Variety - June 6, 2022 (Abbott Elementary)

Comedy Series QUINTA BRUNSON is leading to laffers the network charge into

By Selome Hailu ilu

6 ● VARIETY

06.06.2022

Tapping Into Killer Instincts

Whodunnits shake up the scene thanks to streaming and premium TV

By Ethan Shanfeld

Murder mystery is having a moment.

Maybe it’s because the pandemic has us glued to our couches, hankering to solve puzzles. Maybe it’s because the weekly episode drops have overtaken the once-dominant binge format.

Maybe it’s because in 2019, “Knives Out” grossed more than $300 million at the global box office and Adam Sandler’s “Murder Mystery” broke Netflix’s opening weekend records.

The past few years alone saw the rise of premium streaming mysteries “The Afterparty,” “Mare of Easttown,” “Only Murders in the Building,” “The Undoing” and “The Flight Attendant” — as well as genre subverters “Murderville” and “The White Lotus.”

While the reason why this genre is dominating our television sets and Twitter feeds is perhaps a mystery in itself, showrunners of the season’s top shows attribute their successes to the golden era of streaming, the rise of premium television and — according to “The Afterparty” creator Chris Miller — the “timeless human desire to find answers to important questions.”

Miller originally intended “The Afterparty,” first conceived a decade ago, to be a movie, until

he realized it would work better as a series so audiences “could spend more time with each character and get deeper inside of their heads.” It just so happened that the show coincided with the resurgence of weekly episode drops, replacing the once-dominant binge format.

“The binge model squelches conversation rather than fosters it, while the weekly model encourages people to guess and talk about clues and debate with each other, because everyone’s in the same place,” he says.

It can also lead to a snowball effect in viewership. “Mare of Easttown” was a major beneficiary

of the weekly model, with its finale scoring 4 million viewers over the weekend — a series high — and setting an HBO Max record for the most-watched episode of an original series during its first 24 hours of availability.

“Because there was a week between each episode, the anticipation and word-of-mouth would build, and by the fifth episode, we felt, ‘Wow, this really has caught on,’” creator Brad Ingelsby says of the series, which took home four Emmys last year. “The weekly model also allows you to spend more time with the characters.

You spend over seven weeks with Mare, and hopefully you think

Selena Gomez, Martin Short and Steve Martin lead Hulu’s “Only Murders in the Building.”

about her at some point in the middle of the week, too.”

Erica Saleh, showrunner of Peacock’s detention-set whodunnit “One of Us Is Lying,” credits the recent “move toward shorter seasons” for contributing to the murder mystery boom. While popular network series used to span around 22 episodes per season, streaming has encouraged more focused and concise installments.

“Eight to 10 episodes is enough to develop your characters and give the audience plenty of twists and turns, but not so many that you find yourself having to manufacture plot and red herrings just to make it to the end of the season,” Saleh says.

Ingelsby also points out that the rise of premium streaming means Hollywood’s biggest actors and storytellers are drawn into the world of television.

“You have this thing that people have always wanted, but now they’re getting to see it with Kate Winslet or Nicole Kidman or Amy Adams. It’s putting a fresh coat of paint on an old genre.”

Perhaps addressing the elephant in the room, “Only Murders in the Building” co-creator John Hoffman points to the pandemic for increasing viewership and fostering a “communal experience” around TV. “As isolating as it was, we were connecting in ways through our media,” he says. “God knows we were also a little bit bored. So anything that sparked interest for ourselves at home and created discussion … I think that intensified that natural inclination to get involved in a good yarn.”

(Cover) P hotograph by Dan Doperalski; (This page) Craig Blankenhorn/Hulu

B I Z + BU Z Z

06.06.2022

VARIETY ● 9

Lawrence Plants Deep Roots

Writers nurtured by ‘Ted Lasso’ creator talk about lessons learned

By Joe Otterson

lot of my stuff, I’m really into that kind of mentorship role. So, to have young people around, I find it mutually inspiring, hopefully.

Ted Lasso: AppleTV+; Lawrence: Sthanlee B. Mirador/Sipa USA/AP Images

What do you think it is that makes a good showrunner?

Well, I just want to say something first, and you can use this or not use it. I love the notion of this family tree thing, but I do find the premise a little flawed. ... It’s not like you’re taking young people by the hand and going, “I’m gonna make you a showrunner and you a showrunner for the fun of it.” If you stay around long enough, the good thing is getting to point to hyper-talented young men and women that cross your path at one point or another, and then say, “Hey, I’m going to pretend I had something to do with your career.”

Bill Lawrence, the co-creator of “Ted Lasso” and creator of “Scrubs,” also co-created “Cougar Town,” “Spin City” and “Clone High” — which means he’s worked with a plethora of talent.

What was it like the first time you walked into a writers’ room on your own show?

Unbelievably surreal because, for me, it wasn’t so much about the writing staff. It was the first time I saw Michael J. Fox do a cold read with other actors. You know, when we were auditioning people, I was 25, and he was such an iconic film and TV guy. For me, I couldn’t even judge the acting.

And he was so kind. He would sometimes read with other people auditioning. And I couldn’t even judge the people auditioning on my own show because I just stared at Mike, and I was losing

I hear you, but that’s not the premise. It’s more about discovering interesting connections between successful people that you didn’t know existed.

I’ll tell you my favorite one. You’ll have to dig deep and I have very little responsibility for it. But Jorma [Taccone] and Andy Samberg were PAs on “Spin City.”

my shit. I was like, “That’s fucking Marty McFly reading shit I wrote!”

Does any of this still feel surreal at this point in your career?

I love it so much, but you start to take these things in stride. But I always tell other showrunners there’s a huge value in always making sure that you have young people on your show. They’re still showing up to work and being like, “Wow, a TV show.” It’s so inspiring. It makes you remember that stuff.

You have to occasionally drink the blood of young writers. Also, as you can see thematically in a

Really?

I don’t think I ever met them face to face. They had to be there through Gary [Goldberg]’s daughter Shana, who is a very successful comedy writer.

Brendan Hunt, Jason Sudeikis, Brett Goldstein and Nick Mohammed star in Bill Lawrence’s “Ted Lasso.”

That’s nuts. But to circle back, what do you think it is that makes a good showrunner?

To be someone who creates shows, you have to have a very

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seemingly not address something and then magically fix it. That was sort of my main takeaway, at least on my script, because at the end of the year, you saw how totally chaotic stuff was, and — on my end at least — I sort of felt desperation all the time. He always brought it together, which I guess is exactly what good showrunners do.

specific voice of your own, and what’s really interesting is sometimes those people are super strong [at] writing on your show, but sometimes you can tell right away, “Oh, that person has such a specific voice. Even though they’re great and useful here, they’re going to be much stronger when they’re kind of creating and doing their own world.”

