Sandra Oh takes ‘The Chair’ to the top of its class
In a world dominated by true crime, big-budget fantasy and reality TV, Netflix has stumbled upon that rarest of gems — a truly great original comedy show. Perhaps ‘stumbled upon’ is a little unfair. Any show that casts Sandra Oh and Jay Duplass as its leads and includes David Duchovny playing a ludicrous version of himself clearly has an instinct for comedy. But in addition to the laughs, “The Chair” is packed with smarts too.
Oh plays Dr Ji-Yoon Kim, the new chair of English at the fictional (yet clearly New Englandinspired) Pembroke University. With enrolments dropping in classes taught by her aging staff, and her exciting young professors butting heads with the out-oftouch senior management, Kim has more plates spinning than most. So the last thing she needs is for her recently bereaved friend, colleague and crush Dr
Bill Dobson (Duplass) to wind up at the center of a scandal surrounding an off-hand comment during a lecture.
“The Chair” somehow manages to cram a plethora of different issues into its six short episodes.
And all of them — be it cancel culture, systemic racism, institutional misogyny, freedom of speech, the gender pay gap or a dozen others — avoid being glossed over or skirted around. And what’s even more impressive is it’s done without scrimping on the laughs, whether they’re scripted or physical.
At the heart of the show’s success is Oh’s pitch-perfect balance of quiet strength, empowered agency, and brilliant comedic timing. Duplass is equally entertaining, and when two lead actors clearly enjoy sparking off one another so much, the rest of the show takes care of itself — though creators Amanda Peet and Annie Julia Wyman deserve great credit too.
“The Chair” is funny, clever and smart — and unafraid of tackling some pretty serious issues. Jokes about topics such as fascism don’t typically make for great comedy shows, but this one is a welcome exception to the rule.
‘The Chair’ crams a plethora of different issues into its six episodes without scrimping on the laughs.