Opiniones de usuarios

A great view of academia, and the associated difficulty of leadership. I found it interesting and a unique topic for a series and very funny.

My complaint is that I wanted more. 30 minutes left plots and characters under developed.

The ensemble cast is wonderful. Holland Taylor is a treasure!

Give us more, more development and longer episodes.

Finally, a show that's not about cops, crime, zombies, etc.

As a young faculty member, and woman this pressure really happens, and for the first time I see my self in a show.

I do wished it was longer, it feels like they rushed it and squeeze it in only 6 episodes.

I am a department chair at a college, so I was thrilled to see Sandra Oh star in a show that about the (sometimes) thankless job of management. Ms. Oh delivers a terrific performance and provides enough comedy and vulnerability to hold the audience's attention.

The first episode is hilarious and showcases some of the ridiculous processes that are pervasive in higher ed. Yes, administration is worried about enrollment (true for most colleges today except for the very elite). Yes, there are old-fogey professors who refuse to change with the times and think student evals are a waste of time. Yes, there is pettiness among faculty who hold PhDs but cannot agree on a simple decision. And yes, this generation's college students are more apt to hold faculty and administration accountable for meeting their needs. The worst thing you can say about a professor is that they are . . . Boring.

The side characters are very colorful, especially scene-stealing Holland Taylor (who plays a hilariously bitter older professor), Everyly Carganilla (who plays Sandra Oh's adopted daughter), and Nanah Mensah (who plays a talented young professor seeking ever-elusive tenure).

Beyond the first episode, the series falls into rom-com, which is charming if unrealistic. There is some nice chemistry between Sandra Oh and Jay Duplass, but the relationship does not have much chance to develop in 6 episodes. So, it will be interesting to see if the series renews so it can be explored.

It's been awhile since a comedy about higher ed has been featured, so this is a welcome change.

Absolutely smashes the zeitgeist of cancel culture. Sandra Oh, (the new and first female chair of an English faculty) is beset on all sides; from the old white male privelidge establishment to the campus fashion of shutting down anyone that doesn't chime with the latest political views. Free speech really is dead. Don't you dare debate classic literature unless it's via twitter with a meme.

I loved it yet shouted at the screen in frustration in equal measure. Bloody millennials.

Although this is purely a work of fiction with some excellent comedic moments it tells many truths. Yes, things have to change, the old ways certainly aren't the best, but to prevent any kind of discourse because of a bad choice of phrase or the wrong word? Utterly immature and counter productive, a bit like a 3 year old with their hands over their ears shouting 'lalalalalalala!' when told not to stick their finger in an electrical socket.

Highly recommended.

The Chair is interesting but doesn't quite work. I had a problem with the fact that the older professors were often played for laughs, while the younger earnest college students were almost always right and could never be criticized no matter how ridiculous their behavior. Sandra Oh was terrific in it though and it's worth watching if you enjoy her. They seem to think it snows in the northeast just before "Day of the Dead" (which is Nov 1 last time I looked). While shot in Pittsburgh, it's set in Massachusetts so no obvious scenes of Pittsburgh anywhere. It was shot at either Chatham College or Carlow College, and not at Pitt or CMU.

Magnificent work from powerhouse actress Sandra Oh showcasing her incredible comedic talents as Dr. Yi-Joon Kim juggling the impossible task as chair of an English department while trying desperately to keep it all together in a department that will never accept her place in it.

"I feel like someone handed me a ticking time bomb and they wanted to make sure a woman was holding it when it explodes."

Brilliant performances by Holland Taylor, Jay Duplass and rest of cast. The writing feels authentic and fresh filled with nuance. All characters are deeply flawed and there's no "hero mentality". Nothing is black and white in this satirical take on academia.

The magic of Oh's performance holds 'The Chair' together as we get to see her neurotic stressed out self come apart at the seams. I highly recommend this!

Perhaps I'm the right sort of age for this - mid forties - but I found this pretty funny and of course Sandra Oh is always compelling to watch.

