what are you doing wait oh my god you need to leave you need to leave now
the most important and impactful creative choice made by a teacher
happens in the very first seconds as each episode opens with the following warning
so please welcome miss claire wilson our new english teacher
it's a blunt statement about the content you're about to watch and it comes in sharp contrast
to the somewhat dreamy tone established in the first episodes of the fx limited series
about a teacher and student who become far too close on a legal and moral level
it's a relatively simple premise english teacher claire kate mara
seems relatively happy when she arrives at her new texan high school i'm your new ap english teacher
while her marriage to matt ashley zuckerman isn't perfect she quickly makes a new friend
on the faculty and dives into teaching her students with idealistic fervor
one of those students eric nick robinson isn't perhaps as content as some of his
classmates as he's juggling school athletics a part-time job and helping his single mother
take care of his younger brothers she's your teacher yeah no she is too hot to be a teacher
she's all right she's assigned us so much [ __ ] homework but he's smart and popular and has a
decent chance at a great future something that claire offers to help him achieve unfortunately
the time they start spending together ends up crossing into dangerous territory for both of them
a teacher is technically based on creator hannah fidel's 2013 independent film which
made a big splash at sundance but as a thriller is fundamentally very different from the show instead
fidel uses the expansive possibilities of episodic tv to really drill into the characters as people
unfurling their past and present traumas across the seemingly endless texas skyline
even as the empathic cinematography and romantic music seduce us into
wondering just how far this will go i can't control myself around you
i'm sorry
without two incredibly brave and vulnerable actors at its center a teacher would fall
apart so [ __ ] fast but fortunately mara and robinson give fidel and fellow directors andrew
neal and julian robespierre everything they need and more to make this relationship work on screen
for all its soft moments and jagged edges what you did tonight was really stupid
the blunt force of the more intimate scenes pushes the boundaries of previous fx programming
not necessarily because of what the characters are doing but because it's
so raw and real that it feels like it's happening in your own bedroom
a teacher has already become a bit of a lightning rod for criticism from those who don't necessarily
see why a relationship between a nearly 18 year old boy and a 30-something woman is being
treated as a criminal act as well as those who lean the opposite way and based on the trailer
think the show is treating this relationship like a love story job go on tour who's quitting
i'm not quitting and it's money i got from my grandfather's bonds
money that i thought we were saving for something special you're being real shitty
in its totality the show 100 makes it clear that no this is an abusive relationship with
serious negative repercussions for everyone involved but the path it walks to get there is
a difficult one and isn't the easiest to navigate wilson see you later uh i'll see you later
can i uh can okay talk to you for a second yeah perhaps the show's biggest flaw is one of its most
appealing qualities on the surface the subtle way in which this story gets told makes those
title cards at the beginning and end of the episode feel very much necessary because after
watching decades of love stories that feature severe power imbalances it's at times easy to be
as seduced as eric by what's happening wait oh my god you need to leave you need to leave now
at times it's haunting to realize how many of claire's actions over the course of the series
are quite definitely textbook signs of grooming but they only stand out as textbooks once you
consult the textbook listen uh yesterday was not okay i get it no i do that's what i want
to talk to you about otherwise it's easy to want to buy into this love story as what
both eric and claire tell themselves it is at first before things fall apart that's because
it's hard to see the inevitable coming when you're caught up in claire and eric's drama
a teacher is being released weekly but is a remarkably addictive binge and not a long one
either as the 10 episodes are all 30 minutes or less and the goal at times is almost to make the
audience complicit in wanting this relationship to work out despite the fact that it's very clearly
wrong a teacher is not a love story that really has nothing to do with love
oh [ __ ] i'm sorry i totally forgot don't lie to me but those who find themselves in
these situations in real life don't know that something which a teacher is trying to capture
and ultimately makes it one of the most daring and complex series of 2020 because tragically real
life doesn't come with a content warning it's not my problem okay look i'm sorry no no no no you're
right if anyone found out what you did yesterday i my life would be ruined hope you liked that video
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you