Beyond that, I hope that the thing they glean working with me the same thing I’ve gleaned working from Gary: not to be a control freak, to empower other talented people to help you in the process, because anybody that tries to do everything eventually melts down. You should be collaborative and hopefully, create a work environment that everybody feels kind of safe to have an opinion, safe to say they like or don’t like something, and it just feels like a safe place creatively.

What was the vibe like in the writers’ room at that time?

I think in good ways and bad, it was totally cloistered. We were in this disgusting old building in Valley Village where there were literally rooms that still had soiled linens and bloody sheets in them. And it was creepy and weird, but none of the executives really wanted to come visit us. So there was a lot of creative and personal freedom in working in an abandoned hospital with no one else. I think it was a little more like theater camp than most writers’ rooms — again, in a really good way.

What lessons did you take away from working with him?

I learned the value of efficiency in TV. Narrative efficiency and production efficiency and not in a mercenary sense but in the kind

Will Berson is the Oscar-nominated screenwriter of “Judas and the Black Messiah,” formerly a writers’ assistant on “Scrubs” with one produced episode.

What was it like working with Bill on “Scrubs?”

I think, in the best possible creative way, he was kind of flying by the seat of his pants — which is not to say he’s not particularly organized. I don’t remember exactly when our orders got bumped up. Both years, we were doing 26 episodes or something, so by the end of the year, there’s just a lot of improvisation.

I think part of Bill’s madcap genius is just being able to

Lawrence created “Scrubs” in 2001, and the show has spawned many writing careers.

of beauty of having to do it. Not to go back to the theater metaphor, but TV is kind of like being in a rep company and you just have to do it. And the only way to do that is to do it streamlined — to do it once every seven or eight days for 30-plus weeks a year.

What I think is so great about his aesthetic in general is that it’s a really great mix of comedy and pathos, but he’s always sincere and never snarky, which is really anomalous in this age of comedy.

And I think that is what allows all the pathos to work within the comedy, because it’s always completely sincere. That’s definitely something that I’ve tried to replicate in my work.

You got your first onscreen writing credit on “Scrubs.” What did that mean to you?

It meant the world. I became an associate member of the Writers Guild, which I was incredibly proud of. It felt like getting called up to the big leagues, or at least getting a cup of coffee in the big leagues. It was amazing to feel included and respected by people like Bill and Matt Tarses and all the incredible writers there at the time. It was exhilarating and totally a confidence booster.

Prentice Penny is showrunner of “Insecure,” formerly a co-producer on “Scrubs.”

What was it like when you first joined the writing staff of “Scrubs?”

It was interesting because it was also at a time when “Scrubs” had already had their finale and then it got brought back for one more season when it’s like, a med school year. So, Bill also had “Cougar Town.” I remember we were both in the same building. We were at one end, “Cougar Town” was at the other end. So, Bill would go back and forth between those rooms.

Watching Bill go back and forth between rooms and managing both shows was just really great to watch. Watching him pull it off successfully was pretty amazing.

Penny: Richard Shotwell/Invision/AP Images; Berson: Chris Pizzello/AP Images; Schrubs: Michael Ansell/NBC/Everett Collectio

10 ● BIZ + BUZZ

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What were some things you thought Bill did well as a showrunner?

One of the things I took away the most was just the way that I thought Bill really fostered family.

It really fostered community on this show between the writers.

He really encouraged the writers to do more things together that have nothing to do with writing and just find ways to enjoy being with each other. Whether that was going to a Dodger game, or a Lakers game, you would just start talking to people about what their husband does, or their wife. You would get to know them better as people, which made us write better together.

Identifying talent was another thing that I thought Bill just did really, really well — and not just in the writers’ room. I remember Bill saying he begged NBC to put Aziz Ansari on a deal and they didn’t want to do it. So to then watch Aziz obviously go on and have all that success was just so great. Or Bill’s eye for casting Dave Franco, who hadn’t done anything yet, or Kerry Bishé. All these people, he was just really smart at picking people that were talented.

What were the biggest lessons you took away from your time working for Bill?

The way he would break story is

something that I still do today.

It was what I did on “Insecure,” the same way that we broke stories on “Happy Endings,” which is doing stories in a loose way and then doing stories in a deeper way.

You have to occasionally drink the blood of young writers.”

--Bill Lawrence MTV store. But Bill, for “Scrubs,” had full use of this abandoned hospital where they shot it and to save us on the budget, he let us move our writers’ rooms and some artists’ office into a wing of the hospital that they didn’t need to use, mostly because it was so damn scary that nobody wanted to go there because it was a former psych ward.

Phil Lord & Chris Miller are producers and co-writer (Lord) of the Oscar-winning film “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse,” directors and co-writers of “The Lego Movie” and co-creators of “Clone High.”

You worked with Bill early in your careers when you co-created “Clone High.” What was that experience like?

Lord: We were selected by Bill as the only people with a deal at Disney who were younger than him. I think he was like 30, and so he was like, “I want to work with some younger writers and help mentor them.” And they’re like, “Well, these are the only people who are younger.” So, we developed “Clone High” together and we learned a ton.

Miller: He was just incredibly generous. We were working on an MTV budget, which was not very much money. We’re getting paid mostly in MTV bucks, which were redeemable at the

When I spoke with Bill, he said he likes to mentor young writers so he can basically suck the youth out of them.

Lord: And that’s now our constant joke when we work with young writers. Another thing I remember from that time, Bill tries to make everything seem like it’s going to be a cinch. He’ll be like, “Yeah, we have these notes on this script and we have to do this, this and this, but it’s going to be really easy.” And that point of view of things will be

easy and fun, it’s really helpful, because it’s not punitive.

What were some of the other lessons you learned from Bill in the “Clone High” days?

Miller: Like Phil said, keeping a positive attitude that anything is fixable. We can roll with it. That’s something that we’ve definitely tried to take forward with us.

And especially when we’re dealing with unexpected setbacks, I think similarly, the generosity and trying to say, “Oh, how can I help and how can I go around the system to make other people’s experiences easier?”

Lord: He encouraged us to cast people that make you laugh, and then write to those people. And he does the same thing with writing staff, to cast people into the writing staff that crack you up.

Because everything else you can figure out. What you can’t teach people is to make you laugh.

Phil Lord, Chris Miller and Bill Lawrence’s “Clone High” ran for one season on MTV from 2002-2003.

Lord, Miller: Sthanlee B. Mirador/Sipa USA/AP Images (2); Clone High: HBO Max

What did it mean to you to get that job at that time?

