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    Review: On ‘English Teacher,’ School Is a Battlefield

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    A new FX sitcom handles the educational culture wars with a light touch.The culture war often doesn’t have a physical frontline; it’s fought in op-ed columns, through social-media memes and inside people’s heads.Public schools are an exception. There, the state infantry of teachers, enlisted to handle potentially explosive ideas, face wave after wave of challenging students, backed by air support from helicopter parents.“English Teacher,” which begins Monday on FX, is a deft, brutal trench comedy of this battle. Brian Jordan Alvarez, the creator and viral-video comic, stars as Evan Marquez, a high school teacher in suburban Austin, Texas, struggling to get through each day with his ideals intact and his shirts unstained.His students are wily shape-shifters, a tech-enabled alien species whose ways and attitudes keep their handlers off-balance. “The kids this year, I feel like they’re less woke,” Evan tells his best friend, the history teacher Gwen Sanders (Stephanie Koenig), who concurs. One student, she said, told her she needed to teach “both sides” of the Spanish Inquisition.Evan’s real troubles begin, however, when he learns that he’s under “investigation” after a rich, influential parent reported him for having kissed his ex-boyfriend (Jordan Firstman) in front of students.His principal, Grant Moretti — a walking anxiety attack played wonderfully by Enrico Colantoni — admits that Evan shouldn’t have to deal with this, but he’s too beaten and besieged to do anything but plead with Evan to help him make the problem go away. One of Evan’s students suggests he claim discrimination as a gay Hispanic, but another says, “Gay doesn’t count anymore, and he talks like a straight white guy.”We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Trixie Mattel of ‘RuPaul’s Drag Race’ on the Sitcom That Brings Us All Together

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      “The love story of Jim and Pam — every time I watch that unfold, I find something new to cry about,” the entertainer said.Trixie Mattel knows that anything is prettier in pink — almost.She had no qualms about drenching the Palm Springs resort that she and her partner, David Silver, redid in 2022 in bubble gum hues, but their private residence was another matter.In “Trixie Motel: Drag Me Home,” out on June 1 on Max, Mattel — who won the third season of “RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars” — and Silver transform an old craftsman in Los Angeles into a pie-in-the-sky fabulosity.“We really wanted sexy Hollywood Regency, but it’s not just my house, so it can’t be all pink and girly,” Mattel (real name: Brian Firkus) said in a video call. “Let’s just say it definitely looks like two gay men live here now.”“There was something very emotional about building your home with your partner that you’re going to spend your life in,” she added before talking about her obsession with Amanda Lepore, the resonance of “Watchmen” and the bonding power of “The Office.” These are edited excerpts from the conversation.1BlondieWhen I was 15 or 16, I had my first job at a chicken restaurant, and I used to drive around in my ’94 Dodge Intrepid, listening to the best of Blondie with the CD that I got at the Target in Sheboygan, Wis. I guess a female-fronted rock band for me was really a big deal. I’m gay. And so something with a woman in the front who’s glamorous but powerful and the voice is beautiful — it just blew my mind.2Purple Disco MachineIt’s the gayest music. It’s so fun and glitzy and sexy, and it has so much flourish, and it has so much style, and he riffs on a lot of classic disco elements but kind of updates it. His remix of “Praise You” by Fatboy Slim is just amazing. He has a new single out called “Beat of Your Heart” that I’m in love with. I play him all the time in my DJ sets.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More