Spoilers for Season 3, Episode 3 -- "Gregory's Garden Goofballs" -- of Abbott Elementary are ahead! If you haven’t seen the latest episode that aired on the 2024 TV schedule, you can stream it right now with a Hulu subscription.
Arguably, the biggest change in Abbott Elementary Season 3 is Quinta Brunson’s Janine moving from working at the titular school to having a fellowship with the school district. This has taken her out of the classroom and into the offices, and she’s working really hard to make positive changes. While all that is fine and dandy, and at moments I truly love this move for Janine, I actually have some complex feelings about it, and we need to break it down.
So, now that Season 3 is officially off to the races, let’s chat about the pros and cons of Janine working for the school district rather than teaching second grade.
Pro: It’s Nice To See Janine Make The Changes She’s Always Dreamed Of And Working With Fun New Characters
It’s been clear since day one that Janine was driven to make Abbott Elementary and the Philadelphia school system better. So, seeing Josh Segarra added to the Abbott cast as a district employee, and having Brunson work with him to make positive changes has been so wholesome.
For example, in Episode 3, Janine worked with Manny to get an ASL interpreter for one of Jacob’s students. It was amazing to see our favorite teacher making the change she always dreamed of, plus it was hilarious to see her weave through the administrative hoop-la at the district. Seeing her run around the office asking for help, and eventually succeeding was funny as well as rewarding for both the character and viewers.
However, I can’t help but be a bit disappointed that she’s so far away from her colleagues at Abbott.
Con: Quinta Brunson’s Character Feels Disconnected From The School
My favorite thing about Abbott Elementary is its cast and its chemistry. All of the regulars work so well together, and seeing the hijinks at the school is what makes this show such a joy. Watching Janine go to Barbara for advice or Gregory for a nice chat or Melissa when it comes to the school’s second-grade students at any given moment is the best.
Now that she works for the district, Janine isn’t in the school nearly as much, and in Episode 3 I really started to feel her absence. Even though her story was directly related to Abbott -- as she was helping Jacob get an ASL interpreter for the class and Ava was at the district offices prompting her to do it -- she still felt isolated.
I wish Janine was involved in the drama surrounding Gregory and his lunch buddies. And in the premiere, we saw her reaction to missing Ava getting switched back into herself via the song “Back That Azz Up.” I want her to be in the action, not recapping it in a bar with Jacob and Gregory after the fact.
While I obviously want Janine to be at Abbott so her relationship with Gregory can flourish, I also just miss her being in the mix of it all, and interacting with the kids and teachers. Janine is the heart of the show, and not having her in the school all the time feels weird.
Luckily, I feel like the comedy knows this, and once her fellowship is over, hopefully, Janine will go back to teaching full-time. I feel like they’re trying to prove how invaluable Brunson’s character is to her school and how everyone misses her. You know what they say: distance makes the heart grow fonder, and that seems to be the case here.
I have hope that Janine will be back at Abbott in no time, and while I’m not the biggest fan of her working at the district, there are some lovely pros to it too. And like the second-grade teacher, I’m going to find the good in this situation as I continue to watch Season 3 of Abbott Elementary.
