Teachers

Teachers made a welcome return for a third season this week on channel 4.

I think Andrew Lincoln was wise to take a brake from the starring role this series, as his character had become whiney and his mannerisms beginning to grate. Although he did direct some this season and returns towards the end.

The first episode was business as usual with the new characters from last season plus a couple of others grown into their roles. Susan is gone and will be missed as the mentor in the group, but with Simon gone there would have been little for her to do.

The main ingredients remain such as the great humour at the expense of anyone the script sees fit, including some very unfair jokes at the expense of a little fat kid thats going bald, that are hilarious, and the excellent soundtrack (Feeder rock)

Adrian bower handles his new job as lead well, evolving from the confused teacher that thought maybe he could do more that was the butt of so many jokes previously.

All in all the show is still going strong, the storylines, while not earthshattering are still strong and I hope this goes on for a while longer.

Contrary to other theme-based shows, such as hospitals (E.R., Scrubs more importantly), hotels (Jamie Foxx Show) and crime scenes (CSI + spin-offs), "Teachers" is situated mostly in and around an fictional school and gives us a realistic view on how school life is from the eye of a teacher. While this element might be a bit overdone at some points (it is unlikely that all teachers go to the pub, every night, with their colleagues - not to mention the excessive smoking by all staff members), it does not raise doubts about the reliability of how situations are coped with. If we compare this to far from the truth patient-doctor relationships in Scrubs, miraculous survivals in E.R. and questionable research methods in Crime Scene Investigation, the impression is accurate at least.

Themes in this show vary from teacher-student problems, (the lack of) a sex and/or love life, school events, alcohol, smoking, relationships with colleagues (even cheating with them), maturity and the choice of be(com)ing a teacher. Simon for example, constantly struggles whether he has made the right decision to be a teacher, whereas Matt definitely seems to be having trouble with being faithful and Kurt and Brian have relationship issues -- most relations are purely sexual and usually end up in a catastrophe and are therefor even rumored to have a homosexual relationship.

The teachers are portrayed as very normal human beings, something that a student may forget at that age, or not even think of. But we're all humans after all - teachers cope with sometimes even the same problems as their students; including hangovers and love. You might even say that teachers are not as adult and grown-up as they should be theoretically. From an educational aspect only, it looks as if they are all quite in the wrong business. Though this changes through the course of the episodes, where the actual teaching seems to be educationally correct.

The balance between humor and serious issues seems to be fair and quite random. This is not the sort of show I would stay home for, but definitely to watch when I bump into it. The jokes are mostly unpredictable, while some others lean on clichés and easy puns, for instance; the mispronunciation of 'Mr. Dong' instead of 'Mr. Chong', after the school principle has been looking below Bob's belt and then directs herself at Mr. Chong, an Asian man who is presumably visiting or inspecting the school that day.

The changing of the cast in every season may be frustrating at times, but on the other hand is a realistic view on how things happen at a school. After all, teachers tend to get fired, get promoted, or (take a) leave. Every cast member has their own personality, with the problems that come along with it, including divorce, cheating on your partner, obesity, homosexuality, height, problems with several body features (it is for instance suggested that the size of Kurt's penis is below average) and so on. They might not be all be very detailed, but they give one the feeling you can relate to (at least one of) the teachers.

A definitive plus and highly recommended.

The First time Andrew Lincoln came to British Screens, was in the cult TV show "This Life" in which he played a quirky, neurotic and often confused lawyer. The reason the two series of "This life" were so good was due to the rich array of characters who played off one another so nicely, and a strong story line that was fast paced, witty and realistic.

Teacher's feels like it was written as a vehicle to show case the strongest characteristics of Lincoln's character in "This life". His character, Simon, in teachers is even more neurotic and confused about life than Egg was. On paper this sounds like it runs the risk of type-casting Lincoln and ruining the show from the out set. In reality Lincoln manages to pull it off; in fact he does so, so superbly that he avoids all the clichés and pitfalls and really shines.

While Andrew Lincoln twinkles his socks off, the rest of the cast refuse to be out done, Raquel Cassidy and nina Sosanya who play susan and jenny Respectively, do so subtly if not sublimely again avoiding the clichés, and Simon's two slobby mates (also teachers) Brian and Kurt played by Adrian Bower and Navin Chowdhry, provide the perfect foil for Simons ever growing neurosis.

At the end of the day, Teachers again has a strong storyline with a lot of fast paced humour and wit, while maintaining a degree of realism and showing teaching from both sides of the black board, teachers has all the potential and as I'm sure time will show has all the makings of a cult show in it's own right.

This show is so refreshing and good. First two seasons were terrific, the rest not so much. This happens with a lot of shows when they change the main cast - it just feels like a different show. They've written out characters and gave us unsatisfactory explanations (in some cases no explanation at all) for their absence. I've seen only a few episodes from series 3 and 4 so this review is focused on the first two series.

Simon and Susan were great characters. I could easily identify with them 'cause I work in school and I share some of Simon's attitudes towards students and my colleagues often come to me with their problems - that makes me feel overwhelmed at times, just like Susan.

The relationship between colleagues is warm and close. I like the fact that they could talk about a lot of topics, including silly conversations. They hang out after work, get involved in pranks and some of them are flatmates. The only character I didn't like from the beginning was Jenny, but eventually she warmed up to me. It's a shame that the main cast wasn't there 'till the end, but at least we got two excellent series with them. It's a fun watch, I guess that the young teachers will like it a lot.

The first couple of series of Teachers are wonderful. The third is so-so.

The fourth is dire, and I'm honestly surprised the cast agreed to many of the story lines.

Many other reviewers have commented on character changes being problematic in the later series. The loss of lead characters is a problem, but it's not the real reason that Series 4 is an unmitigated horror. Let's detail why:

1. Three new characters are introduced. The first is a "hot guy" to effectively replace Andrew Lincoln/James Lance. His character works okay, or would have done if they tried to establish more chemistry with established characters (as with Lindsay/Matt in Series 3). The other two characters are mystifyingly awful in how they are written. One (the "hypochondriac") is simply never funny. The other should be on TVTropes as the ultimate "token" hire. The poor actor is literally given no personality at all and nothing interesting to work with. Even straight men (in the comedy usage of the term) are supposed to be funny.

2. The themes and story lines are puerile, gross-out and frequently offensive, without being funny. In the earlier series the joke was having puerile characters in adult situations (teaching). In the last series, the situations are puerile. I feel particularly sorry for Vicky Hall (Lindsay) having to act the "fat episode". As for the "Ping" storyline, words simply fail. Little Britain handled the concept of a mail order bride more amusingly and more sensitively than this.

Teachers is definitely worth a watch. The final series is definitely worth a skip. It's amazing to realise that it was written by pretty much the same team of writers: what were they thinking?