It was awesome. I mean, it’s so funny. It was really a full circle moment. The spec that got me my first job was a “Scrubs” that I wrote. ... I had seen almost every episode of “Scrubs,” and so I wrote a spec.

Then one day, I just happened to be watching and it was almost the exact version of my “Scrubs.” I was so distraught because I spent so much time writing it. But as I was sitting there an idea came to me and I was like, “Oh, this shouldn’t be what my other ‘Scrubs’ is about, when life throws you things where don’t know why this was happening and then you learn why it does happen.” Then that’s what I ended up writing and that’s what got me the job.

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06.06.2022

Small Town Charm Hits Big

As urban cities reopen, TV series fill our yearning for rural idylls with quirky denizens

AWARDS CIRCUIT During the early weeks of the pandemic (remember those days, when quarantine felt like at-home camp and we had no plans to still be talking about COVID two years later?) and then as the 2020 election went off the rails, my wife and I turned to “Schitt’s Creek” to get our minds off the apocalypse.

So did a lot of folks. That year’s virtual Emmys experienced a winning streak like no other for “Schitt’s Creek,” which won outstanding comedy, as well as trophies for stars Eugene Levy, Catherine O’Hara, Annie Murphy

and Dan Levy (not to mention wins for writing, directing and more).

It was the right show at the right time, and TV Academy voters clearly agreed. The show was funny, well-crafted and of course, boasted some comedy all-stars (throw Chris Elliott into that mix as well). But there was also something about the show’s idyllic setting that felt like a salve for fans.

The Rose family bought the Canadian town of Schitt’s Creek as a joke, and when they lost everything, they were forced to move into the town’s dumpy motel.

But as the series and its episodes progressed, it turned out Schitt’s Creek wasn’t so schitty after all. It was a welcoming small town of eccentrics, who all filtered through the town diner and participated in the area’s quirky traditions.

The pandemic taught us that we have the technology now to do a lot of our work virtually anywhere. I know several of you spent months working remotely from other parts of the country, including Hawai’i, and no one was

the wiser on Zoom. That’s starting to change, but the dream of that simpler, small-town life remains.

There’s a great tradition of small towns on TV, in both comedy and drama. Of course, you can go way back to Mayberry on “The Andy Griffith Show.” Small towns are big in creepy TV, including “Twin Peaks,” “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” and “True Blood.” Other comedies in recent decades included “My Name Is Earl” and, of course, Pawnee in “Parks and Recreation.”

“Schitt’s Creek” is over, but a number of series are picking up the tradition. In “Life and Beth,” Amy Schumer’s character finds new life in her small Long Island hometown, while in “Ghosts,” a New York couple inherits a haunted mansion in the Hudson Valley. “Young Sheldon” takes place in a fictional East Texas town, while “The Conners” continues in Lanford, Ill., the setting for “Roseanne.”

Other shows exploring different aspects of small-town life include FX’s “Reservation Dogs,” which breaks new ground on the

Bridget Everett’s “Somebody Somewhere” was inspired by her real hometown.

depiction of Indigenous American teens in rural Oklahoma; and Fox’s “Welcome to Flatch,” about the off-center residents in a small Ohio town with an unpleasant name — much like, yes, “Schitt’s Creek.”

But I was particularly charmed this year by Bridget Everett’s HBO series “Somebody Somewhere,” which is inspired by Everett’s hometown of Manhattan, Kan. It’s a bit of wish fulfillment, an America that seems to be out of reach right now: Blue and red, co-existing in the same town and accepting of all. The real Manhattan, Kan., is similarly unique, Everett reports: It’s a college town, but also close to an army base.

“They voted Biden for president, but everybody else was red on the ticket,” she says. “It’s conservative, but there are liberals, so it’s a nice balance. You have the military and the university. Football is huge, as are family and community. My brother Brad still lives there, and he’s always out doing something for somebody. It’s good people.”

And good TV.

HBO

By Michael Schneider

Network Comedy Viewers are finding ‘Abbott Elementary,’ ‘Ghosts’ and ‘American Auto’ trendy again

By Selome Hailu Photograph by Dan Doperalski

IS BACK

in style

S SINCE THE DEBUT of “Abbott Elementary” on ABC in December, creator, executive producer and star Quinta Brunson has been credited with spearheading “the return” of the network comedy. She’s grateful for the love, but she isn’t so sure about that particular compliment.

“Network, all this time, has still been putting big comedies on the air,” she says. “CBS especially was banging out shows with super high ratings, like ‘Young Sheldon.’ ‘The Big Bang Theory’ was on the air forever. And ABC: ‘The Conners,’ ‘The Goldbergs,’ ‘Black-ish.’ They’re holding their own.”

Still, it’s no question that “Abbott Elementary” represents an exciting new moment in the comedy landscape. The series, which follows a group of teachers at an under-funded Philadelphia public school, quickly became a top ratings earner for ABC. By the second episode, “Abbott Elementary” had drawn in the network’s best numbers since “Modern Family” concluded its run in 2020, and it’s the No. 2 new comedy in the adults 18-49 demographic behind “Ghosts” on CBS. But the numbers also prove something Brunson is more willing to take credit for. “ ‘Abbott’ is interesting because of the audience it seems to bring back to network [TV],” she says. “I can’t put my finger on it. Some people just say millennials, but it’s not. It’s a certain type of viewer that wasn’t watching network TV, and ‘Abbott’ has given them a show to watch.”

Case in point: Per Nielsen, ratings for the Season 1 finale of “Abbott Elementary” saw a 200% spike after a week of delayed viewing, meaning two-thirds of the key adults 18-49 demographic caught it via DVR, Hulu and other digital platforms instead of during its initial airing on ABC. And in March, the show achieved an especially of-the-moment accolade: Twitter announced it was the most-tweeted TV comedy of 2022. Does that mean “Abbott Elementary” is the network champion of the internet-savvy, cablefree contingent? That might be a start, but it’s still a reductive analysis.

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Brunson’s humility extends to the new phenomenon of her growing stardom; she’s thrown off by the attention she gets as an individual outside her show.

“I was shocked that it went viral,” she says of a thread she wrote in April on Twitter, in which she responded to a writer who posted a complaint about “Abbott Elementary” being “undramatic” and “more nice than funny.”

“I wonder if that has to do with it being a 22-minute sitcom,” Brunson wrote at the time, earnestly encouraging drama-inclined comedy fans to watch “Severance” or “Succession” instead.

