Crime
Grosse Pointe Garden Society
The seemingly charming members of The Grosse Pointe Garden Society hide their involvement in a murder in NBC’s drama.
Like most public schools, Morrison-Hensley High is home to a diverse group of teachers and students. And English teacher Evan Marquez is all about diversity.
Evan teaches at Morrison-Hensley because he wants to positively influence the lives of young people. Located in Austin, Texas, the school—according to Evan—is full of students who aren’t “into being woke anymore.” As an openly gay man, Evan thinks they should be. So he shares his values with his pupils.
Until recently, Evan hasn’t experienced any resistance. Or, at least, he hadn’t until Principal Grant calls Evan into his office. Evan learns that a parent complained because he kissed his boyfriend in front of a class. Evan protests: The event in question happened last school year, and he’s not even with the guy anymore. But Principal Grant informs him that the school board has already launched an investigation.
Evan shares his frustration about the investigation with his fellow teacher and best friend, Gwen. She and several students express their support for Evan and their disappointment in the school’s response.
Eventually, Principal Grant reveals that the school board dropped the investigation, leaving Evan with one stipulation: He is forbidden from dating school faculty.
And that’s just fine with him—until Evan meets the charming new chemistry teacher, Harry. Suddenly, the school board’s single stipulation seems more difficult than Evan anticipated.
As you may already suspect, FX’s English Teacher explores controversial topics, and Evan is clear about his personal stance on them. In the show’s second episode, Evan invites his drag-queen friend to teach high school boys how to dress in and perform in drag. And during the investigation about Evan’s classroom kiss, he states, “If I succumb to the evil intentions of their conservative parents, then the kids are going to grow up to be exactly like them.”
While Evan’s personal opinions are clear, he maintains a generally positive relationship with his conservative co-worker, Markie. Although they disagree on key issues, Evan and Markie respect one another despite their differences. And while the show sometimes portrays Markie as being ignorant because of his political beliefs—for comedic effect—Evan recognizes that Markie ultimately has a kind heart.
Unfortunately, this positive message about befriending individuals with different beliefs gets hidden under layers of content issues. Characters regularly use profanity including the f-word, the s-word and misuses of God’s name. Additionally, both teachers and students make sexual references, and some scenes feature physical intimacy between same-sex couples. A student regularly vapes at school, and the teachers don’t appropriately address this concern.
Although English Teacher could stir important conversations about respecting others, its sexual content and the consistent use of profanity cause it to lose points on Plugged In’s grading scale.
(Editor’s Note: Plugged In is rarely able to watch every episode of a given series for review. As such, there’s always a chance that you might see a problem that we didn’t. If you notice content that you feel should be included in our review, send us an email at [email protected], or contact us via Facebook or Instagram, and be sure to let us know the episode number, title and season so that we can check it out.)
Evan Marquez learns that an angry mom triggered an investigation of him for kissing his boyfriend in front of his high school class. As Evan works on his defense, fellow teachers and students suggest how he might respond. Meanwhile, Evan takes an interest in a new male teacher.
Throughout the episode, Evan—and other characters—defend his right to display his romantic affection. They blame homophobia for Evan’s conundrum and theorize that the reason the mom complained about Evan is because her son came out as gay. In addition to these discussions about Evan’s sexual identity, several scenes feature Evan’s romantic encounters with a man. Although they’ve broken up since their classroom kiss, Evan and his ex-boyfriend passionately kiss and grab one another. Later, Evan reveals that they had sex, though this scene is not shown. There is also a scene in which Evan explains the concept of being non-binary to a group of high schoolers, and he seems to affirm this gender identity.
A male character dances in his underwear and takes a shower, though nothing critical is seen. Female characters are seen wearing sports bras. Several characters make sexual innuendos and describe intimate actions. For example, Evan offhandedly implies that a student’s parent sent him an inappropriate email. Evan also complains that a student showed him AI-generated porn.
Characters liberally use profanity including eight uses of the f-word, six uses of the s-word, one use of “g–d–n” and nine misuses of God’s or Jesus’ name.
High school students can be disrespectful to teachers and other students. The gym teacher Markie makes culturally insensitive jokes, and characters joke about international and United States politics. In certain instances, some characters seem to be the targets of these jokes due to their specific political beliefs.
A teenager vapes in the school hallways. Students accuse another student of selling drugs at prom. A character briefly mentions alcohol.
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