A TEACHER (Miniseries) — TV Review
By John Argote-Rodriguez
ROAD TO A TEACHER (Miniseries)
“A Teacher” premiered on Hulu, November 10, 2020 and stars Kate Mara and Nick Robinson. Like the original film it explores the same topic of a illegal sexual relationship between a student and his teacher only this time we get a more in depth look into the relationship and the consequences and aftermath it brings.
The film version of “A Teacher” was an okay movie, it wasn’t great nor was it bad, but it’s not memorable. I previously mentioned the miniseries was superior to the film and here’s why! I got pulled to the series because I’d never seen a show that touches on this particular subject matter and with the names of Kate Mara and Nick Robinson attached as the series leads I had to check it out and it did not disappoint it’s brilliant.
The reason this version of excelled whereas the other didn’t is because the film didn’t tell us much about the relationship, when it began they were already deep in the relationship and while we did see it’s descent we never got any resolution or closure, the movie just ended right as we began to see what kind of ramifications we’d get on both sides of the characters, though we did see the Diana’s realizations the film faded to black.
Hulu’s version has Hannah Fidell returning as the creator and this is clearly her whole vision realized, the film was a short budget character study on the teacher, but the series captures the emotion and complexity of both Claire Wilson (Mara) and Eric Walker (Robinson) and that’s what made this series great because unlike the movie the characters in this version were fleshed out. The miniseries format benefited the show greatly because in making this a miniseries we got a completed story, a complete beginning, middle, end, and with the finale serving as a epilogue to wrapped it all up.
Kate Mara as Claire Wilson is a complicated character to say the least. This show captures her personal life, her marriage life, her life as a teacher, we learn everything that leads her to begin in this relationship with Eric Walker and it doesn’t sugarcoat it we see the ramifications of that relationship, it shows us why this is a horrible thing and the way the emotional turmoil and consequences of this relationship was portrayed by our two leads made me glued to my seat. Look Kate Mara is awesome and any material she’s given whether it’s good or bad she’ll deliver a great performance because she can do no wrong in my book.
Nick Robinson appears as Eric Walker and this is probably the best performance I’ve seen from him. I haven’t seen “Love, Simon” yet only the Hulu sequel/spin-off series, but aside from that Robinson have a pretty damn good performance, like Kate Mara we saw Eric Walker’s story from start to finish. “A Teacher” really did a great job in its portrayal of how this relationship is affecting them both, the emotional effect of seeing this teenager who thinks he knows what he wants, but in reality is just a confused kid and Robinson displayed his inner conflict perfectly. The way the aftermath is handled was a great conclusion to his character arc, the growth and pain he endured over the course of the series all culminated to a proper conclusion.
Hulu’s “A Teacher” did what the film didn’t accomplish and it’s telling a proper story from beginning, middle, and end. Hannah Fidell had a clear vision she wanted to tell and while the film wasn’t bad it wasn’t the complete story and here she did just that, but even with a great story where “A Teacher” excelled at was the characters. Kate Mara and Nick Robinson sell this series, it’s because of them that the show works as well as it does and Mara and Robinson’s chemistry adds layers to their performances which sounds kind of weird to say since in the show it’s exactly what we’re going against, but from a actor point-of-view it’s great.
I highly recommend this series, it doesn’t go soft on its subject matter it goes deep in just how ugly and harmful this is to both parties.
Grade: A
