While The Office may be over, Abbott Elementary is the workplace sitcom’s perfect spiritual sequel and the best unexpected parallel between the two main characters proves this. It would be hard for any show to match the chemistry of The Office’s lineup, but Abbott Elementary’s cast of characters come close. The workplace sitcom brings back The Office’s aesthetic thanks to Abbott Elementary’s mockumentary setup and, like The Office, the show balances the wacky sitcom hijinks of its main characters with a well-crafted slow-burn romance sure to keep viewers hooked. Of course, Abbott Elementary’s titular setting doesn’t hurt either.
Being set in an elementary school means that Abbott Elementary mines plenty of comedy from the show’s adorable pupils, and the eponymous workplace is often even more chaotic than Dunder-Miflin’s Scranton branch. All of these superficial similarities would be enough to sustain a comparison between the two sitcoms, but the show’s communities go deeper than this. A look at the character arcs of both Janelle James’s Principal Ava and Steve Carell’s Michael Scott proves that Abbott Elementary and The Office both know how to craft a great sitcom antihero, while the two show’s central romances underline their similarities further.
Abbott Elementary Is The Office’s Best Spiritual Sequel
Both Mockumentary Sitcoms Rely On Slow Burn Romances And Workplace Hijinks
Not only are Abbott Elementary and The Office both mockumentary sitcoms set in workplaces, but the two shows also follow roughly the same setup. There is an absurdly incompetent boss who somehow manages to keep things running, whether it is Abbott Elementary’s Principal Ava or The Office’s Michael Scott. There is an older male character who can always be relied on for bizarre one-liners or outrageous fabricated claims, be it Abbott Elementary’s Mr. Johnson or The Office’s Creed. Finally, there is the inevitable office romance between the show’s two most sane and relatable characters, Janine and Gregory or Jim and Pam.
Abbott Elementary and The Office also both boast two intriguingly similar character arcs that have nothing to do with love.
Like Jim and Pam, Janine and Gregory became friends before they ever considered dating. Like The Office’s main couple, they spent numerous seasons seeing other people while secretly pining for each other. Abbott Elementary’s Janine and Gregory even began dating at the beginning of season 4, just like The Office’s Jim and Pam, proving that the two shows share some truly substantial similarities. However, while their romances have a lot in common, Abbott Elementary and The Office also both boast two intriguingly similar character arcs that have nothing to do with love. These belong to the two show’s respective bosses.
How Ava Coleman and Michael Scott Are Similar
The Two Sitcom Bosses Are Secretly Surprisingly Great At Their Jobs
Both The Office’s Michael Scott and Abbott Elementary’s Principal Ava are introduced as comically incompetent managers who need to be replaced as soon as possible. Throughout The Office season 1 and Abbott Elementary season 1, Jim and Janine spend a lot of their screen time putting out fires started by their respective bosses and bemoaning their obvious incompetence. However, by the time Abbott Elementary’s Janine and Gregory became a couple, something big had shifted. Ava was not only no longer a buffoon, but she had quietly become an essential part of Abbott’s success as a school despite her best efforts.
Numerous commentators have noted that, in spite of his blatant incompetence, Michael Scott is a superb salesman and an unexpectedly competent manager. This is evidenced by the success of his branch and the loyalty of his employees, both of which seem unlikely but are impossible to miss throughout his tenure in the series. Similarly, Principal Ava went from getting her job by blackmailing a superintendent over his extramarital affairs to delivering an Ed Talk to explain how she improved the student body’s attendance, grades, and academic performance. In season 4, episode 6, “The Deli,” Abbott Elementary proves Ava is the show’s Michael Scott.
Abbott Elementary Season 4’s Ava Story Mirrored The Office’s Michael Scott Plot
Both Shows Gradually Revealed Their Inept Bosses Were Secret Geniuses
In The Office, Michael’s obvious idiocy hid a level of natural talent as a salesman and his almost childlike love of his co-workers led to him effectively advocating for them, despite his incompetence. In Abbott Elementary, Ava’s unabashed bluntness leads to her sharing tough truths with the teachers instead of mollifying them with banal platitudes, and her shameless corruption means she is an expert at keeping the lights on the underfunded public school. Ava’s apparent character flaws make her a better principal, whereas more self-serious characters like Abbott Elementary’s Barbara or Gregory could crack under the job’s inherent pressure.
| Abbott Elementary Actor | Character Name |
|---|---|
| Quinta Brunson | Janine Teagues |
| Tyler James Williams | Gregory Eddie |
| Lisa Ann Walter | Melissa Schemmenti |
| Sheryl Lee Ralph | Barbara Howard |
| Janelle James | Principal Ava |
| William Stanford Davis | Mr. Johnson |
| Chris Perfetti | Jacob Hill |
Gregory began working at Abbott assuming that he would become the principal as soon as possible, and Ava’s corruption was the one thing that stood in his way. However, this led to Gregory discovering a real passion for teaching, much like Michael Scott’s exit from Dunder-Miflin eventually inspired Jim and Pam to pursue their professional dreams. In both instances, characters who were initially established as transparently terrible leaders proved that the same character flaws that should have hampered their management skills secretly made them perfect for the job. By season 4, it is hard to imagine another principal for Abbott.
Abbott Elementary Season 4 Highlights How Much Ava Has Grown
Ava’s Reaction To Gregory and Janine’s Relationship Proved She Has Matured
While Ava might share Michael Scott’s surprising competence as a people manager, Abbott Elementary’s principal still needed to grow throughout the show’s first three seasons. Fortunately, Abbott Elementary’s Janine and Ava relationship proves that she has done just that. When Ava first suspected that Janine and Gregory might begin dating in season 3, she tried all manner of indirect, immature plans to sabotage their potential romance. This included watching them closely at Janine’s end-of-year party and even getting a morose teacher to describe his disastrous office romance and subsequent divorce to the duo in season 3, episode 13, “Smith Playground.”
The dynamic between Janine and Ava has transformed since Abbott Elementary season 1.
In contrast, in season 4’s premiere, Ava merely expected them to report their relationship to HR like any normal manager would. Abbott Elementary doubled down on this in “The Deli,” when Janine helped with her Ed Talk speech for Manny’s presentation. This collaboration proved that the dynamic between Janine and Ava has transformed since season 1. Not only is Janine able to stand up to her boss, but she can even work together with her on rewriting her speech to highlight Ava’s best side. This sweet scene showed just how much The Office and Abbott Elementary’s ostensibly bad bosses have in common.
