“Abbott Elementary” opened its sixth season with Gregory Eddie (Tyler James Williams) in the job he first came to the school wanting. “Jungle Classroom” aired Wednesday, October 7th, on ABC. It puts him in the assistant principal’s office beside Ava Coleman (Janelle James), and he wins his first fight with the school district before the day is out. Then the premiere takes half the promotion back. It is a busy, warm half hour with a quiet ending, and it gets the big structural moves right.
Quinta Brunson wrote the episode and Randall Einhorn directed it. It streams on Hulu the day after it airs, and the season runs 22 episodes, including the show’s 100th. This review is written from a full viewing of the broadcast, not from a screener. Warning beyond this point there are spoilers for “Abbott Elementary” season six, episode one.
It is a busy, warm half hour with a quiet ending, and it gets the big structural moves right.”
The cold open belongs to Jacob Hill (Chris Perfetti). He has been scammed by fake Philadelphia 76ers until Gregory points out the obvious and Jacob sends the guys away. Then the real Sixers arrive for a celebrity cameo, and Jacob, now wise to the game, sends them away too. It is a classic “Abbott” cold open built on Jacob’s eagerness, and the button lands because he finally learned something and applied it at exactly the wrong moment.
Season five ended with the district closing schools and sparing Abbott. The students from those schools need somewhere to go, so Abbott needs an assistant principal, and Ava gave Gregory the job in the finale. In the same episode he asked O’Shon (Matthew Law), Ava’s boyfriend, about engagement rings for Janine Teagues (Quinta Brunson). Before the premiere, executive producer Justin Halpern told TVLine that Gregory “takes the job very, very seriously,” and “certainly more seriously than Ava takes her job.” That gap drives most of the episode.
Ava calls a staff meeting in the auditorium before the school year starts. She introduces two new teachers: one meant to take over Gregory’s old class and one from a school the district shut down. Barbara Howard (Sheryl Lee Ralph) arrives late because she has just been hit by a car, and she reacts to it so strangely that she plainly knows more than she is saying. Melissa Schemmenti (Lisa Ann Walter) is now the teachers’ union rep, and she uses her first chance to lean on Ava.
The biggest reveal comes early, when Ava plays mind games with Gregory in her office after the meeting. Then she tells him she knows he is planning to propose to Janine, because he and O’Shon have been hanging out. It is a smart place for it because the secret is not saved for a final twist and instead becomes leverage Ava holds over her new deputy for the rest of the season. Patrick Schumacker told TV Insider in September, “We will continue toward the proposal,” and promised “some big, important episodes” on it early in the year.
Gregory’s new rank also complicates things with Janine. He wants her to follow the rule book while she cutely asks for “special treatment.” Meanwhile she is turning her classroom into a jungle, and the veteran teachers think it is all unnecessary. Melissa and Barbara stop by to say so and Janine is undeterred as she always is. The show has made this joke about her before, but the jungle is a fun set piece, and Brunson plays the overcommitment with total conviction.
Ava and Gregory take the air conditioning problem to the school board. Ava gets a great entrance, and then the two of them are stuck waiting for a superintendent who is not there. They find out he is on the golf course and go after him. Geoffrey Owens plays the superintendent, who arrived in the season five finale. He turns out to be completely reasonable. Gregory asks for what Abbott needs, the answer is yes, and that throws Ava off more than any fight would have. Screen Rant put it neatly in its review. The direct approach working “only makes Ava’s disbelief funnier.”
Back at school, the portable units arrive, and Ava starts to worry that Gregory is just better at the job than she is. That is the right use of him because for five seasons Abbott has run on Ava’s improvising. A rule follower who gets results by asking is a new kind of problem for her. Halpern said the two “have different styles, different philosophies, so there’ll be a little bit of tension there.” Then comes the catch, because the candidate Gregory interviewed to replace him in the classroom turns out to be a deepfake. So he decides to teach his old class himself until he can find a real replacement.
That is a good joke for a show about an underfunded public school, and the right complication. The show spent years turning a would-be principal into a teacher who loves his kids. Pulling him out of the classroom in one episode would have thrown that away. ABC’s synopsis for next week already has him juggling “the demands of his two roles.”
Melissa’s story is the best of the B plots. Elsa Hardaway (Katy Mixon) has taken Melissa’s old first floor classroom. Mixon starred in “Eastbound & Down” and five seasons of ABC’s “American Housewife” and she is a good match for Melissa. When Elsa refuses to move, Melissa tries gaslighting her out of the room. It does not work, so Melissa vows to dig up something she can use against her. What she finds is a crush. Elsa likes Mr. Morton (Jerry Minor), and Melissa points out that the upstairs room sits right across the hall from his. Elsa takes the trade.
Barbara’s story is lighter. Jacob takes up her cause, and the two of them start interviewing crossing guards in the gym. Then a man walks into the gym and says Barbara walked into his car. She denies it, until video on the new crossing guard’s phone shows she was at fault. Barbara owns up and the scene is properly awkward. The payoff comes later, when Barbara strolls through the new crossing on her phone. Jacob asks whether she learned anything. “Don’t have to,” she says. “Crossing guard!” It is a perfect Barbara line.
Mr. Johnson (William Stanford Davis), the janitor the show has been missing, finally turns up in Janine’s classroom with some of his hidden words of wisdom. A parent also helps Janine see that her teaching is enough on its own without the decorations. Then her students arrive and love the jungle, until part of it nearly falls on one of the kids. Janine handles it well in a quiet and sweet ending for a premiere.
It is also the one place the episode comes up short. The show needed more Mr. Johnson, who gets one scene when he could have carried a whole runner. And a funnier closing scene would have sent the season off with more energy. Those are small complaints and the reviews were warm as well. Screen Rant gave the premiere an 8 out of 10 and said the promotion helps the show “avoid the slump that often hits sitcoms around this point in their run.” Our verdict is that this is a good episode. It moves Gregory into a new job, keeps him in the old one, gives Melissa a real rival and puts a clock on the proposal.
What Do You Think? How long can Ava keep the proposal to herself? Should Gregory give up his classroom or fight to keep both jobs? And do you want Elsa Hardaway back to give Melissa a real rival?
See you on the next binge!
