Why "English Teacher" is set in Austin
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Brian Jordan Alvarez stars as the titular character. Photo: Richard Ducree/FX
Asher here. I've lately been watching the appealing new FX comedy series "English Teacher," about an Austin teacher trying to navigate the professional, personal and political dynamics of a contemporary high school.
The big picture: I wanted to know why Brian Jordan Alvarez, the show's creator and star (and who happens to bear an uncanny resemblance to Elon Musk), set the show in Austin — as opposed to, say, Dallas or Tulsa or Minneapolis or any number of cities.
- There are Austin touches here and there — the show is partly about being gay in the suburbs of a liberal city; it makes mention of getting out of teaching in favor of tech work; and in one scene, the teacher in the title meets with his ex-boyfriend for tacos.
The intrigue: Apart from a credit sequence shot in Austin, the show is actually chiefly filmed in Georgia, which famously has more generous tax incentives for film production than Texas.
What they're saying: Alvarez was kind enough to send Axios a note from overseas, where he's working on a project, describing his decision to set the show here.
- "When I wrote 'English Teacher,' I'd been spending a lot of time in Austin and had really come to love it," he wrote. "It's a liberal outpost in a more conservative state, which is similar to the town I went to high school in (though it was much smaller), Sewanee, Tennessee. A setting like this makes for a lot of interesting dynamics.
- "I also love the lake in the middle of downtown, and I always had this image of the opening credits over the Congress Avenue Bridge, with the sun reflecting on the water."
The bottom line: In its spirit and feel, "English Teacher" is recognizably Austin.