Denied tenure at Harvard, a philosophy scholar finds himself teaching biology in Toledo. Or not teaching it.
“I don’t care about biology,” Griffin tells the wide-eyed students in his class. “We’re not going to do any biology in here. And this isn’t one of those things where over the course of a year, I secretly teach it to you.” No, Griffin intends to use the class to get back at that nemesis, Miles Leonard (Tom Bennett), such as by assigning the students to create and send Leonard “catfish” messages, or fake romantic come-ons.
The pilot was weak, writes Walsh. “But I screened the first four episodes, and as I watched those, the show grew on me as smart and insightful about the modern American college-prep high school.”
By contrast, Margaret Lyons, writing in the New York Times, called the show “an abrasive sitcom that isn’t merely unfunny, it’s also deeply unpleasant.”