“I wasn’t dunking on anyone. I was just tweeting a random thought I had,” she says now. “It made me think about where we are in the state of comedy. First of all, I enjoy a lot of the dark, prestige comedies. I love ‘Barry.’ ‘Atlanta’ is so dark. But I also enjoy a 22-minute, pop-in, pop-out style comedy. Both of those things can exist, but it seems people feel like the 22-minute comedies take less thought or less art.”

“The Big Bang Theory” is a go-to example for Brunson in that regard. She personally isn’t into the show itself but is reverent and analytical about its cultural impact: “People can say they didn’t like the show all they wanted, but ‘Big Bang’ built an audience. It was a well-written show, and it knew what it was doing. I was not a fan, but my sister loves that show, and I love that my sister loves that show. It means that the show is capable of finding an audience that returns. I don’t think the Mona Lisa is all that tight — but there’s some people who see that painting and are moved to tears. I’m serious. It’s really that simple.”

She adds: “And any person who’s working in TV will tell you that it’s actually harder to work in the constrictions of network comedy. You have to be a little bit more creative to not curse, and not show the blood and drama, but still get people enticed and engaged.”

Networks seems to provide the best of both worlds by that logic: the creative constraints created by short runtimes and FCC regulations combined with the benefit of streaming access later on. For that reason, “Ghosts” showrunners Joe Port and Joe Wiseman don’t even see their show as a strictly network property in its essence.

“I view the show as living in both worlds,” Port says (though the pun, as “Ghosts” unites people from the worlds of the living and the dead, was unintended). “It’s the No. 1 show on Paramount+ amongst comedies. And it has this incredible marketing reach because it’s on CBS, which has football and all these different events that people tune into and see ‘Ghosts’ promos.”

Port also relishes in a benefit of network television that streaming services are only just recently beginning to rediscover and capitalize on.

“What’s good about being on CBS, and even the way they roll us out on Paramount+, is that it’s a weekly show, which I love, because it eventifies it. Some of these [streaming] shows drop 10 or 13 episodes [at once], and it’s like … if a tree falls in the forest, and no one’s around … did it make a sound if you don’t get traction those first two days?”

“Ghosts” premiered in October and follows Samantha (Rose McIver), whose near-death experience endows her with the power to see and communicate with the ghosts who live in her home and died there at different points in history. Port and Wiseman developed the series for U.S. television based on the British series of the same name. When IP is king and the market is saturated with reboots and revivals, “Ghosts” still manages to feel original.

Specificity is the secret. “CBS had acquired the rights for this project and sent it to us, so we watched it, and in five minutes, I was like, ‘I’m in.’ I loved it. It just felt like a very portable idea,” Wiseman says. “Especially now, there’s so many international shows that just air or stream in America, so why adapt it? This one, to me, made a ton of sense, because the characters are very specific to the country or the region that you’re doing it in. It felt like a no-brainer to populate it with American archetypes and go from there.”

According to Wiseman, making a successful adaptation also requires letting go of the source material. “We’re obviously standing on the shoulders of giants. The British series is a huge influence on us. But we’re not looking to replicate it,” he says.

After a thorough research process identifying which locations in America could reasonably house the widest range of ghosts, Port and Wiseman landed among the country cottages of upstate New York, enabling them to put characters in a room together that include a lonely Viking, a Lenape storyteller, a wealthy woman of the Gilded Age, a ’90s finance bro and so on. (Port, who majored in American history in college, says realizing they could write a Viking character if they set the series upstate made their decision easy.)

Nowhere else on TV are a Prohibition-era jazz singer and an ’80s Scout dad able to sit down for the same game of Dungeons & Dragons. This odd string of personalities allows “Ghosts” to accomplish something that Brunson uses as a litmus test

Scott Everett White/ABC

in her own comedy viewing. When asked how she decides if a new show is working for her, she says: “I love it when someone does an episode of TV that only they can get away with.”

Her first example of that level of singularity was “Commercial,” episode 6 of NBC’s freshman comedy “American Auto.” Created and executive produced with a satirical bite by Justin Spitzer, the series follows a group of executives at a car company constantly weathering different crises, and “Commercial” sees them try to create a perfectly inclusive TV ad after they’ve run into criticism online for only featuring straight couples in the past.

A series of increasingly absurd events on the set of the commercial demonstrates what it might look like behind closed doors when old brands desperately try to keep up with changing cultural attitudes.

“It’s such a well-crafted episode of television. They used their 22 minutes to the fullest,” Brunson says. “I was like, ‘Abbott’ cannot do this. No other show on TV can go the places they went with the material they had. The world they have [created] allowed them to get away with a lot of sharp talking about the optics of things. They got to say shit that you want to see done.”

At one point, the crew begins to question whether one of the actors they’ve cast as a lesbian is, indeed, a lesbian. They don’t want to upset viewers for giving a gay role to a straight person, but as their chief counsel Elliot (Humphrey Ker) reminds them, they absolutely cannot ask the woman her sexuality. They go through a similar dance while selecting and re-selecting races of the couples.

Ultimately, the commercial is a mess, marked by childless swing sets and minivans because the drawn-out decision-making process meant that the child actors had to go home. They still air it: “No one watches commercials anymore, anyway,” says CEO Katherine Hastings (Ana Gasteyer). It’s a huge corporation — execs will be fine at the end of the day.

“It was exciting because it felt a little risky. As we were pitching it, we had to keep saying, ‘We know this is potentially dangerous territory,’ ” Spitzer says. “There were so many funny challenges along the way with like, putting out a casting notice for a part of an actress who we think is going to be a lesbian, but then we’re not sure if she is. Everything was eating itself, like this weird Möbius strip or something.”

The employees of Payne Motors generally fail when it comes to adapting to the times, but “American Auto” itself stands as testament to Spitzer’s idea to do so. He first pitched the series to NBC in 2013, but it was back-burnered as he went on to create and produce six seasons of “Superstore.” When he came back to “American Auto” after almost a decade, he found fresh angles for humor and a new confidence in his own ideas.

In the pilot, Katherine has just taken over as Payne’s first female CEO when the product team realizes, while testing the new Payne Ponderosa, that they’ve designed a racist car. The Ponderosa is a self-driving vehicle that hits assembly line employee Jack, revealing that the braking mechanism doesn’t detect darker skin tones.

“There may have been AI [in 2013], but it wasn’t in the press as much,” Spitzer

Quinta Brunson created and stars in ABC’s hit sitcom “Abbott Elementary.”

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says. “So [the original pilot script] was about developing a hybrid-electric green vehicle for red America.”

Therefore, the show was always meant to deal with American political divides, but by 2021, Spitzer had the language to accomplish that with more depth.

Similarly, Katherine’s character was not always written as a woman. “Even when I read it now, it’s almost arbitrary. This wasn’t supposed to be a show [strictly] about a female CEO. I wrote it as a man; I rewrote it as a woman.”

