[This story contains spoilers from the second episode of The English Teacher.]
In the second episode of FX The English teacher, Gwen Sanders, played by Stephanie Koenig, is a vivacious history teacher who perhaps has too much faith in her students and decides to teach self-defense to the school cheerleading team.
Koenig, who also wrote the episode, got the idea from TikTok. He recalls one creator in particular providing detailed, intricate instructions on how to escape if you find yourself strangled with a seatbelt in the backseat of a car.
“She's like, 'One! Two! Fingers up, one thumb out,'” Koenig says. The Hollywood Reporter as he recalls the comical and detailed instructions. “Move them here, wrap them, and rotate them. Now you get it: you can turn your head to the left!”
Koenig begins to chuckle as he marvels at the dissonance between the woman’s good nature in posting the video and the ridiculous complexity of pulling off the escape. Koenig’s character, Gwen, who serves as right-hand woman to Evan, the titular English teacher played by show creator Brian Jordan Alvarez, has a similar penchant for blind optimism.
The English teacher often finds Gwen and Evan overwhelmed by the political issues that dominate American education. In the same episode as the self-defense lessons, titled “Powderpuff,” Evan recruits his friend (played by Trixie Mattel) to teach the football players how to act like drag queens.
The idea, Koenig says, came from another writer on the show, who said during a pitch session that her high school had banned the Powderpuff football game because of political concerns about boys dressing up as girls.
“It just seemed like it was so substantial,” Koenig said of the anecdote. “Immediately, we were like, ‘This has to go in there.'”
Jordan Alvarez wrote the character of Gwen for Koenig (the two have been best friends for a long time), but she joined the show first as a writer (before that, she also appeared on Apple TV Chemistry lessons).
“We had a strong belief in each other's capabilities,” Koenig says of their friendship. “Whenever you start trying to get into this business, especially when you don't know anyone who can help you and you're from Michigan. [like me] or Tennessee like Brian: There aren't many other people besides your family who say, 'You have something I believe in.' We really bonded over that.”
Koenig says he raised his hand to write “Powderpuff” because of the drag dancing.
“I was so excited,” she says. “I was like, ‘I can do this right, like set up this performance.’”
As football players take to the field in high heels, fake breasts and heavy makeup, the playfulness of The English teacher takes center stage. “For Brian, what I think he does so well as a director,” Koenig says, “is he’s really good at making things feel like there’s a fantasy element to it.”
Set in the suburbs of Austin, Texas, The English teacherThe chorus of characters represents a microcosm of conservative and liberal influences that often mirror the frustrating gridlock of American politics. But the fantastical nature of the writing still keeps the audience on edge.
“We wanted to do it in a way that felt surprising,” Koenig says of what lies ahead. “You never know who's going to have an opinion on what. You assume someone's going to be against something, and they're actually for it. And it's other people who are against it.”
At the end of “Powderpuff,” for example, it's the football players who fight for their right to perform in drag. “It would be the perfect specialization for The English teacher — this episode,” he says. “The students — sometimes they’re smarter than the teachers, which is awesome. But it’s also like: We have something to teach you. They’re all right.”
The first two episodes of The English teacher debuted on September 2nd on FX. New episodes air weekly on Monday nights at 10:00 p.m., streaming the following day on Hulu.