What I find hard to get my head around is that while the subject matter and in fact what the characters are often talking about is race, gender and inequality, the characterization does not live up to those ideals. The characterization of white men, women and people of color are very tired and old. The female chair is always scrambling and in a panic perpetuating the idea that women are less capable in leadership positions, the sole black teacher has no backstory and exists only in relation to the other characters. There is a very typical white male role - 'brilliant washed up professor' who behaves without responsibility but it's excused because he's 1. Brilliant and 2. Sad. So bored of that narrative. The only decent representation is Joan for being a badass but still relies on the old trope that older woman doesn't feel appealing so says what's on her mind because she's nothing to lose.

If you're going to make a series that talks explicitly about issues of gender, race and inequality then your work need to be above what you're critiquing. Otherwise you're not hitting the nail on the head so much as missing the mark entirely. Which is a shame because you can see they're trying.

Perhaps more diversity in the leadership roles and less from the types of people who brought us the death of Khaleesi.

The university's in trouble with low student enrollment and some of the elder professors are at the core of the problem. The younger more talented staff is not without their own problems as Sandra Oh's character takes the Chair position to address the problems while contemplating her own needs and desires. It is quirky as well written and engaging, well acted, and plenty of star power. Lots of laughs.

I love Sandra Oh & the rest of the cast was great, too. It's wonderful seeing a show discussing race & class & privilege in the workplace. I also enjoyed seeing the older actors with interesting storylines & doing comedy, too. Finally, the adoption story was very engaging and something I hadn't seen before. I thought it wrapped up nicely while still leaving room for a second season.

I recognize that this is a comedy, not a documentary.

Still, how can a show that's *so* spot-on in its casting, its writing, ts grasp of the issues roiling 2021 campus life, and (the issue closest to my heart) its understanding of the many ridiculous demands placed on department chairs, be so spectacularly or willfully out-of-touch when it comes to its portrayals of:

• gender disparity (a humanities department that's almost all male -- seriously?),
• age (a faculty with almost no one below retirement age -- seriously?), and, especially,
• costumes (professors wearing suits, ties, or jackets with elbow patches - elbow patches? In the 21st century? Are you f'ing kidding me? -- when teaching or when attending faculty meetings) ?

Seriously?

It would be so much better if the students weren't so annoying. It's like they are determined to be offended.

This whole series is dedicated to the woke movement but in a refreshing way it kind of focused on both sides. The acting was decent, love Sandra Oh and Holland Taylor, they were perfect. The storylines were interesting and the humor hit.

Academic life as a storyline has to be boring (you know it is), but they're people too and that is what makes a good storyline. The actors have taken the well written show and made it a joy to watch, and a joy to look forward to seeing more.

Thank you.

The biggest problem with this series is that the conflicts are completely ridiculous, and that's sort of a major flaw. Even the snowflakiest students in the world wouldn't have gotten that bent out of shape over such a stupid incident. No Nazis at Pembroke. Please. Phone-obsessed hipsters win!

This is billed as a comedy, but it's way too preachy to be funny. The very first gag stinks. The chair breaks, get it? That is just really weak writing. Then, the male protagonist tips over the golf cart he stole, and then he falls off his scooter. Hilarious, right? I defy anyone to point out a joke. And why would anyone give a Nazi salute? In front of a class? He deserves to be rail-roaded out of the school.

People of color? I thought we were supposed to stop saying colored people? Old White men are the root of all evil and, of course, the Black woman is the perfect teacher and human being. The script for this is boiler plate PC clichés. It's like the old Westerns with only two colors of hats to differentiate between good and bad, but here ethnicity and color are the good guys while old White people are the villains.

Where this really went off the rails for me was the mention of Herman Melville as a wife beater by a student in a lecture, a student who probably couldn't be bothered to read Moby Dick and instead read a 120-character Tweet about Melville. What if Johann Sebastian Bach had beat his wife, or uttered the letter-before-O-word? Would that invalidate the Goldberg Variations or The Book of 48? Not that any of the millennial idiots baying for blood in that scene would know these work by the maestro.

