And I stand by that. The first season of English Teacher was one of the most exciting freshman comedies in a long time. <\/p>\n
The show centered around a gay, you guessed it, English teacher working in Austin who becomes increasingly exasperated by the blurred lines between wokeness and conservatism in his community\u2014not to mention the culture war brewing between Gen Z students and the millennial staff exhausted by them. It was fresh. It was observant. It was intelligent. Most importantly, it had jokes. <\/p>\n
![\"Carmen](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/ESKQ2IWFIBGI3F3O2J4D2H2VIA.jpg\")
Carmen Christopher as Rick, Stephanie Koenig as Gwen Sanders, and Brian Jordan Alvarez as Evan Marquez FX <\/p>\n
But in the midst of my heralding of the show\u2019s greatness, a pigeon flew into my trumpet. <\/p>\n
A few months after the first season of English Teacher wrapped, Vulture published a feature<\/a> detailing allegations that the show\u2019s creator and star Brian Jordan Alvarez<\/a> sexually assaulted a former collaborator during the filming of one of their projects. <\/p>\n The story, which I encourage anyone who has watched or is thinking of watching English Teacher to read, chronicles an uncomfortable, disturbing, absolute hot mess: a trio of collaborators with an awkward, unhealthy, and arguably unsafe lack of boundaries engaged in a friendship by way of psychological warfare. Their relationship\u2014and relationship to the idea of consent\u2014makes it difficult to concretely define what happened. It certainly was not good.<\/p>\n A police report was filed, but Alvarez was not charged. After an awkward period where the allegations were made public at the same time English Teacher racked up its first set of award nominations from groups like the Indie Spirit and Critics Choice Awards\u2014and was starting to appear on Best TV Shows of 2024 lists\u2014FX renewed the show for a second season.<\/p>\n Which is where we are now.<\/p>\n Season 2 of English Teacher is now streaming on Hulu, and it is, if possible, even funnier and shrewder than the first. This is a genius show. <\/p>\n The premiere alone is award-worthy: Alvarez\u2019s class, to his surprise, chooses to stage Angels in America as the school play. But once they read it, they\u2019re bored by AIDS paranoia that they can\u2019t relate to, because it was before their time. (Seriously.) So they decide to rewrite the show to be about COVID, a plague that they say traumatized them far worse than the gay cancer of the \u201980s.<\/p>\n To navigate that minefield of sensitive topics with a sense of humor that skewers the moment we\u2019re in, that\u2019s some comedy wizardry. <\/p>\n But the biggest question that surrounded the launch of Season 2 wasn\u2019t whether it was going to be this funny, but whether anyone will\u2014or should\u2014watch it. <\/p>\n I\u2019ve had frank conversations with colleagues and even with people at FX about this. I know critics who flat out refuse to review or write about it because they were so shaken by the allegations in the Vulture article. I know others who felt that, absent official charges, it wouldn\u2019t be appropriate or fair to take such a moral stand. <\/p>\n I landed in an awkward place in the middle. <\/p>\n The idea of separating the art and the artist is an increasingly ludicrous one at a time when our media consumption, and therefore opinions about content, is holistic: it\u2019s not just the work, it\u2019s the personality and the brand behind it that we care about. <\/p>\n So I chose to watch the new season of the TV show that I loved and championed, and to enjoy it as I would in a vacuum without any context. Then, after that, attempt to figure out how to wrangle my thoughts about it given that I am not in a vacuum, and know that my reaction will inevitably, and perhaps rightfully, be colored by the information in that Vulture article.<\/p>\n And that\u2019s what this is. This is me working out how I feel given *gesticulates as if he\u2019s landing a goddamned airplane* all that. <\/p>\n The truth is I don\u2019t have an answer, nor really should I. I don\u2019t know if it\u2019s OK to watch the show. I don\u2019t know it\u2019s presumptive and unjust to not watch it. I do know that the episodes are hilarious. I don\u2019t know if that absolves any complicity in enjoying them. I don\u2019t know if it was wrong to use the word \u201ccomplicity\u201d there. I do know that I am confused. <\/p>\n It\u2019s actually a moral conundrum that I could envision playing out with sharp insight and a reticent cheekiness in an episode of English Teacher. Isn\u2019t that something. <\/p>\n An All-Time Great Insult Moment<\/p>\n My Real Housewives are my children. In my own little deranged, slightly parasocial delusion, I am their parent. I nurture them. I encourage them. I am often disappointed in them, sometimes proud of them. I may be raising them, but, the truth is, they\u2019re the ones raising me. <\/p>\n And when one of my children a Real Housewife comes into her own, elevating from \u201cmeh\u201d to \u201cwerk!