Neil BakerA Teacher is streaming now on BBC iPlayer.
Based on her 2013 movie of the same name, Hannah Fidell expands her original story of a teacher/pupil affair into a mini-series for FX, with mixed results. While the TV version manages to broaden the film’s narrative as promised by exploring the affair’s outcomes for both the student (Nick Robinson) and teacher (Kate Mara), it also feels at times confused in its core messages. Claire (Mara) has just joined the teaching team at a high school in Austin, where Eric (Robinson) is a senior. The new young teacher is immediately a point of attention within Eric’s social circle as young male conversations mix bravado, imaginary conquest and sexualised imaginings that often make Eric feel uncomfortable. Following a chance encounter in a local coffee shop, Claire agrees to mentor and support Eric through his exams, and it’s not long before the boundaries between them blur, and a consensual but confusing affair takes hold.
Despite the effort taken to flesh out the narrative, A Teacher struggles to connect with its audience on a deeper level despite the outstanding performances of Robinson and Mara. A Teacher fails to fully explore the motivations of Mara while equally treating Robinson’s character with kid gloves, resulting in a drama that lacks bite as the events unfold in short 25-minute episodes. However, this is far from the only problem at the heart of A Teacher. A Teacher’s attempts to explore themes of guilt, coercion, and judgment steer clear of any broader commentary around the clear premeditated abuse of position at play in relation to gender roles. Strangely, this lets Claire off the hook despite the damage to her career. If this had been a gay male teacher with a gay male student, the outcomes would have been very different. Maybe A Teacher is attempting to highlight this, or perhaps they didn’t have the nerve to explore these conversations on a deeper social level.