Then this tenured professor, a writer, and intellectual, can't out-argue a group of moronic, cultural-revolution pin-heads? At no point is any of the sanctimony directed at the students, obviously they are too pure to be criticized. They are the hysterical woke mob (Mao's Red Guard) and are as much to blame as the entitled elite they march against, ready to fly off into another frenzy on the basis of one Tweet.

There was some great acting. I liked the old broad (Holland Taylor) and the little girl the most. It's too bad they made them out to be ridiculous. The kid insulting her own mother at every step, and the old professor just being absurd and silly with material right out of I Love Lucy. The writing was just uninspired at every turn.

The Chair is worth your time and hoping there will be more episodes. The production is well crafted and great music throughout. Characters develop by episode 5 so give it a chance.

A well-crafted show with some great acting, story development and comedy.

Refreshing enough with the story revolving around a university campus and the teachers - and their trials and tribulations in the current fast paced and cynical world where things are blown out of proportion especially with access to social media.

Touches upon gender and race discrimination though would have liked more if some of the story arcs are delved into more depth. But Sandra Oh and all the cast portrayed their characters very well and lifted up the series. Though I am still unsure of the ending and that to me was a bummer. I think it was rushed and kinda gives an ambiguous message...Hopefully they are planning for season 2 to improve upon this.

Overall Rating 7.5/10.

The Chair chronicles the trials of Ji-Yoon Kim, deftly played by Sandra Oh, newly installed as the chair of the English Department at tony Pembroke University, the first woman and first person of color to hold the position. Of course she immediately has her hands full with restive departmental colleagues, woke students, intractable administrators and trustees, troubled adoptive daughter, uncomprehending Korean father, etc.

Given all these elements it's not surprising that The Chair seems early on to go in every direction at once, some of it not particularly convincing, particularly her maybe-romance with troubled departmental "star," author Bill Dobson. Still, enough rings true that this academic kept watching to the end of the first season. The way a thoughtless classroom misstep can escalate to a full-blown crisis in this age of social media is uncomfortably close to real life, as is the tendency to simultaneously exalt and undermine promising minority professors. The first season ends with many plot threads left hanging, with even Oh's continuance as chair up in the air. Let's hope there's a sequel!

After years of mostly supporting roles and occasional lead ones, Sandra Oh gets the role of a lifetime on "The Chair", playing the head of the English department in a college. All sorts of problems arise.

The series focuses both on the challenges of working in this field, and also the issues that arise on campus in the 21st century. I doubt that the average person understands what college faculties have to put up with on a day-to-day basis (especially when you have stodgy professors resisting change).

Excellent show. Also starring Jay Duplass, Bob Balaban, David Morse and Holland Taylor.

Love the show. But the kid either needs to go or be rewritten. It's not funny or cute I also don't like the tortured adopted kid trope.

The topic is a good one. The writing is fairly tight though some scenes feel flabby . The overall impression I got of the show is of a chaotic group of people who do no work.

Only one man is seen working in the whole series (still not reading, but heigh ho, what's that to an English prof) but he's supposed to be the vilified soon-to-be-dead white male professor who, shock horror, is stopping a woman with an afro from getting tenure (read bad man). This woman talks about idiotic ideas like relatability and connectivity so the red flags are up straight away because eejits like this proliferate in teaching (ill read people with "passion". They're always passionate without having done any work). Meanwhile, Ms relatable-professor (who is never seen teaching but instead gets students to perform scenes from Moby Dick, and tweet sentences - ha), is lauded as the original craftsman of teaching. She even talks about skills! It's embarrassing if this writing is not tongue in cheek. She's also a flat character - she's black and a woman Ian's on those two - dimensions is too strong a word - those two surfaces audiences are supposed to have kinship.

In the real world, if Pembroke were a top university, students would flock to the scholar not to person who imparts nothing. I know US universities are trying to increase their intake of mediocre students in the name of inclusivity, so maybe this is actually what it is like in the US. But not in the UK where people still care about quality.