Why Mockumentaries Are The Best Sitcom Format
Abbott Elementary is an ABC Original mockumentary sitcom about a group of passionate teachers led by their clueless principal in a Philadelphia elementary school, Willard R. Abbott Elementary. The show was created by and stars Quinta Brunson, who was inspired by her past middle school teacher Mrs. Abbott, as well as her mother, a kindergarten teacher, in writing the hit comedy. The simple premise of the show is that the school, along with its respective students and faculty, are being filmed for a documentary about underfunded schools. Naturally, each episode follows the everyday struggles and annoyances of being a teacher in a school that’s financially falling apart.
Brunson plays the chipper Janine Teagues, a second grade teacher who’s only in her second year of teaching at Abbott and is still learning the ropes. The rest of her colleagues include newcomers Gregory Eddie (Tyler James Williams) and Jacob Hill (Chris Perfetti), as well as teaching veterans, Barbara Howard (Sheryl Lee Ralph) and Melissa Schemmenti (Lisa Ann Walter). Janine, a people pleaser who’s overly optimistic at times, is constantly striving to go above and beyond for her students, despite the skepticism she receives from Barbara and Melissa, who have been in the system long enough to know that sometimes one’s own persistence isn’t enough. Janine’s efforts are also subject to taunting from her self-absorbed boss Principal Ava Coleman (Janelle James), who only got her job by catching the superintendent cheating on his wife.
As a mockumentary, Abbott Elementary has unsurprisingly drawn comparisons to its successful predecessors in the genre, like The Office and Parks and Recreation. Rightfully so, as the show’s lead director Randall Einhorn was a big player in making The Office. There are some key parallels between the three shows: the overachiever that you want to root for seen in Janine and Parks and Recreation’s Leslie Knope, the oblivious yet somehow likable boss, seen in Ava and The Office’s Michael Scott, and the “will they won't they” relationship trope seen in Janine and Gregory, as well as The Office’s Jim and Pam. However, there’s something different about Abbott Elementary that makes it so appealing. Unlike The Office and Parks and Recreation, there’s a sense of urgency with Abbott; Dunder Mifflin and Pawnee’s Parks Department, while chaotic in their own ways, were not workplaces that necessarily needed to be filmed. Even though the students and faculty originally did not ask to be filmed, as the school’s participation in the fake film was orchestrated by Ava as a way to make her more famous, it highlights an overlooked and underappreciated workplace that we have all had some experience with in our lifetimes.
Throughout the show, we are able to see how these teachers make do with what they have, despite the lack of funding and resources. Abbott Elementary is able to successfully portray the realistic and undervalued work that teachers do in order to give their students opportunities to thrive, regardless of their circumstances. The mockumentary style allows the show to get real about how flawed the American education system is and how underappreciated teachers are, while still being lighthearted. It also allows the show to be flexible with each episode, with some centering on the teachers and their respective lives, while other episodes focusg on the students. Even the filming style is slightly different from Abbott’s predecessors. Being set in a school where teachers are constantly spread way too thin, the cameras are constantly moving, the genre’s popular sitdown side interviews are shortened and rarely done sitting down, and the show generally just feels faster paced and unpolished, reflecting the atmosphere of a regular school day.
These changes seem small, but they bring a new feel to the genre and are subtle reminders of why the mockumentary is such a great format for situational comedy. These slight yet intentional technical changes makes the show feel more real; these characters aren’t perfect, they are everyday people just like you and me, trying their best to make the most of their respective situations. Sometimes things go wrong, even horribly wrong, but that’s okay and sometimes you just have to laugh at yourself. That’s what the mockumentary is able to do – it provides a balance of irony and empathy, of critique and uplift, while still being hilarious and easily digestible.
Abbott Elementary is available on Hulu.
