The Chair
Save this article to read it later.
Find this story in your accountsSaved for Latersection.
Its rare to see a series arrive as fully realized asThe Chair.
The knitwear is exquisitely chunky.
The establishing shots are all spires and dusty mantelpieces and books tumbling from overfull bookcases.
Neatness, like newness, is the telltale concern of an unserious mind.
At Pembroke College, youre only as impressive as your blazer is threadbare.
Shes the first woman and, Im guessing, the first non-white person ever to hold the post.
The budget is being gutted and the students want to code, not read Chaucer.
Dean Larson (David Morse) tells her to trim the fat by persuading three septuagenarian professors to retire.
Nonetheless, the departments existential crisis isnt sufficient to curb its infighting.
Ji-Yoons first meeting opens with a running tally of whos missing.
Already a widow, now hes living alone.
Professor Joan Hambling (a frisky Holland Taylor) is missing, too.
What we teach them cannot be quantified or put down on a resume as a skill.
As if to underscore the ambiguity, Joan barrels in to bemoan her offices relocation to the wellness-center basement.
Of course, not everyone agrees with Ji-Yoons vision of the future.
Ji-Yoon soon merges the sections to spare Elliots ego, which is the catastrophe Yaz predicts.
His opinion wouldnt matter, except that hes also chairing her tenure case.
By the looks of department demographics, the answer is other white guys.
Which brings us back to Bill.
Ji-Yoon might be the department head, but Bill Dobson is its moon.
Now that his wifes gone, their repartee feels edgy.
Wheres the line between wrestling your boss over a keychain and actual foreplay?
Joan understands incisively whats suddenly uncomfortable between Ji-Yoon and Bill.
Its inexplicable to me how her classes are so dull when shes such batty fun outside the lecture hall.
But what if she dropped the consumerism framework that offends her?
And there is snow on the ground.
(What month is this?
Is this a small liberal-arts college nestled into the peak of Mount Washington?)
Somehow, Ji-Yoons home life is proving as chaotic as Pembroke.
Her father has a headshot of her dreamy ex (Daniel Dae Kim) hanging on the fridge.
Her adopted daughter captivatingly played by 7-year-old Everly Carganilla, so maybe shes 7?
Jujus also going through an anti-mommy phase.
Just when it seems Ji-Yoon cant make any headway, she gets through to Bill.
(Or maybe theyre always filming in the year 2021?)
As an oratorical afterthought in distinguishing absurdism from fascism, Bill delivers a Sieg Heil salute.
Is he a Nazi?
No, he was making a joke.
Was it a good joke?
It was neither funny nor interesting.
The Chairis a workplace drama, and the university is an inherently political workplace.