At multiple points, Katherine’s gender becomes a springboard for the show’s best jokes. Sadie (Harriet Dyer), the company’s chief communications officer, is constantly having to guide Katherine through the “right” way to navigate press appearances as a woman.

Beyond how a feminist appearance might benefit her stock options, Katherine couldn’t be less interested; she thinks “the revolution is over” and that “the woman thing is so played out.”

“There are little things you find along the way. That’s always the case when it comes to the identity of any of the cast,” Spitzer says. “I feel like almost any of them could have been any race, any gender, any age — but once you end up with the actors, you start writing to them, and then no matter what they are there, there’s stuff that brings [more] into the conversation.”

When it comes to “Abbott Elementary,” it’s episode 8, titled “Work Family,” that Brunson considers most unique. In it, Janine (Brunson) is hurt to find out that her colleagues see themselves as friends at school, but not outside. It’s later revealed that, at least for fellow teacher Jacob (Chris Perfetti), that distance has been created intentionally because he doesn’t want to have to confront Janine about her dead-end relationship with her boyfriend, Tariq (Zack Fox). It’s a painful conversation, until the scene cuts back to Tariq, who is on stage at a school assembly advancing his fledgling rap career with an anti-drug performance. Bringing a 5-year-old girl onstage, Tariq asks the crowd: “What if this little stage manager shawty died from drugs right now? That’d be pretty messed up, wouldn’t it?”

For Brunson, the humor comes from Tariq’s earnestness. He’s a freeloader who takes Janine and her share of the rent money for granted, but that’s due to immaturity and absent-mindedness more than malice or manipulation. While Brunson is proud of the way Janine learns her worth and move on, she’s also proud that she wrote Tariq as a bad boyfriend without making him a bad person — TV has enough of those.

“We have these Black main characters, and I saw an opportunity to make sure that they were fleshed out and dimensional,” Brunson says. “We don’t very often get to see that. Yes, there have been other Black shows, but not as many. So, I don’t think that Tariq is a villain.

I think people are just growing up. Tariq is doing the best he can, and we wanted to show that too.”

Work and home have been the common language of sitcoms for decades, so these creators seek out alternative presentations of those paradigms. But no, Brunson, Port, Wiseman and Spitzer aren’t ushering in “the return” of network comedy. If anything, this new wave is being created by the viewers at home.

“So many different people tell me that they’re watching the show. They’re vastly different in age, race and income level,” Brunson says. “So, I don’t know what that specific thing is. I’m not sure I need to know. I feel like all we have to do is just keep making the show.”

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A W A R D S

C I R C U I T

With multiple laffers returning after a long hiatus and half-hour broadcast series making a splash, the category is wide open

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My FYC

True Motivation

‘Shining Vale’ star and producer Courteney Cox is inspired by horror-comedy combos

Courteney Cox has done a bit of everything: danced in a famous music video with Bruce Springsteen; produced a game show; starred in one of the most famous sitcoms of all time and survived a dozen fights with Ghostface.

So, what inspires an actor with so many successes? Something completely different. While Cox’s own show, Starz’s “Shining Vale,” which she both produces and stars in, is an Emmy contender in the comedy category, she hasn’t been watching shows that are making her laugh. Instead, she’s been watching true crime stories, first with HBO Max’s “The Staircase.”

“Colin Firth has gotten that character down. I’m just thrilled with it. I loved the documentary series, but I can’t believe how he has his own twist on it, but it’s how he’s enveloped that character,” she told Variety of the show, which tells the real story of Michael Peterson, who was accused of murdering wife Kathleen Peterson.

“I like dark things,” Cox adds. But that’s not limited to true crime — she also loves “The White Lotus,” a murder mystery and comedy.

“That character that Murray Bartlett plays, he’s so good. ... ‘The White Lotus’ had my attention for six episodes straight.”

Overall, Cox has always loved the true crime genre, an obsession that began with “The Jinx” in 2015. She views it all as preparation as an actor.

“I think I’ve watched the ending five times just for character study,” she says. “I can’t believe what you can learn by watching people. I watch TV for so many

Courteney Cox jumped at the chance to produce and star in “Shining Vale.”

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reasons. I will really get stuck on a shot because I love directing and so sometimes, I rewind just because I want to see the way they did that. Did I feel it was gratuitous or did it enhance the story? I love watching people’s subtlety and how they portray [a part] in a way that’s not in your face. I think I do get lost for sure. I suffer from acute awareness, I notice everything. So, I’m watching it for all reasons. But when I get lost, then I know I’m watching something incredible.”

“Shining Vale” also has dark tones throughout as both a halfhour comedy and a psychological thriller. In fact, creators Jeff Astrof and Sharon Horgan described it to her as a comedy version of “The Shining” — a description that really piqued Cox’s interest: “I mean, that’s just something you don’t ever think of and [Sharon] actually coined this phrase that she wanted to be like a ‘shit-com.’

That that was a big draw for me.

I read the script and thought, ‘I haven’t read anything like this.’”

After her character, Pat, gets caught cheating on her husband (Greg Kinnear), the duo moves their family to the big city to try to save their marriage. As she goes through life changes, battles addiction and mental health issues, she realizes the house is haunted — but she is the only one who can see the ghost (who appears as Mira Sorvino).

“I’ve always been a fan of movies like ‘Rosemary’s Baby’ or ‘The Shining,’ where it’s so psychological, and the characters have such transformations. This has that dry wit, which I really love,” Cox says.

“My character is just drier and it’s something that I relate to. I enjoy her sarcasm.”

Cox was interested in “Shining Vale” because the creators described it to her as a “shit-com.”

I can’t believe what you can learn by watching people. I watch TV for so many reasons. I will really get stuck on a shot because I love directing.”

-- Courteney Cox

Additionally, she was able to tap into many different parts of Pat. “I’ve got a teenage daughter and maybe [my daughter] Coco’s not quite as brutal to me, but that attitude of kids trying to push away from their parents and become independent and get bugged by parents is very real, and it happens around me all the time,” she says. “I can tap into menopause. I can tap into marital strife or having times in your life where your career is not going [great]. She’s having writer’s block.”

Luckily, Cox is in a great place in her career, with the series being renewed for a second season the day this interview took place. She was beaming about the news, but had a feeling it was coming.

“It felt right — it just felt like something that worked. I’ve thought that before and usually I’ve been pretty right like, I mean, obviously with ‘Friends.’

By the end of doing the pilot, I just took a chance and bought a car.

I was like, ‘I know this is gonna go,’” Cox recalls. “This time, I think the chemistry of the cast and the subject matter [works].

