The Chair
Kids say
Based on 1 review
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The Chair
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A Lot or a Little?
The parents' guide to what's in this TV show.
What Parents Need to Know
Parents need to know that The Chair is a comedy about Ji-Yoon Kim (Sandra Oh), the first woman of color to take over as department chair at a prestigious liberal arts university. Thematically, the show is about the difficulty of making changes in a predominantly White institution, despite popular demand for those changes. However, The Chair is also part of a trend of shows about American racial and class dynamics that still feature White creators and a mostly White cast. The show is built around edgy humor. It features sexual situations, some nonsexualized nudity, alcohol, marijuana, and profanity throughout ("f--k," "s--t," etc.). Characters don't always make the best choices, but their intentions are sincere.
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What's the Story?
THE CHAIR takes place within fictional Pembroke University's English department, a once prestigious, popular program that has fallen out of favor with students. Ji-Yoon Kim (Sandra Oh) steps into a new role as department chair, where she must infuse the faculty with new energy while also trying to please her administrators. Meanwhile, she is figuring out how to raise a troubled adopted child and how to navigate a romantic friendship with one of her fellow professors.
Is It Any Good?
The Chair is an entertaining series with an incredible cast supporting star Sandra Oh. The list includes underrated character actors David Morse, Bob Balaban, and Holland Taylor, who gives an energetic and unexpected take on a tenured lit professor. The series offers a look at how race and age dictate decision-making in academia, though it doesn't quite fully bite into a sharp comedy of manners the way, say, The White Lotus and Succession do. Instead, the series focuses on Ji-Yoon's personal life, which makes it more of a pleasant but unsurprising romantic comedy. It's a beach read that perhaps could have been a richer novel.
Talk to Your Kids About ...
Families can talk about the department chair. Why is Ji-Yoon Kim's promotion to chair important? How does it affect the relationships in the English department?
What outside pressures does the university seem to face? How do these influence Ji-Yoon's decisions? How do the students play a role in changing the department?
What is Ji-Yoon's relationship with her daughter like? What are the difficulties? How do these change over the course of the series? Why do they change?
TV Details
- Premiere date: August 20, 2021
- Cast: Sandra Oh, Jay Duplass, David Morse, Holland Taylor
- Network: Netflix
- Genre: Comedy
- TV rating: TV-MA
- Last updated: August 12, 2022
Our Editors Recommend
-
The White Lotus
Promising class comedy has sex, nudity, drug use.
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Hacks
Excellent dark comedy has sexual content, cursing, drinking.
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Succession
Biting, profane satire about the obscenely wealthy.
For kids who love comedy
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