English Teacher: Viral TikTok star Brian Jordan Alvarez’s TV comedy

It was about time Brian Jordan Alvarez got to headline his own TV series.

The actor, comedian, writer and social media sensation has been entertaining everyone for years but that lead role on a big-deal project has eluded him.

You may recognise Alvarez as Jack’s partner and then husband on the Will & Grace revival show, or maybe as a recurring star on Get Shorty and Jane the Virgin.

More likely, you probably know Alvarez’s other work — the 2023 viral song “Sitting”, which he posted to TikTok under one of his alter ego characters, TJ Mack.

The deceptively simple ditty about the joys of sitting being the opposite of standing and running around, became anthemic. Remixed, covered and loved, it captured a mood — we’re all exhausted and we deserve a sit-down.

Alvarez also went viral in Australia in 2020 for being a foreigner who managed to perfect the Australian accent (even better than Kate Winslet and Dev Patel), which he credited to bingeing episodes of Australia’s Next Top Model.

So, yes, Alvarez is an entertainer, and he brings those gifts and his ideas to English Teacher, a comedy he created and on which he often writes and directs.

In the series, Alvarez plays Evan Marquez, a gay teacher in Texas, the reddest of red states at a school where the principal, Moretti (Enrico Colantoni from Just Shoot Me and Veronica Mars), looks like he’s perpetually on the brink of a nervous breakdown.

In the first episode, Moretti tells Evan he’s being investigated after the parent of a former student complained that Evan kissed his boyfriend in front of students. Evan did — but as he correctly pointed out, if a heterosexual couple had done it, it would’ve been celebrated.

He also divines what’s really on, which is that particular parent is letting her prejudices play out in reaction to the fact her son is gay.

The second episode sees Evan contend with a tradition of football players dressing up as cheerleaders but needing to be the bridge between the macho men and the school’s LGBTQI students who find the whole thing offensive. Evan’s solution is to bring in a drag performer to teach the football kids how to do it with pride.

English Teacher is not an “issues” show so much as it brings in the battlegrounds that are plaguing American schools which are far more politicised than here. Anywhere that allows locally elected school boards to set the ground for morality in education is going to be cooked.

The series is calling out just how ludicrous it all is, and the tension between the kids, who Evan and his friend and colleague Gwen (Stephanie Koenig) wonder are less “woke” than in previous years, and the intensity of parents and administrators.

It does this with a sharp sense of humour but also warmth — for example, the character of Markie, the masculine, un-PC coach (Sean Patton) who is a genuinely good guy.

English Teacher can sometimes feel like a series of vignettes more than an arc-ed narrative, but that could change over time as it finds its footing. Meanwhile, it’s wickedly funny.

English Teacher is streaming now on Disney+