After eight painful, Abbott Elementary–less months, the teachers agreed to end the strike and are ready to reopen their classrooms. The workplace sitcom is returning for season three on February 7, giving you just enough time finish your homework (find 20 minutes of free time during the workday to watch). A promo assures us that Abbott is staying true to its Emmy-winning form. That is, quirky and funny and heartfelt and, probably, depicting one of Principal Ava Coleman’s latest scams or chaotic pranks. “Welcome back, slackers,” the remarkably unprofessional and unserious principal (Janelle James) yawps over the school intercom in the first trailer for the upcoming season. “I got cameras all over this joint.” The second trailer goes into further detail, showing that for once Ava is trying to do a good job…which is somehow so much worse then when she was half-assing it.
Characters who should be used to constant surveillance of a documentary crew — remember, the show is an Office-style mockumentary — still shudder in fear over Ava’s potential threat to their privacy in the workplace. While the principal cackles at her own CCTV monitor, teacher Jacob (Chris Perfetti) makes his own plans to thwart her. “She must be stopped,” he vows. The second trailer shows the other teachers turning Gregory Eddie (Tyler James Williams) into a honeypot, or “Jeremy Allen Black” as Ava calls him. Whatever chaos Ava may relentlessly drag into the workplace is nothing in comparison to dealing with a broke school system that does nothing to support its students. Like, there’s new iPads (four) for Janine’s (creator Quinta Brunson) entire classroom, but only one of them is working. Just your average Wednesday at Abbott Elementary.