Review: Abbott Elementary, “Campaign” | Season 5, Episode 16
Who needs structure when an episode is this funny?
Last week, I complained about an episode of Abbott Elementary that lacked a clear sense of structure and instead just delivered three random storylines that didn’t really have anything to do with one another. That’s also true of “Campaign,” except in this case the storylines are so funny and specific and smart and weird that the whole thing feels more like an embarrassment of riches than a scattershot installment. That’s still not totally ideal, as Abbott fails to fully dig into some fantastic concepts that could have carried entire episodes in their own right. But as fifth season sitcom flaws go, “we had too many good ideas” is much preferable to “we ran out of things to say.”
If there is a central theme linking everything this week, it’s characters pulling a “Freaky Friday.” It’s a phrase that comes from Barbara and Gregory’s decision to switch classrooms for the week, after Gregory suggests that teaching kindergarten barely even counts as teaching. But it also applies to Jacob’s decision to enlist Ava as his campaign manager in his run for West Philly’s 51st District Board of School Commissioners Liaison Representative. And while Mr. Johnson’s C-plot is really more of A Cinderella Story (to quote a Hilary Duff vehicle, rather than a Lindsay Lohan one), it also brushes up against the idea of stepping outside your comfort zone to become someone you’re usually not.
