Ave Ava! Will We See The Notorious Principal From A Different Angle In Season 3?
Announced on September, 11th, the third season of Abbott Elementary left its fans wondering what it would bring.
The show, however simplistic it may seem, manages to incorporate the best traits of mockumentary, sitcom, and satire on the modern state of America's public education. Abbott's characters are amusing in their own unique ways and serve the purpose of a comedy series, but it wouldn't have been an award-winning show if it hadn't been for the screenwriters' mastery of giving them lives and proper development.
On the first meeting, Principal Ava strikes us with her selfishness, lack of any qualification, unreliability and sharp tongue.
Her image is clear: she's a typical prom queen who has suddenly become a principal. Given that her time on the screen was scarce, Ava retained her shrewish image during the entirety of the first and most of the second seasons. In the latter, however, things started to change for her. She became the basis of the plot when her re-election had crept up, although Janine still got the bulk of attention.
It was during that time that we could see not the completely self-absorbed Ava that we were used to, but an Ava who still was mostly concentrated on her own problems but at the same time started to actually do her job.
Ava Coleman is the necessary evil in the show. She creates problems for the main characters, the goodies, ridicules them, and has conflicts of interests with them. But this one-faceted representation couldn't contribute to the series for long. So it was only natural that Principal Ava got some humanity breathed into her.
Although very briefly, we saw her human side: her everyday struggles and a bit of personal drama, that made us realize that her behavior is but a façade she puts up to protect herself. Abbot Elementary is not a daytime drama, however, that is why Ava's soft side is not amplified, being a footnote to the story of her character.
Indeed, in the end of season 2 we see her as a queen (as she is), keeping her position as the school s principal, dating a superstar basketball player, and victoriously leaving the scene in an expensive car. It may have been that Janelle James who portrays Ava asked for more development of her character, but in any way it was done well and left us looking forward to learning more about Ava.