It’s not a groundbreaking genre.

It’s nothing new. I’ve obviously

been in comedies and horror that have been joined together, but the way this is done, I thought it was really original and I had high hopes for it. It’s very exciting.”

In fact, this role is one of the most challenging she’s ever taken on.

“I really delved into this character in ways that I haven’t before. I wanted to be really prepared and take all of it so seriously. I didn’t want to phone it in any way.

There’s certain things in your life, you’re like, ‘OK, this is what I do. No, this is not what I do.’ This actually meant the world to me.”

In general, comedies hold a close place in Cox’s heart. While she’s not much of a binger, she can’t help but still turn on reruns of some of the most popular sitcoms in history — including, every now and then, her own. “‘Seinfeld’ is a great show.

‘Cheers,’ there’s no question that that makes me laugh. I don’t watch ‘Friends,’ but it’s on all the time. So, when I see it, I don’t remember any of the episodes, so I really get surprised by how funny [it is],” she says laughing.

“I love the old shows, like ‘The Honeymooners.’ Humor that’s good, it’s timeless.”

The half-hour comedy genre has proven to be timeless overall. This year saw huge success with ABC’s “Abbott Elementary,” NBC’s “American Auto” and “Grand Crew” joining hits “Young Sheldon” on CBS and “Black-ish,” which wrapped its final season on ABC this year.

“I’m starting to think that everything works well that’s a half-hour.

I think, especially in this day and age, when things are compact and put together in a short amount of time, it helps with all of our attention spans,” says Cox. “With social media, everything is just so quick that we’re almost used to that. I think doing audience comedies is a much tougher thing to live up to, but doing half-hour filmed comedies are my favorite. ‘Shining Vale’ is kind of a combination.”

So, what is she pulling for at this year’s Emmys? In addition to those listed above — “The White Lotus” and “The Staircase,” she can’t help but show some love to “The Morning Show” and her former “Friends” co-star — and real life best friend — Jennifer Aniston.

“I mean, obviously my friend Jennifer,” Cox says. “She wins a lot and I always want her to because I think she’s incredible.”

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The Importance of Comedic Timing Will ‘Atlanta’s’ return to the landscape knock ‘Ted Lasso’ out of the winners’ circle?

Plenty of newbies will be breaking into the comedy category this Emmys season, but two leading rivals for the title will be actual competitiors for the first time: “Atlanta” and “Ted Lasso.”

As wildly different series that fall into the same genre in the awards competition, their performances in this race will likely lead to a discussion about the industry’s relationship with feelgood TV.

“Those shows are going to have interesting moments, both with Donald Glover having been out of the spotlight for a minute, intentionally, taking a detour with a music career that was more successful than I think a lot of people expected,” a Hollywood industry insider told Variety, “while there’s been probably more publicity than I think Apple would like on the fact that the upcoming third season is likely the last season of ‘Ted Lasso.’”

“Atlanta,” which stars, from left, LaKeith Stanfield, Brian Tyree Henry, Donald Glover and Zazie Beetz, took Season 3 to Europe.

The Jason Sudeikis-led Apple TV+ comedy is the reigning champ and has never aired in an “Atlanta”-less world, while Donald Glover’s show is a twice-nominated FX series that has lost twice, first to HBO’s “Veep” in Season 1 and then to Prime Video’s “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel” in Season 2.

And just as “Ted Lasso” has been a topic of joyful conversation continuously for almost two years,

the very idea of when “Atlanta’s” Europe-set Season 3 would finally premiere — following a four-year wait since Season 2 — has also been a much-discussed event.

“I’d anticipate that if ‘Atlanta’ was gone for so long and came back as the exact same thing, it probably would have less of a chance,” another industry insider says. “I think this season is coming back with something fresh, brand-new scenery, a brand-new

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situation for that cast and those characters. If … the execution is as great as it was in previous seasons, they probably set themselves up for more awards, as opposed to fewer this year.”

“Ted Lasso” Season 2 and “Atlanta” Season 3 are neck and neck in critical approval, with both holding a 97% Certified Fresh rating from Rotten Tomatoes.

Gold Derby rankings as of May 23 had “Ted Lasso” at No. 1 on its list of predicted winners for comedy series at the 2022 Emmy Awards, with HBO Max’s “Hacks” in second, HBO’s “Barry” in third, Hulu’s “Only Murders in the Building” in fourth, “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel” in fifth, ABC’s “Abbott Elementary” in sixth and “Atlanta” all the way at No. 7.

With the exception of “Ted Lasso” and “Only Murders,” which had the comedy field largely to themselves in the summer and fall 2021, these shows have all returned or debuted either at midseason or in this spring.

“Ted Lasso” Season 2 had the benefit of an avid, eager audience looking for laughs and a Season 1 Emmy campaign to help bring it even wider attention, while the other shows have been competing for viewers with less time on their hands as the world opens back up. There’s also more content to choose from when viewers do have a half hour to spare. And in that time, do they want a lot of hearty chuckles, or are they looking for the kind of genre-bending humor that “Atlanta” provides?

The debut season of “Ted Lasso” was widely considered the perfect show at the perfect time, an uplifting tale full of good-natured characters that hit right when the spread of COVID-19 was at its peak in fall 2020. It was a bright spot that brought together people who were physically spread apart, and gave audiences hope and something to believe in —for a little while — on each viewing.

“Atlanta” is certainly not that kind of show, but at this stage in the pandemic, do we need such a series?

“We are in an era where we are ready for more depth as a society.

I think there is an appetite for different content. I think part of the ‘feel good’ of ‘Ted Lasso’ was just that, in fact,” says one TV industry source. “Not only was there just a lot of heavy going on, but there just hadn’t been a really clever, feel-good comedy in a while. The feel-good-comedy era was a lot of the multi-cam-laugh-trackCBS of it all. But there hadn’t been a lot out there at that time.

So that fresh approach was really interesting, too.

“But at that time, everyone was in their bubbles and there was little variety to what our days looked like, so there was little variety to what we were ready to digest on any given night as we sat on the couch and put something on. I think some of the return to normalcy — and certainly the return to a variety of the types of experiences and the types of relationships and even the ability to get some new in our lives, as opposed to what was feeling pretty monotonous — has caused people to be open to new stories and different stories and even heavy stories and subject matter because there

Comedies that are great on their own benefit from a multiplier effect when they facilitate a shared experience.”

--Darnell Brisco

With its empathetic handling of mental health issues, “Ted Lasso,” with Jason Sudeikis and Sarah Niles, gave people hope.

is some sense of balance in just day-to-day life.”

