Bad Teacher

Literally...one of the worst shows I have seen since that garbage the Crazy Ones. It was like getting a root canal with the lame attempts at humor designed for an adult audience downplayed for TV. Disney animated movies are more intelligent and better written. Rather watch re-runs of MASH then this junk. I really don't know where CBS is going with their new TV line up? This last episode was so contrived and ridiculous I feel sorry for not only those that watched it, but also to those that had to act out the script. It must have been ridiculous for them. Or they were saying, "getting paid". Or they are just bad at their jobs and expect us to say "it's all good". Frankly Cameron Diaz must be having a whole bottle of Chardonnay thinking..."wow, how did they take a good movie and crap out this show?"

The show is loosely adapted from the film with Cameron Diaz who starred in the film and is now producer. The show has an all star cast with David Alan Grier as the principal. Kristin Davis shines as the history teacher who aspires to be principal. Davis plays the teacher who thinks she knows it all. Ari Graynor plays Meredith also known as the bad teacher who aspires to marry a rich guy and live a life of leisure. She also gets away with much and causes trouble. She was the popular cheerleader type of girl who the boys came too. Davis' character is her opposite. As somebody who works in the school system, there are a lot more teachers like Meredith out there. Much like the students, the teachers have cliques. Those kids don't change as adults. While I could go on and on about the school politics and the system, I won't. This is a comedy and its not bad.

Meredith Davis (Ari Graynor) is getting divorced but she's left with nothing since she signed a prenup. When she's at the elementary school, she notices all the rich single dads. She decides to get close by being a teacher. She befriends principal Carl Gaines (David Alan Grier) and fakes a resume. She is the worst possible teacher. Irene (Sara Gilbert) is the meek pushover teacher. Ginny (Kristin Davis) is the mean queen bee. Joel (Ryan Hansen) is the nice gym teacher.

I kind of feel the same way about this show as I did the movie. Bad teacher isn't bad enough. The only way this show would work is if the show is completely inappropriate. Of course that would rule out a network TV show. Therefore it's trapped in a neverland where she's mean but she always pulls back to do the right thing.

I love Ari Graynor and her comedic sense. I first noticed her in 'Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist' as the drunk best friend. They really need to rethink the concept behind the show. For example, I think it would be better for Meredith to have a best friend or a sister companion. Quite frankly, I'm not sure that 'Bad Teacher' is a good concept for network TV. What's next? 'Bad Santa'? It's canceled 3 episodes in.

They took a movie I thought was OK (6/10) and turned it into a bad series. The jokes were not good, and it is easy to see that this theme of the sexy bad girl teacher will run its course well before this first season is over. I keep a pretty open mind when it comes to new shows, because you never know when you might be catching the first episode of a hit. I watched the entire episode and don't remember getting so much as a giggle or smirk. I am willing to give the show another episode, but unless there are different/better writers who worked on episode two I am just expecting more of the same. Hopefully they can prove me wrong. I really do not think that they will air the entire first season, and if they do it will be a miracle if they get a 2nd season. I find it hard to believe that no other ideas CBS had were better than this.

I've seen movies/shows with worse acting than this, shows where actors don't even know who their character is, shows with plots so generic than a toddler could predict the premise of every episode. And I've loved many of those movies/shows, just from the charm and the feel-good atmosphere. They're a guilty pleasure, something you love despite the fact that you know it has zero substance.

This series has all the bad acting, lack of chemistry and boring plot with but none of the charm. The main character, Meredith, bribes her students to act like they're learning with fake money, she stalks a guy two minutes after meeting him, and takes her class of children with her, she goes to a child's parents workplace and makes a false, public claim of sexual assault (simply because they were worried about her teaching style, which is warranted since she never worked a day before lying her way into the job, let alone get a teaching degree). Had any of these things been explained at all, by some tragedy in her life, the show might not have seemed so awful, but there was no explanation. In fact multiple characters laughed it off and after watching this woman hit on a rich guy solely for his money in every episode, we are expected to believe she is a good person.