Rating : ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ + ½
Categorisation: Comedy
Availability: Netflix
Plot: There’s trouble at Pembroke University’s English department. They have too many old and expensive professors who no longer attract student enrolments. Budgets are tight, and with demands to increase diversity they are battling to remain relevant. Except they are not really battling very hard. To the frustration of students and junior faculty, change occurs at a glacial pace. Enter Dr Ji-Yoon Kim as the new departmental Chair. She is the first woman to take the role, and also the first person of colour. Expectations are high. Students expect progressive change. Senior faculty expect her to support the traditional values of the ivory-tower, and the Dean demands that she move ageing tenured academics into retirement. While trying to calm the troops, she reacts to disasters, often with hilarious consequences. There is a lot of fun poked at old academics who are out-of-touch with contemporary developments, and while she’s trying to manage the increasingly belligerent senior group, her arrogant but popular colleague, Professor Bill Dobson, is captured on camera making a nazi salute in the classroom. Not surprisingly, all hell is let loose. In the middle of this managerial baptism-by-fire, Ji-Yoon is also trying to keep things functioning domestically. She is a single-mum and her precocious daughter wreaks havoc at school and at home. Ji-Yoon’s perilous battle for survival on both fronts carries the action. Anne Julia Wyman co-created the series with Amander Peet, and Wyman’s insider knowledge of the academic environment shines through every episode.
Cast: The Chair has a sterling cast, and Sandra Oh as Ji-Yoon Kim is outstanding in the lead role. We get a real sense of her pride as she assumes the Chair, and then her growing frustration and alarm as she becomes aware of the Dean’s cost-cutting agenda. At the same time, she is very funny with great comic timing and wonderful lines. It’s a joy to watch her struggle with a demanding Dean, protesting students and rogue colleagues. But great as she is, the show-stealer in this series has to be Holland Taylor as Joan Hambling. A Chaucer specialist, she is one of the departmental oldies that Dr Kim is expected to move into retirement. Joan’s amazing reactions to expectations within the new academic environment are simply hilarious. Her portrayal of the eccentric academic is a delight to behold.
Filming and Setting: The fictitious Pembroke University could be any campus across the Mid-Atlantic states – Pennsylvania, West Virginia, New England. Often found in idyllic settings, the buildings are graciously beautiful and steeped in history (I won’t go into the relationship many of these institutions had with the slave economy, but it does add another layer of complexity to all this when you think about it). Enough to say, Pembroke captures all the scholarly gravitas and elitism that academic institutions strive for. The Chair’s office is a good example – rich wood paneling, stained glass windows…you get the idea. And Pembroke sits within a charming and privileged community with its big houses and spaced-out lawns, all dusted by the mid-winter snow.
Personal Comments: Academia has any amount of wonderful satirical content, and after thirty years as an academic I have more than enough material to write a farce myself. The first four episodes of The Chair are brilliant in the old David Lodge style (if you like a good academic farce take a look at his book, Changing Places). Each short episode is engagingly and cleverly written. Some of the characters are heavily stereotyped, but mostly in a sympathetic and humorous way. All good so far – more than good actually. But then the last two episodes lose their way as the series shifts into rom-com mode. Mixing genres, while also trying to tackle more serious contemporary issues is too ambitious a task. It’s a pity. The Chair suits its half-hour comedy genre, and I would have loved to see them dig deeper into the vast potential that academia has for farce – delving into postmodernism as a Trojan horse or naked emperor, whichever side of the fence you may sit. Or perhaps the departmental Chair becoming increasingly Machiavellian… now that would have been a 5 star series.
Sounds like a must watch to me Marie. Great review!
Thanks Anna, I think you’ll enjoy it – certainly a must see for academics. We laughed out loud!
Thanks Marie. Great review. It is on the list. Ray
HI Marie
Definitely on the list. We need first to finish The Cook of Castamar’ – we are agreeing with your review on this one though we are not yet finished the series.
Great reviewing!
Nice to hear from you Marie. When I first saw “The chair” I thought you must be referring to your role in Akaroa. But no – no need for a shake up there! Great review but not sure it makes me want to see it. Maybe it’s too close too home. See you soonish
Roger
Thanks Roger – get in touch when you are visiting Akaroa.
Thanks Marie. Great review. Paul and I binged it last week. I think high marks should be given to Jay Duplass as well. Speaking of, have you seen Language Lessons? Would love your critique of it.
Thanks Helen – indeed Juplass as the hapless Professor Dobson is terrific. As is Ju Ju, Ji-Yoon’s daughter, played by Everly Grace Carganilla. I haven’t seen Language Lessons – I’ll look it up. I’m always keen to hear of programmes and films to review!
It was part of the Melbourne International Film Festival (MIFF) this year, produced by the Duplass brothers and filmed during lockdown.
Yes, thanks for the tip. I’ve just taken checked it out and I’ll be certainly taking a look…. I can feel a binge coming on!
Nice to be reminded of what I left behind. I shall look forward to watching the series.
The world of volunteering is full of characters to pose in a satirical comedy, I find.
As is life! Nice to hear from you Mary.
Thanks for the review Marie. I have watched about 6 episodes and generally I find it entertaining, although I think it tends to go for comedy over substance. There is enough hilarious activity in academia to play it a bit more low key. Chris Trotter
Yes Chris – it’s starting place is comedy, and I think it would have been wise to stick with that. But perhaps it’s time for a more serious drama that looks at life in academia…but we might not have the constitution for it!
Thanks Mārie. I might persevere with it. I watched the first episode last week and it didn’t really engage me.
Thanks Jan – I think people will either engage with it, or not. If you didn’t like the first episode, you may not like the rest…try it and let me know.
Marie, you capture it so beautifully, at times it has me laughing hysterically, and at other times I was struck how ageism is portrayed – nuanced and precarious – in the background . I agree that Taylor Holland is a stand out portraying this nuance … can’t wait to watch the final episodes.
Thanks Ralph – I’ll wait to hear how you think it turns out!
Great review , Marie.
Lovely to hear from you
Thanks Margarita – pleased you enjoyed it. It looks like it’s the academics that have enjoyed the series the most…
Watched the entire series over one weekend, and had to ration it as it was so compelling. Love the review Marie, and catches the joy, and pain, beautifully. So many important themes interwoven throughout. I also loved Ju-Ju – what a great performance from one so young.
Yes indeed John – we watched it over two nights. After the first episode we thought it would be good to rationing ourselves – but just couldn’t do it. Ju-Ju is a delight.
Enticing review Marie. Looking forward to tackling it. Thanks for the share.
Thanks Jo – I hope you like it.
Thanks for the review Marie. I had been ambivalent about starting the series but you have enticed me.
I hope it makes you laugh Kristin!