This weekend, Foxtel released one of the most polarising dramas of the year in the form of A Teacher.
When we begin the story, we are introduced to Claire Wilson (Kate Mara, House of Cards), a young English teacher at Westerbrook High School. She quickly befriends fellow-teacher Kathryn Sanders (Marielle Scott, You) and it soon becomes clear that Claire isn’t as happy as she appears in her marriage to college sweetheart Matt Mitchell (AshleyZuckerman, The Code). She’s distant from her family, police officer Nate (Adam David Thompson, Godless), and dives into teaching.
One of her students, Eric (Nick Robinson, Love Simon), asks for help preparing for his SAT test. Popular and outgoing, Eric is the captain of the soccer team and is near-inseparable from his best friends, Logan Davis (Shane Harper, Hightown) and Josh Smith (Dylan Schmid, Once Upon a Time ).
Everything seems perfect on the surface, but Eric is forced to juggle the pressures of school, applying for college, and a part-time job, all while helping take care of his two younger brothers so his mother Sandy (Rya Ingrid Kihlstedt, Love in the Time of Carona) can support the family.
What happens next will change both of their lives as boundaries are crossed and lives are forever changed.
Kate Mara and Nick Robinson give compelling performances with great chemistry, helping to sell this complex story.
Hannah Fidell pens the majority of the ten 30-minute episodes, exploring a tough subject matter with a compelling script that’ll have you hooked to see just how far things will go.
A Teacher can be uncomfortable, but is a compelling mini-series.
3.5 Stars.
A Teacher premieres with episodes 1 & 2 on Sunday, March 21 at 8:30pm AEDST on Fox Showcase and OnDemand, with new episodes premiering every Sunday.
