Common Sense Media Review
By Joyce Slaton
,
based on child development research. How do we rate?
Mature humor, iffy role models in school-set comedy.
Parents Need to Know
Why Age 14+?
Any Positive Content?
Where to Watch
Videos and Photos
A.P. Bio
What's the Story?
At this time last year, Jack Griffin (Glenn Howerton) was a respected Harvard philosophy professor with a future and self-confidence and a mom who lived in Ohio. But now? Griffin's been pushed out of his department, he's living in his dead mom's frumpy home, and he's teaching high school A.P. BIO in Toledo—and doing a really crap job of it, to the eternal distress of well-meaning Principal Durbin (Patton Oswalt) and the honor students who hoped to actually, you know, learn some biology. Jack's on a collision course with disaster, and he doesn't care who he takes with him, as long as he destroys his snooty nemesis Miles (Tom Bennett) along the way.
Is It Any Good?
Rebel-teacher stories have been told so often on television that it's really hard to escape all the clichés, so this show has to get credit for at least trying (and sometimes succeeding). "This won't be one of those things where I teach you, or I end up learning more from you than you learn from me," he crisply warns his students in the show's first episode, promising those who don't tell on him for not teaching an A+ in the class. But that's before a sassy-Greek-chorus-y trio of fellow teachers enlighten Jack in the teacher's lounge that he can pretty much assign his students any task he wants. Soon, he's using them for his own purposes: to torture his nemesis Miles, to get him out of work, to get him assigned to "teacher jail" (an in-school suspension with pay).
Bottom line is this: Though A.P. Bio seems like a promising candidate to be a successor of beloved NBC primetime comedies like The Office, Parks and Recreation, Community, and 30 Rock, and a sharp crack occasionally brings it up to those levels, it's not as good as those shows. The storylines are too predictable, the characters too generic; it lacks the surprise zing of really great comedies. Howerton does his best, and is pretty good even delivering absolutely ridiculous lines; Oswalt is lovable, as always. But unless you have a free spot in your schedule and a weakness for SNL-esque comedies, you may want to skip this class.
Talk to Your Kids About ...
Families can talk about why comedies are so frequently set in workplaces: schools, hotels, backstage at TV shows. What types of plotlines does the school setting of A.P. Bio make possible? What are the dramatic or comedic possibilities?
Why do so many shows begin with a character who is new to something: a school in this case, an office, a team? What dramatic, comedic, or practical reasons would a writer have for that setup? Think about some of the shows you have watched. How are characters introduced to you, the viewer, as they are to the new person?
Are viewers supposed to like Jack? How can you tell? Is he a hero? An antihero? What's the difference?
TV Details
- Premiere date : February 1, 2018
- Cast : Glenn Howerton , Patton Oswalt , Lyric Lewis , Tom Bennett
- Network : NBC
- Genre : Comedy
- TV rating :
- Last updated : December 4, 2024
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