Review: Abbott Elementary, “Competition” | Season 6, Episode 6

There’s been some good discussion in the comments section lately about where Abbott Elementary falls on the sitcom spectrum. It’s a charming, likable, often thoughtful show, but is it funny? While I tend to chuckle at least a couple of times per episode, I agree the series is more affable than a true laugh riot. So it’s handy that this week’s more-farcical-than-usual episode gives us a chance to see what the show would feel like if the balance were reversed—if it prioritized laughs over thoughtfulness. It makes for a fun change of pace for the week, buoyed by a dance competition that gets the main cast out of the school and into a new location. But it also confirmed for me that I like Abbott the way it is. I wouldn’t want the show to be this silly every week, at least not if it means detaching from reality as much as this episode does. 

Still, I laughed a lot at “Competition,” not so much at its big swing jokes as the cast’s off-kilter line deliveries and the general sense of absurdism that colors the episode. Moments like the one where Barbara asks if the man behind her is a white Tariq and Tariq turns to the white man behind him with a hopeful “unless...” Does it make any sense that Abbott parent attendance would be solely dependent on Tariq sending an email? (Wouldn’t the dancers’ parents already be in the know?) Or that he and Barbara would have the impulse to storm the stage to stall for time? Or that she would suddenly forget the words to the National Anthem? No. But I’ll be damned if I didn’t burst out laughing at her panicked choice to sing “Proud Mary” instead. Coupled with Tariq misinterpreting the whole thing as a will-they-won’t-they situation, it’s Abbott at its most ridiculous.