Fun
Frisky
Nostalgic
Intense
Adventurous
Choked Up
Curious
Romantic
Weird
NBC’s Peacock offers a little something for everyone. If you love the cozy comforts of classic sitcoms, the new streaming service is the home of Cheers and Frasier. If you’re a true-crime fanatic, you can binge all 12 seasons of Unsolved Mysteries. If you’re a fan of the 2013 Jason Bateman/Melissa McCarthy comedy Identity Theft, Peacock has… the 2013 Jason Bateman/Melissa McCarthy comedy Identity Theft. With sincerest apologies to the comedic razzmatazz of Bateman and McCarthy, the one Peacock offering that’s guaranteed to steal your heart is Mike O’Brien’s brilliant sitcom A.P. Bio.
Premiering on NBC in 2018, the Glenn Howerton-led series centers on a disgraced Harvard philosophy scholar (Howerton’s Jack Griffin) who reluctantly returns to his hometown of Toledo, Ohio, to teach high school biology. From the word go, Jack makes it clear that he won’t be teaching biology but will instead use his honor students to gain vengeance on his nemesis in an effort to return to his life of scholarly luxury. If his students keep quiet, they get an A. If they rat on their teacher, they fail. Simple, delirious mayhem ensues.
A.P. Bio could’ve been just another creatively anemic sacrifice to the altar of the “bad teacher” genre, but the series instead concocted an acerbic cocktail of offbeat humor and stealthy heart to create an atmospheric comedy that’s defiantly different from anything else on television. If you’re a fan of Community, It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, Apple TV+’s Mythic Quest, or Party Down, you’ll fall head over heels for the off-kilter charms of A.P. Bio.
The sitcom succeeds by zigging when most shows would zag. Jack’s students, who just so happen to consist of the best young actors on TV, want nothing more than to learn biology. Their sweet, endearingly naive disposition creates the perfect foil for the brazen Jack, a devilish provocateur with an inflated sense of grandeur. If the series would have simply maintained the status quo of “selfish Jack uses students to exact revenge on his enemies,” A.P. Bio would have continued to be a solid show. But the sitcom evolved into a must-see series by softening Jack.
The second season saw Jack gradually begin to embrace both his co-workers (Patton Oswalt, Paula Pell, Mary Sohn, Lyric Lewis, and Jean Villepique are predictably sensational) and students while also embarking on a romantic relationship with Elizabeth Alderfer’s Lynette. The character doesn’t fundamentally change, but he becomes a better person through the restorative power of friendship. The series had already mastered the delicate art of absurd humor (the Congo-themed school dance is a chef’s kiss of a subplot), but injecting the show with a bit of sincerity has helped turn A.P. Bio into one of the most enjoyable shows on TV.
The comedy is weird and unpredictable, the joke writing is innovative, and the performances are an A to Z joy to watch. A.P. Bio is the type of show that’ll make your day just a little bit better. Catch up on Seasons 1 and 2 before the third season premieres September 3 on Peacock.
