Summary
Mr. Iglesias season 1 is charming, funny and understands the politics behind the education system.
I usually eye-roll at series that inherit the laughing track, but Netflix’s Mr. Iglesias charmed my stubbornness from the first minute. I’m not against this type of comedy that you can watch hazily on a Saturday morning on the usual channels, but it is so routinely repetitive and seen-before, much like Netflix’s recent All About The Washington, that it was just not funny.
Mr. Iglesias is different; most importantly, the Netflix series makes you laugh, and all the credit should go to the character Gabe Iglesias played by Gabriel Iglesias. There is so much energy in this role, with the rest of the cast appropriately bouncing off him to land the plenty of jokes he delivers, and the occasional impression.
Netflix’s Mr. Iglesias also places the sitcom in the heart of a school, providing teachers who talk ironically and incredibly naive students, making the jokes flow. Yes, we’ve seen it before, but this series has refined it, worked on producing quality writing, making this an easy one-day binge if your heart desires. I don’t think a laughing track series has made me chuckle consistently since the culturally ingrained Friends, so its a hard-to-please genre for me.
At the same time, I wouldn’t hail Mr. Iglesias amongst the great sit-coms, but it is undoubtedly good. There is a specific understanding of US politics today and the treatment of children in education. Gabe is the teacher we wish we all had: noble, kind funny, and keeping your best interests at heart. There is plenty of talk of budgets and expelling children to sustain the school in a certain grading demographic. This message that each child is a number in the system, and they should all be treated with the same equal metric is what the other teachers vouch for, while Gabe parades the absolute opposite principles – and that’s the strength of the Netflix series.
Mr. Iglesias Season 1 is a surprise hit and one I would recommend watching as a good family-feel comedy.
