Old School. Biblically Independent.
By Dustin Rowles | TV | November 13, 2025
The first season of English Teacher on FX was a big word-of-mouth hit, one of the best comedies of 2024. It was legitimately funny and a far edgier counterpoint to Abbott Elementary, capturing real nuances of teaching in post-COVID America. It gained a lot of fans, including myself — the whole show was so anti-woke that it circled back around to woke, somehow.
FX, however, didn’t immediately renew the series because Vulture published a piece involving troubling allegations leveled against its creator, Brian Jordan Alvarez. It soured many viewers on a show they otherwise liked.
After waiting to see if the furor over these allegations would blow over, FX ultimately renewed English Teacher for a second season, likely hoping that the creative talents of Brian Jordan Alvarez would win out and viewers would continue to watch a very good comedy despite its creator’s past.
I think if this were a Tim Allen comedy on ABC, the allegations wouldn’t have sunk it because that audience wouldn’t have cared. However, this is an FX series targeting an audience that takes allegations of that nature very seriously. The bloom was off the rose, and it just didn’t feel right supporting the show. Even those who continued to watch English Teacher (and I watched the first two episodes) weren’t going to promote it or talk about it online, no matter how good it might have been, because it felt wrong to do so. A show that thrives on word-of-mouth discussion — in person or online — cannot survive if no one feels comfortable talking about it.
And so a very good show with a very good cast making very good points about what it means to teach high school in 2025 died on the vine because its creator was allegedly a creep. The takeaway here, of course, is: Don’t be a creep. Because it will cost you your show, a lot of funny people their jobs, and an audience will also be robbed of something that they might have otherwise loved.
