‘The Chair’ is a wacky, insightful examination of higher education
“The Chair,” which premieres Friday, packs a lot into what amounts to about three hours of television.
At first glance, the Pittsburghfilmed Netflix series seems like a “Veep”-esque sendup of higher education. But its critiques aren’t as biting and its central relationship is too sweet to come anywhere near the level of depravity that HBO comedy reached.
Dive deeper into “The Chair” and you’ll find a fairly nuanced examination of not just the inner workings of a university English department, but also white male privilege, the difficulties of navigating bureaucracies, accountability, forgiveness, family, the modern cultural relevancy of Chaucer and much more.
All that is crammed into six halfhour episodes that largely take place in the hallowed halls and courtyards of Chatham University in Squirrel Hill and Washington & Jefferson College in Washington, Pa. Shot in fall 2020 and winter 2021, those two local institutions stand in quite ably for the fictional Pembroke University, a small liberal arts school somewhere in New England.
The new department chair is JiYoon Kim (Sandra Oh), who is still getting used to being her colleagues’ boss. She’s immediately inundated with a host of drama starting with a dean-mandated need to downsize. Then, one of the English department’s brightest stars, Bill Dobson (Jay Duplass), spirals out of control after his
wife’s death and the departure of his daughter to attend college elsewhere.
No one seems interested in making Ji-Yoon’s life any easier, including the rigid dean, Paul Larson (David Morse), and longtime professor Elliot Wentz (Bob Balaban), who feels threatened when fresh faces like Yaz McKay (Nana Mensah) draw more students to lectures than he does. As the rare woman of color in her position, Ji-Yoon wants to help Yaz and Joan Hambling (Holland Taylor) succeed, but Bill ends up taking most of her attention.
On top of all that, Ji-Yoon is having difficulties at home relating to her adopted daughter, Ju-Hee (Everly Carganilla), who is forming an attachment to Bill.
There’s simply a lot going on in “The Chair,” and it’s difficult to tell what the show is most interested in exploring. Some story threads are fleshed out in a satisfying manner, while others feel shortchanged. The show’s brevity is actually more of a strength than a weakness, and its success in neatly tying up so many plot lines in such a short period is worthy of praise.
A main focus seems to be JiYoon balancing her personal andprofessional lives, followed closelyby Bill trying to save his job after committing an unforced error that lands him in hot water with students. The two have a complicated relationship that wanders into strange territories on occasion while mostly remaining sweet andsupportive.
Even if the material is sometimes tough to grasp, the acting is uniformly excellent and engrossing. Oh is the ever-reliable central presence who anchors “The Chair” in reality as she deals with the weirdos that populate Pembroke’s English department. Despite being put through the wringer, she steps up at every chance to show that Ji-Yoon isn’t going down without a fight.
Duplass has the unenviable task of illustrating Bill’s brokenness while not using his heartache as an excuse for his more destructive actions. He manages that balancing act well, and he and Oh do great work together. Among the supporting cast, Taylor stands out as the fierce but farcical Joan, who has been at Pembroke for 32 years and wants some damn respect. Her comic intensity and big college professor energy add a delightful layer of levity to the whole project.
“The Chair” also excels at showing off Pittsburgh; it’s mostly an on-screen brochure for Chatham and W&J. Even the gray dreariness of a Steel City winter can’t make these campuses look any less regal. The show also makes use of various city streets. I experienced a very Pittsburgh moment when I thought excitedly, “I’ve been to that Bruegger’s in Shadyside!”
Although slightly disjointed, the journey eventually leads to a fulfilling enough destination that, if the show ends up returning for a second season, leaves just enough room for more story.
Anything this lovingly crafted that was made here and can be binged in approximately the time it would take to watch “Avengers: Endgame” is worth a look.