One step away from August, another adult TV series is added to the Italian Star catalog, visible to Disney + subscribers. The 10 episodes that make up the miniseries of A Teacher. Aired in America as early as November 2020 on HULU – paid streaming channel – now there perverse story by Claire Wilson and student Eric Walker is also available for the Italian public. A series that is not at all easy to digest, given that it touches firsthand a very delicate topic that has always populated the first pages of the news. In fact, at the center of the story there is a intense but forbidden love between a teacher and a 17-year-old student.
Although the story is treated with grace, bringing out an unflattering portrait of the world of adults and young people, A Teacher however, it remains a TV series with poor content and which fails to fully engage the viewer. Especially loved by the social media audience, the American press did not welcome the television project. The reason? A Teacher he abuses the romanticism between man and woman, making one believe that such a relationship is completely normal perverse between teacher and student.
A woman in search of herself: the plot of the TV series
At 32, Claire is more than happy to have found a new job as an English teacher at a high school in Austin, Texas. For her, this job is a new beginning, from all points of view. Claire – played by convincing Kate Mara, seen in House of Cards and Fantastic 4 – thus manages to escape from a suffocating routine matrimoniale, studded with quarrels with an under-grown husband and with the desire to give birth to a child. Teaching for her is a vocation. It’s like it’s part of his DNA. Certainties shake when she meets young Eric – played by Nick Robinson, Tuo’s star, Simon.
He’s a bright guy, much more mature than his peers. He is popular at school but has a difficult family history behind him, and he hasn’t managed to tame his demons yet. Eric and Claire, due to force majeure, begin dating even after school hours until that student-teacher relationship becomes something more. No one seems to regret the actions and consequences. Keeping such a clandestine relationship a secret is not easy, however. And both Claire and Eric, sooner or later, find themselves paying the consequences of their actions.
A bold coming-of-age novel with no winners or winners
A little teen-drama, a little soap-opera, a little judicial news: A Teacher ranges on different topics without ever dwelling enough on consequences of the individual characters. In fact, the TV series never manages to take off, it always remains in the shadows, with the fear of daring and taking a position on the subject. In fact, the discomfort of one transpires youth who wants to grow up too quickly and face the world of the greats head on, but at the same time, there is also a well-marked criticism of adult worldand above all, of a dissatisfied, bored woman who acts without thinking.
It’s a coming-of-age novel, but the TV series doesn’t dig deep. Indeed, it has the ability to make even such an out of the ordinary relationship sexy and flirtatious, without explaining the (real) reasons of one and the other. The attraction immediately springs into the sexual intercourse – always modest and never too explicit – sex that becomes morbid, illicit attachment and then love. A love, however, without a happy ending, which has no reason to exist, which inevitably ends up marking the life of Claire and Eric forever.
Strong themes for a TV series that did not convince critics
A Teacher was born with the intention of stirring consciences, ready to open a window on the school reality and on its own pitfalls. Although in America a good part of the public appreciated this type of experiment, perhaps precisely because it never takes a position, it is the critics and the specialized press that have not digested the TV series. There are many magazines and newspapers that have spent words on A Teacher, in particular an article published on TvLine in the month of November 2020 has created a bit of a stir.
The series was rated with a simple C-, precisely because it didn’t like the fact that it made such a perverse love story romantic. The article focuses on the word “romanticized abuse”, which would not have allowed alucid analysis of the situation, bringing out a romantic and loving portrait of a toxic story between pupil and teacher. Thus justifying that in love everything is allowed. Also circumvent a underage. The lack of chemistry between the two actors was also criticized. Good Nick Robinson is the one who came out best, while Kate Mara was not very credible in the role of teacher.
Why see A Teacher, despite everything
The TV series, however, even if it sins in certain topics and offers an explanation that is not suited to this type of relationship, has a very inviting writing that never loses its bite throughout the narrative. It is incisive and never boring, it is brilliant and goes straight to the point, and it does not get lost in absurd delays. A Teacher it is worth seeing because it remains a good example of high-profile seriality, which makes the news an icy tale of modern times.
Before the TV series there was the film of the same name
Created by Hannah Fell, the TV miniseries is an adaptation of a eponymous film which was presented at the Sudance Film Festival in January 2013. It never arrived in Italian cinemas, and in the United States it only had an on-demand broadcast. The TV series, with a different cast, tells a longer story than the film. It does not change the setting nor its sub-text. The criticism, however, in this case was more benevolent.