Who is Max Bickford? If the premiere of “The Education of Max Bickford” is any indication, Max is a badass teacher at an all-female college who has the cojones to tell his students they are brown-nosers, and a family man who loves what teaching used to be, hating what it is now. He”s crusty enough to be a defender of teaching about Dead White Males, but liberal enough to care about students learning to think critically and actually get an education.
Max is played by Richard Dreyfuss. Richard Dreyfuss won an academy award years ago, and if you actually watched CBS you were made aware of that several hundred times on ads for the show. Dreyfuss also portrayed teacher Mr. Holland in “Mr. Holland”s Opus,” something that CBS conveniently forgot before creating an eerily similar concept for this show.
But at least Dreyfuss” teacher is inspiring. As a history teacher, he gets to make lots of crucial speeches about why students should give a damn about history and learn to think for themselves, while, in a moment of pure brilliance, the students pack up their bags and leave as the hour ends.
Marcia Gay Harden, signed before her Academy Award for “Pollock,” is teacher Andrea Haskell, recently named to the chair that Bickford thought he would receive. This and the whole “They used to sleep together” thing creates a whole lot of juicy tension. She is a young teacher who delights in pop culture, which Bickford can”t handle.
At first I wanted Harden to suffer through a miserable series after the horrible crap that was “Pollock.” Yet, she seems to have made a wise choice. The show has a decent chance (albeit not a decent time slot) and could become the “Boston Public” of college dramas.
But since the title calls for the education of Max, nothing goes normally for him. His best friend Steve is back from sabbatical as Erica. His adorable son wants to make the basketball team. He fails. His daughter may be pregnant she turns out not to be, but she still is a teenaged girl who just happens to be a freshman at the same school as Bickford.
Almost too casually, we learn that Max nearly killed himself years ago and used to be an alcoholic. His beloved wife is dead (whose isn”t on CBS?). But what hurts him most is the loss of the chair after his 30-plus years teaching. The president of the college (Regina Taylor, “I”ll Fly Away”) is his old friend, but she gives him the hard truth and tells him he has to adapt. Then Max does the natural thing.
He resigns.
But of course he returns, accepts the position of department head (with all the bullshit that goes along with it) and learns his lesson by admiring his son and all his determination.
Dreyfuss” narrator is annoying, filling in the blanks the audience usually does. He uses writing about a fictional character named Skylar to reveal his feelings, which are already obvious. He”s no Daniel Stern on “The Wonder Years,” that”s for sure.
If the show is going to be a vehicle for Richard Dreyfuss being grumpy, then it simply won”t work. But if the strong supporting cast led by Gay Harden gets involved, the show can educate without being pedantic.