Taut and Provocative, A Teacher Deftly Explores a #MeToo Story

Kate Mara stars in a story about a teacher who does a very bad thing.
Image may contain Human Person Sitting Restaurant Nick Robinson and Shelf
Courtesy of FX.

It’s a #MeToo parable. Claire (Kate Mara), a high school English teacher, begins an affair with a senior, Eric (Nick Robinson), who is just 17 when they first sleep together. She is in a position of authority; he is a minor; it is, unambiguously, exploitation. But what A Teacher does well, in 10 tightly written half-hour episodes, is convey the fantasies both Claire and Eric are swayed by—without ever losing sight of how damaging their relationship is. It’s a fine needle to thread, but first time showrunner Hannah Fidell—who developed the FX show from her 2013 film of the same name—manages to balance the moving parts with remarkable skill. The story seems to be adapting to our shifting discourse in real time.

A Teacher works especially well because its episodes are compact glimpses into Claire and Eric’s relationship. The limited series toys with the viewer’s embarrassment, or conversely, their voyeurism—but because the episodes come and go so quickly, even its inevitable sex scenes never get the chance to become gratuitous. A Teacher’s deceptively light touch ends up serving as a stylistic metaphor for the relationship itself, which exists at the margins of both characters’ lives, and by its very nature leaves both wanting more.

The story begins with 30-something Claire starting a new job in Austin, Texas. She moves there with her husband (Ashley Zukerman),; we learn it’s where she grew up, but she hasn’t been back since graduating college. They are, feebly, trying to conceive, but continually stymied by the messy complications of timing, mood, and mechanics. The high school is implicitly coded to be a privileged one; the student body is nearly all white, and some, like Eric’s friend Logan (Shane Harper), have mansions to party at. But Eric is not so privileged. When he isn’t at school, he picks up shifts at the local diner, or babysits his two younger brothers so his mom can work nights. Immediately we’re presented with his vulnerability—and just as quickly, we watch Claire move closer to him, almost as if she is picking him off from the herd.

Claire is an intriguing and maddening case study: She seems to be unaware of her grooming behavior, but at the same time, remarkably deft at it. Much of the show’s richness comes in dissecting her self-awareness, and if Mara is a little bland in the role, that might be a deliberate choice to keep Claire as flatly mysterious as possible. The first few episodes are a cascade of red flags, as in rapid succession Claire becomes Eric’s SAT tutor, late-night chauffeur, and college-campus tour guide. But more damning is her subtle manipulation: She sets boundaries with him and then almost immediately crosses them. She scolds him for transgressions she’ll encourage in a later scene. Eric is a goner, unfortunately. “I’m the motherfucking man,” he tells himself in the mirror, after the first time they have sex. He’s been taken advantage of—and so totally that all he can see, in the moment, is the consummation of the ultimate high school fantasy.

A Teacher depicts Claire as a woman lost to her own compulsions—sexy compulsions—which may seem like a choice that gives her agency and sense of responsibility a pass. But as quickly as the story unfolds Claire and Eric’s fantasy, it drops consequences upon them, like an anvil. The first half of the show is tensely provocative, coyly teasing around the questions their relationship raises. The second half dispenses with pleasantries to directly address what this relationship does to both of them, emphasizing the roots of Claire’s behavior and the ongoing impact of the affair on Eric. The story jumps ahead months and then years, offering a sensitive portrayal of trauma and consequences, and ends with a finely tuned, brutal scene that lays bare the lies underpinning Claire and Eric’s “romance.”

A Teacher stands out because it’s rare to come across such contained, sharp storytelling on TV in the Peak Content era. The story gives us enough to mull over without bludgeoning viewers over the head with either sexy wish fulfillment or heavy-handed moralizing. The miniseries debuts on Hulu as part of its “FX on Hulu” deal, and like a lot of the other shows on Hulu—Normal People, Mrs. America, The Great, Pen15—it explores female identity under the pressure of some sort of desire. A Teacher is a sophisticated portrait of a villain, one that uses its 10 episodes to uncover her misdeeds—and throw them into stark relief.

More Great Stories From Vanity Fair

India Oxenberg Opens Up About Her Family’s NXIVM Nightmare
Eric Andre Isn’t Going Anywhere
— From the Archive: The Birth of Bond