According to multiple Television Academy members who spoke with Variety, while they love “Ted Lasso” and the contagious feelgood fuzzies it gives them, they don’t think that depth of feeling is necessary in order to laugh anymore.

In fact, several of them pointed to how the second season of “Ted Lasso” was significantly less filled-with-smiles than the first, exploring topics including mental health and ending with a fullblown heel-face turn for one of its key characters.

“Ted Lasso” felt less good than before, and it was still widely

adored for its underlying message and community-building aspect.

“Part of what made ‘Ted Lasso’ pop was that it fit in perfectly with formats like TikTok/Reels and meme culture,” says Darnell Brisco, executive vice president and head of growth at entertainment marketing agency Bond.

“Comedies [and thrillers in a similar way] that are great on their own benefit from a multiplier effect when they facilitate a shared experience. At a time when we were all in our proverbial bubbles, ‘Ted Lasso’s’ memorable feel-good persona ultimately cut through because the show allowed audiences to feel something together.”

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Life’s Rich Pageant Is His Canvas Comedy titan Chuck Lorre reflects on comedy, COVID and rewatching ‘Two and a Half Men’

Chuck Lorre had a lot on his mind earlier this year as his four active CBS comedy series — “Young Sheldon,” “Bob Hearts Abishola,” “B Positive” and “The United States of Al” — wound down production for the 202122 season. In the end, Team Lorre went 2-2, as CBS pulled the plug on “B Positive” and “Al” but re-upped “Abishola.” “Young Sheldon” had already nabbed a three-season renewal last year.

At this stage of his career, Lorre doesn’t worry too much about his box scores. He doesn’t count the number of shows on his roster, nor the number of cameras used in production. What he does focus on more than ever is what he wants to say with the shows that come from the small army of loyalists who drive Chuck Lorre Prods.

More than ever, he eschews high concept and favors the human comedy.

“When I grew up, a situation comedy was, an astronaut comes home with a genie in a bottle.

That’s a situation, right? Wait — I married a witch. That’s a situation. But a family is a family. It’s not heightened and there’s no end to the material because it’s just life, you know?”

Chuck Lorre admits it can be intimidating working in today’s media landscape.

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Starting with the launch of “Mom” in 2013, the CBS comedy about a blue-collar mother and daughter who were both recovering addicts, Lorre has demonstrably veered into more socially conscious territory with his network series. He also expanded into the arena of single-camera comedies with “Young Sheldon” and Netflix’s Emmy-nominated “The Kominsky Method,” which wrapped its three-season run last year.

Here, the comedy titan reflects on the collaborative process of crafting TV and how his interests as a writer and producer have evolved as his 70th birthday approaches in October. And Lorre drops the surprise that he’s recently been rewatching episodes of a show in his canon that brought him both riches and a painful public battle.

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Dying is easy, comedy is hard.

In this fraught cultural moment, how do you go about making people laugh?

Lorre: My philosophy has always been, you have to care about the characters before you laugh.

Caring allows you to love them even if you don’t like them if the character is sort of an antagonistic type of character. Anybody’s going to tell you their

favorite character on “Taxi” was Danny DeVito. You know, he was basically playing the devil. He was this horrible, caustic character (as dispatch chief Louie De Palma) but you loved him.

I rewatched a bunch of “Taxi” during the pandemic, and I just thought, my God, what a singular performance that was from Danny DeVito. … So basically, before you embark on creating a show or writing a pilot, you have to be honest with yourself about what are the chances that you’re going to care about these people as a viewer, and I count myself as a viewer as well as a writer. I want to care.

Is it intimidating to work in an environment where the country is so politically divided and charged and virtually every viewer has a megaphone on social media to comment on your work?

It’s absolutely intimidating, because the fallout if you misstep is horrific. I don’t come to Burbank and say, “Let’s offend people today. Let’s fill them with loathing for us as human beings.” No, I don’t want to do that. The shows we’re doing are about what pulls people together: raising children, making a life in this country, navigating old age. Those are

The shows we’re doing are about what pulls people together: raising children, making a life in this country, navigating old age.

Those are not partisan issues.”

— Chuck Lorre

not partisan issues. There’s no cancel culture involved in being worried about your kid or trying to keep a marriage together. We all share those universal human elements. And if we focus on that, I am hopeful that we can avoid the anger — because there’s so much anger.

What’s it been like to produce your multicamera shows without a studio audience for months now?

We haven’t had a live studio audience in almost two years. … Despite it being considered something of a mongrel genre, working in front of a live audience, every week, is the greatest training in the world. Because when, no matter how smart and funny and wonderfully talented you might think you are, if 200-some odd people are sitting up there and if they don’t laugh ... you know, you’ve been to enough tapings that sometimes you can hear the 134 freeway when you’re supposed to hear laughs. So, you’re scurrying. It’s humbling, it’s frightening. It’s embarrassing. It hurts. It viscerally hurts when stuff dies. But it breeds a sense of humility. You can’t go around thinking you’re that smart when 30% of a script dies in front of a live studio audience. I am so grateful that that is how I came up — with the unbelievable stress of putting on a new show every week for a live studio audience.

With all that training, what was it like to shift gears into streaming with something as personal to you as “Kominsky Method”?

With “Kominsky,” I very much wanted to tell a story over what amounts to four or five hours.

And I wanted to do something without a room full of writers — something I wrote. I brought guys in to help me punch it up.

Without any doubt, you bring in great comedy writers, and have them look at a script, they’re gonna see things you don’t see. … I’m ashamed to have to say this because it’s such a well-known thing to people in the film world,

but you’re writing with visual images instead of words. And you can construct all kinds of things that you would never have dreamed of. In the four-camera world, the page is everything.

But when you move into the world of film, there’s a whole other language that comes into play. It was new to me, and I love it. It changed the way we do the four-camera shows.

After so many years and so many shows, you still seem to love the game.

I love that the body of work is sustainable. I didn’t set out to make Kleenex. We all set out to make silk hankies that you can wash and use again. And I love that, every once in a while, I will watch a “Two and a Half Men” rerun when Angus [T. Jones] was really little, and there was stuff I’d completely forgotten.

Charlie Sheen left “Two and a Half Men” amid a storm of controversy in 2011 that included him taking many public shots at you. Does that history color your feeling about the show overall?

It is really gratifying that what we made still works on some level. Time has passed and the episodes with Charlie are a joy to watch. There were a couple of years there where I couldn’t watch it. It was too hurtful. I can enjoy them all now. You know, he did a brilliant job. And the chemistry between him and [co-stars] Jon [Cryer] and Angus and Holland Taylor and, oh my goodness, Conchata Ferrell, who has passed away. It was a beautiful cast.

