I don't feel I inherited an English department,
I feel someone handed me a ticking time bomb
because they wanted a woman holding it when it explodes.
By now, you've probably finished The Chair,
Sandra Oh's pin-sharp comedy drama
detailing the embattled daily life
of the first woman appointed as Chair
of the English Department at a top-tier university.
And like all good students,
you've probably got questions.
Let's go!
Is The Chair based on a true story?
It's not. It's an original idea
created by Amanda Peet and Annie Julia Wyman.
The institution, too, is fictional.
Instead of being a real place,
Pembroke University feels like an amalgamation
of numerous elite US learning institutions.
Everyone in this looks familiar, who's in it?
She doesn't need an intro, but Sandra Oh
of Grey's Anatomy and Killing Eve
stars as Ji-Yoon Kim,
the first female chair at Pembroke University.
It's one of those first dedicated
comedy series roles,
although both Killing Eve and Grey's
obviously had their moments.
Jay Duplass of Transparent is Professor Bill Dobson,
a self-destructive widower
who becomes mired in controversy.
Heil Hitler.
And you'll recognise Emmy Award-winner Holland Taylor,
who delights as the savage Professor Joan Hambling,
from loads of stuff.
Well, I hope they didn't have to look at your fanny
while you did that.
Including The Practice, Legally Blonde
and The Truman Show.
More recently, in 2020,
she appeared as the lovable Stormy
in To All The Boys 2,
and was nominated for an Emmy
for Ryan Murphy's Hollywood.
Acting isn't magic.
It's a job.
Nana Mensah from Queen of Glory and Bonding
is Professor Yaz McKay,
and Bob Balaban from The Monuments Men
and basically every Wes Anderson movie
since Moonrise Kingdom
is Professor Rentz, the old-school academic
threatened by the ascendant McKay.
David Morse from The Green Mile is Dean Larson.
And the show is partly stolen
by 7-year-old Everly Carganilla of Yes Day,
who features as Ju Ju,
Ji-Yoon's wonderful, complex,
slightly terrifying adopted daughter.
Do you have fur on your vagina?
And David Duchovny is played by, yes…
David Duchovny
of The X Files fame.
Wait, did David Duchovny really go to Princeton?
Yeah! And, in fact,
loads of the stuff said about Duchovny,
who plays himself in the show,
is actually based on fact.
Interesting.
He attended Princeton University,
where he graduated in 1982
with an A.B. in English Literature.
And, yes, that really is the title
of Duchovny's dissertation.
"The Schizophrenic Critique of Pure Reason
in Beckett's Early Novels".
I only wrote the one chapter.
The only difference is that he wrote it at Princeton,
not Yale, although he did go to Yale,
earning a Master of Arts in English Literature
before starting work on an unfinished PhD
on Magic and Technology
in Contemporary Fiction and Poetry.
Yes, really.
Oh, and the music stuff is real too.
In 2007, he put his acting career on hold
to spend more time as a singer-songwriter.
I'll have a mind of winter
Only song I've ever heard quote Wallace Stevens.
Fuck, I hope so.
D.B. Weiss and David Benioff?
Why do those names sound familiar?
Come on! This is Weiss and Benioff's first series
since Game of Thrones ended in 2019,
although this time they're producing not writing.
Dirty John and A Lot Like Love star Amanda Peet
takes the lead as executive producer
and showrunner of The Chair.
And it's written by Peet,
cocreator Annie Julia Wyman,
Richard E. Robbins,
Jennifer Kim and Andrea Troyer.
Where is The Chair set?
The Chair was filmed in Pittsburgh in early 2021,
presumably in winter looking at the scenery,
and much of the show is set in the city's
Lawrenceville neighbourhood.
The city has three universities:
Carnegie Mellon University,
the University of Pittsburgh and Duquesne.
But as we mentioned before,
Pembroke is entirely fictional.
What is Doljabi?
It's a long-standing Korean tradition
to celebrate a baby's first birthday
with a grand ceremony called Doljanchi.
This is the event Bill ends up sort of gatecrashing
in Episode Five, 'The Last Bus in Town'.
The highlight of the ceremony is Doljabi.
The child is placed in front of a selection
of six to eight items then encouraged to grab them.
The items they pick represent their future,
whether it's a particular career, wealth
or lifestyle.
In The Chair,
Minji's options are represented
by a stethoscope, pencil, paintbrush,
money, tennis ball and white string.
But really the items can be anything
that represents a particular future,
from space rockets for astronauts
to microphones for performers.
This isn't authentic!
She's clearly tampering with the process right now.
Let her make her own choice.
What is Día de los Muertos?
Día de los Muertos is a Latin American holiday
with strong associations to Mexico,
celebrated on the 1st of November.
It honours the dead with festivals and celebrations,
combining indigenous Aztec ritual with Catholicism
brought to the region by Spanish conquistadors.
The idea is that the dead would be insulted
by mourning or sadness, so Día de los Muertos
celebrates their lives instead.
As well as the celebrations,
the dead are celebrated with something called ofrendas,
small personal altars honouring one person.
Ofrendas are decorated with things like flowers, candles
and mementos of the person being remembered,
which is exactly what Ju Ju helps Bill to create
for his late wife.
She's gonna find you.
What is tenure
and why is it so important to Professor McKay?
This one will be pretty obvious to US viewers
but perhaps less so to those elsewhere.
Tenure is a permanent academic appointment,
which can only be terminated
in exceptional circumstances.
As well as providing security and influence,
it also affords a degree of academic freedom.
Your university isn't gonna get rid of you
for researching the wrong thing, for instance.
That's why it's so important
to Nana Mensah's Professor Yaz MacKay.
It's a sign she's made it as an academic.
And although she's an established and important
member of the teaching staff at Pembroke,
she'd be in a much better position if she was tenured.
Thank you so much
for agreeing to chair my tenure case.
Ji-Yoon gave me the news.
Surely.
Will there be a second season of The Chair?
Honestly, we don't know yet. Let's hope so.
Here's a montage of Professor Hambling
to keep you busy.
Philandering husbands, horny housewives,
farting…
pubic hair.
Some poor schmuck asks a woman for a kiss
and ends up making out with her butthole.
I'm what he thinks about
when he's trying not to cum in his girlfriend?
I don't get it.
For example, it would be true for me to say,
everyone can see your fanny.
You're a tiger! Get in there!
Do it, Joanie!
People, let's try not to panic.
Well, that's easy for you to say, you're 51.
I'm 46.
You're kidding.
Did you enjoy The Chair?
If you were writing a dissertation
on Netflix shows, what would it be?
Let us know in the comments.
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