Her joy and pride are palpable as she glances at her new name plate outside the Pembroke University’s Department of English. The first female chair of the department, Dr Ji-Yoon Kim, 46, has hard days ahead. The university is facing a grave crisis. Student enrolments have been declining, making it imperative for the university to reinvent itself. Older faculty members are forced to take early retirement. Three of the faculty members—Joan, Rentz and McHale—have the highest salaries and lowest enrolments. As the chair, Kim tries her best to protect her co-workers from being fired. It is difficult though, as she is entrusted with ushering the university—“a lumbering dinosaur’’—into the 21st century. She feels like someone handed her a ticking bomb “because they wanted to make sure a woman was holding it when it explodes”.
Netflix's new comedy-drama series, The Chair, takes us on a journey through the labyrinths of Kim's life and career. The series, set on a fictional college campus, is a heady cocktail of romance, jealously and lust for power. It has a star-studded cast, with Golden Globe winner Sandra Oh and Emmy winner Jay Duplass playing pivotal roles.
Racism and gender discrimination are some of the harsh realities of the university, whose faculty is 87 per cent white. “When I started, it was like, 'Why is some Asian lady teaching Emily Dickinson',” says Kim. As famously said by French writer Jean-Baptiste Alphonse Karr, “The more things change, the more they remain the same.” Prof Joan Hambling complains her office has been shifted to some kind of “subterranean s***hole in the athletics building’’, whereas the male professors are not moved.
Ju Ju, Kim’s adopted kid with an inappropriate sexual interest, provides comic relief. Prof Bill Dobson, Kim’s colleague and office crush, sounds half serious when he reminds her of how she, in a bid to impress the adoption agency, included pictures of her cooking on her profile, though she does not know how to cook. Dobson reconfirms his love for Kim by proclaiming that, “I’ll eat dry cereals for the rest of my days, if I can hang with this lady.’’
Dobson, a maverick who habitually flouts rules, has a huge fan following on campus. His mantra for success, apparently, is to be charming, funny and interesting. He accepts rides from female students. His one saving grace is his reputation, and he is over enrolled. Also, he knows how to keep his students entertained. His strong VJ-ing skills help him stay afloat, even when his more committed co-workers are struggling. However, soon Dobson is caught in the eye of a storm.
The Chair is a series every literature student must watch. With references to Shakespearean plays and concepts like absurdism (the idea that human existence is absurd) propounded by Albert Camus and Samuel Beckett, the series feeds your heart, mind and soul.