What is the most misunderstood part of producing television, particularly at the volume that your shop handles?

Making these shows is very much a communal activity. I’m making four shows? Not a chance. That just can’t happen. That’s a recipe for failure. Because it’s just too hard. It’s too hard to do one show every week unless you surround yourself with smart people.

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Abbott Elementary: Pamela Littky/ABC; Atlanta: Coco Olakunle/FX; Afterparty, Ted Lasso: AppleTV+ (2): Berry: Merrick Morton/HBO; Black-ish: Richard Cartwright/ABC; Hacks: Karen Ballard/HBO Max; Marvelous Gutter CreditAmazon Studios; Only Murders in the Building: Craig Blankenhorn/Hulu; Reservation Dogs: Shane Brown/FX Mrs. Maisel:

By Clayton Davis

Abbott Elementary

Atlanta

If the Oscars were looking for a good mood with “CODA,” then the TV Academy might look to “Abbott,” which follows a delightful, charming and earnest bunch of Philadelphia teachers. Creator, writer and star Quinta Brunson, along with the rest of the cast, are the most popular kids of the awards season.

FX’s hit series makes a return for its penultimate season, with all the delights of its inaugural outings. Donald Glover and the rest of the cast have their devoted fans, but the hurdle will be if the show’s hiatus was too long for people to jump back in to the flow.

The Afterparty

Barry

From executive producers Phil Lord and Chris Miller comes this murder mystery comedy streaming on Apple TV+. The all-star cast of the smash freshman series boasts one of the best ensembles of the year and could be a dark horse entry.

The whimsical and maniacal hit man is back, and HBO has another shot at the comedy Emmy, along with stars Bill Hader, Henry Winkler, Anthony Carrigan and Sarah Goldberg all vying for acting wins as well. After a COVID pause, it’s great to have one of the best shows on television back for another Emmy round.

Black-ish

Hacks

The world said goodbye to the ABC sitcom, which has made a strong showing at the Emmys over the past eight seasons, but has never walked away with the any of the big statuettes. It’s the last chance for voters to give the Johnson family its overdue love.

Who would have thought the second season could possibly surpass the first? Critics love the HBO Max series, and its stars, Jean Smart and Hannah Einbinder. Could the second season road trip lead to a big Emmy night? It can be argued that “Hacks” nearly took home the top prize last year after winning writing and directing.

The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel

Only Murders in the Building

Another series returning after a hiatus, this time with its penultimate season. The Prime Video comedy has won this race before. Rachel Brosnahan leads the charge once again, and the awards campaign team is optimistic about their chances to make another big showing, considering the show is familiar territory with the TV Academy.

Hulu has all the riches this year, especially with its whodunnit series that stars comedy icons Steve Martin and Martin Short, alongside an equally brilliant Selena Gomez. A true contender for writing, the series could overperform with the Emmys and be a spoiler waiting in the wings.

Reservation Dogs

Ted Lasso

A darling on the indie circuit, the FX series received critical acclaim when it debuted.

Sporting a cast of Indigenous newcomers, the series has grabbed noms and some wins already and could make a surprise entry in this category. Its big obstacle? Being remembered due to its early release.

“Ted Lasso” gave Apple TV+ its first top series win in this category last year and is back for more. With a robust slate in all series categories, the familiarity of our favorite football coach could be an easy check off, especially with high-profile wins from Critics Choice and SAG Awards.

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The hour-long comedy deserves attention for its frank and funny look at frisky teenagers

‘Sex Education’

Since its debut in 2019, “Sex Education” has lived in Emmys purgatory: As an hour-long show, it was ineligible to be nominated in comedy categories, but its no-holds-barred sex positivity was apparently too irreverent to earn serious consideration for the drama category. And that is how one of the buzziest, best-reviewed and most sublime shows ever to stream on Netflix has gone without a single nomination for its first two seasons. Not one!

But now that the TV Academy has realized again that hourlong shows can be funny, “Sex Education” has been unshackled from its past inhibitions. Voters are free to embrace its delightful, humane, tits-and-bollocks-out

story of teenage nerd Otis Milburn (a fearless Asa Butterfield), his sex therapist mother, Jean (a fierce Gillian Anderson), and the magnificently horny students at Moordale, Otis’ secondary school in England.

First and foremost, we need to talk about Ncuti Gatwa. The actor, who was just named as the new Doctor Who, has already earned three BAFTA TV nominations for his performance as Eric Effiong, Otis’ charming best friend. Over the course of the series, Gatwa has crafted one of the most fully realized queer teenage characters ever on television, as Eric, who came out as gay at 13, seeks and stumbles while exploring his identity. In Season 3, that included drifting away from his quixotic

relationship with his former tormentor-turned-boyfriend, Adam (Connor Swindells), especially after Eric discovers the queer underground in Lagos while on a family trip to Nigeria.

In Gatwa’s hands, Eric is unforgettably himself — no more so than in (widely meme’d) moments such as his slow-burn glee at realizing Otis is hooking up with Ruby (Mimi Keene), the most popular girl in school, or Eric’s spontaneous dance later when Otis tells him Ruby said, “I love you,” and he neglected to say it back.

Ruby, actually, is a great example of how “Sex Education” embraces its characters’ raging libidos and tender hearts with equal care. At first, she uses Otis for sex (he does

Asa Butterfield and Mimi Keene star in “Sex Education” Season 3.

not mind at all), but the uncomplicated kindness he shows her ailing father — someone she never lets anyone meet — softens Ruby in ways that surprise her, and the audience. When Otis doesn’t share Ruby’s feelings, the show doesn’t shy away from how painful that is for her, but it doesn’t wallow in it either.

That’s because there’s too much great fun to be had with how horrifically embarrassing sex — and bodies — can be in high school.

Season 3 of “Sex Education” opens with a randy montage of just about every character reaching their o-face, and there’s an elaborate storyline that hinges on how a panicked student’s creative solution to a clogged tour bus toilet causes havoc on the school trip to France.

Within all that silliness is a compassionate portrait that honors the humanity of all its characters, even Hope (Jemima Kirke), the deceptively hip Moordale headmistress who imposes draconian new rules meant to scour away its reputation as the “Sex School.”

We haven’t even gotten to Maeve (Emma Mackey), the brilliant trailer-park kid whose will-theywon’t-they relationship with Otis drives the show, or Maeve’s best friend, Aimee (Aimee Lou Wood) the reformed popular girl whose bright, innate goodness is challenged when she’s aggressively groped on a public bus. That may seem like heavy stuff for a comedy, but “Sex Education” always brings its characters, and its audience, back to joy.

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By Adam B. Vary