\u201d status, I feel it in the depth of my soul. I had that moment this week with Real Housewives of Salt Lake City<\/a> star Bronwyn Newport. Congrats, girl. You\u2019re an icon now. <\/p>\n It is hard for a Housewife who is added to the mix of an original cast to hold her own. That\u2019s why I\u2019m in awe of Bronwyn. This week\u2019s episode should have destroyed her. OG cast member Lisa Barlow unfurled what may rank as the wildest insult ever on a Real Housewives franchise. In lieu of calling Brownyn a gold digger, she referred to her as a \u201cgout d— sucker.\u201d Pure poetry.<\/p>\n The women watch on gleefully as Bronwyn eviscerates Lisa because she succeeded to do in one night what they all have attempted to do for years and that\u2019s to clear Lisa Barlow. \u2014 Mark (@MarkJCampbell) September 24, 2025<\/a><\/p>\n That should have turned Brownyn into dust. Instead, she owned it, exposing her love of sex acts involving her husband\u2019s allegedly inflamed member. Does an expensive gift, or a blind eye towards a hefty credit card bill, come, so to speak, as a reward for such acts? Yes, as she smugly tells Lisa, who can\u2019t believe that she didn\u2019t wither in response. <\/p>\n The defiance energizes Bronwyn, who continues to read Lisa for her own financial shortcomings. It\u2019s a thrill to watch a Housewife ascend in real time. <\/p>\n The Wicked Sequel Is Looking Spicy<\/p>\n How many times did I watch the new trailer for Wicked: For Good<\/a> this week? That\u2019s between myself, God, and Ariana Grande. <\/p>\n I don\u2019t know what it is about these Wicked movies<\/a>. I\u2019m as cynical as an elder millennial living in New York City with so much debt that banks anthropomorphize and start giggling when I walk by could possibly be. And yet I refuse to think anything other than this much hyped movie sequel will be a masterpiece that may absolutely change my life. <\/p>\n I believe that because of the songs, because of the epic performances in the first film, and because of the energetic direction. And because, in this movie version of the stage musical, we\u2019ll apparently get to see Elphaba and Fiyero f—. <\/p>\n This is so important to me, as, apparently, it is to many people on the internet\u2014or at least on my social media algorithm\u2014as \u201cSHIRTLESS FIYERO<\/a>\u201d has been the number one trending topic on my newsfeed. <\/p>\n An Epic \u201cJust Keep Swimming\u201d Moment<\/p>\n You spend long enough being obsessed with\u2014and then working in\u2014pop culture, you get to see wild journeys unfold.<\/p>\n For example, I remember watching the first season of America\u2019s Got Talent<\/a>, and being charmed by a cute contestant named Jessica Sanchez.<\/p>\n I remember watching the 2011 season of American Idol, in which my ferocious crush on eventual winner Phillip Phillips was unwavering, even though I knew that Sanchez, the runner-up, was boundlessly more talented. <\/p>\n I remember when Sanchez was cast as a guest star on Glee<\/a>, a show which at that time was my entire religion, and being so happy for her. <\/p>\n Sanchez was just crowned the winner of the 20th season of America\u2019s Got Talent, a full two decades after her first audition. It\u2019s been forever since a winner of one of these talent competitions made a major mark in the music industry, but watch this clip of her singing and try to tell me she doesn\u2019t deserve to be a star.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n Mothers Are Back<\/p>\n The new season of Hacks is filming in New York City, and I didn\u2019t not walk to the corner where this photo was taken after I got off work to see if they were still filming there\u2026<\/p>\n More From The Daily Beast\u2019s Obsessed<\/p>\n The Real Housewives alleged boy band affair is all I can think about these days. Read more<\/a>.<\/p>\n Billy Crudup and Mark Duplass dish with Obsessed about the new season. Read more<\/a>.<\/p>\n He\u2019s the reason you\u2019re going to be swooning over Netflix\u2019s new show House of Guinness. Read more<\/a>.<\/p>\n What to watch this week: <\/p>\n The Lowdown: Epic \u201cEthan Hawke With a Goatee and Funny Hat\u201d series<\/a>. Now on FX.<\/p>\n One Battle After Another: Dare we say Oscar frontrunner<\/a>? Now in theaters.<\/p>\n The Ugly: A devastating mystery<\/a> about the \u201cugliest\u201d woman in South Korea. Now in theaters.<\/p>\n What to skip this week: <\/p>\n Eleanor the Great: A sweet movie until you realize what the plot is<\/a>\u2026 Now in theaters.<\/p>\n Slow Horses: The farting Gary Oldman spy series loses wind<\/a>. Now on Apple TV+<\/p>\n![\"Jordan](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/HFK6Y7MEOREHXFYTNFCWNQIM4M.jpg\")
Jordan Firstman as Malcom and Brian Jordan Alvarez as Evan Marquez in ‘English Teacher’ FX <\/p>\n
Lisa not only looked a mess on screen but in her confessional too. You can tell shes spiralling #RHOSLC<\/a> pic.twitter.com\/5TbLGz3XQr<\/a><\/p>\n