as Santa and bestowing gifts on the other members of the main cast-some of them not always tangible.
I’ve noted that this is yet another holiday themed something or other that is quiet and is more slice of life Christmas/Holiday experience than the loud bombastic “IT’S CHRISTMAS” episode/movie/special/cartoon that makes up December viewing. I think I’m getting to a point where I appreciate these kind of holiday depictions more than before.