Academics channeled their inner screenwriter this past weekend after the news broke that Sandra Oh would be starring as a department chair at a major university in a coming series on Netflix.
It wasn’t immediately clear what, if any, university would be depicted in The Chair, which will feature Oh, the star of Killing Eve, as chair of an English department. Deadline described the series — written by the actress Amanda Peet with Annie Julia Wyman, who earned a Ph.D. at Harvard — as a “dramedy.”
Academe quickly took notice, with some wondering why it had taken Hollywood so long to “mine that rich field for comedy.”
New Netflix series about woman chair of a major university English department. Where the real action is, and I can only wonder it took them so long to figure it out. https://t.co/6uCGGB2Uoa
— Elaine Showalter (@ecshowalter) February 22, 2020
The academic novel has been in decline for a long time & but meanwhile the narrative has been getting more dramatic & exciting. Wish I could write some scripts for this series!
— Elaine Showalter (@ecshowalter) February 22, 2020
Other tweets speculated over plot lines, and soon Twitter was coming up with seasons’ worth of material for the show.
They could make an entire episode of struggling with the IR office to get reliable enrollment numbers.
— David Thomas (@davidthomasone) February 22, 2020
Cue the toxic faculty meetings. Oh, and ignoring each other in the dept office. So much fun!
— Barbara Ballard (@islandteacher27) February 23, 2020
I hope that, for the sake of authenticity, the plot includes a long-standing feud between two faculty members, the reason for which is a mystery to everyone, including the Dean.
— Martyn Amos (@martyn_amos) February 24, 2020
Some hoped the show would be accurate in its depiction of the liberal arts and university departments, while others doubted the series would hold people’s interest.
Please tell us it doesn’t pigeonhole English grads as either brilliant academics or struggling poets toiling away in service jobs. Please tell us it shows the variety of careers available to liberal arts majors.
— Scrimshaw Project (@ScrimshawProj) February 24, 2020
On the bright side ppl in the future will know there were once English departments
— Meredith McIver (@MeredithMcFake) February 22, 2020
Wyman weighed in, assuring the speculators that the series would tackle the treatment of adjuncts in higher education.
Bennett Leckrone is an editorial intern at The Chronicle. Follow him on Twitter @LeckroneBennett, or email him at bennett.leckrone@chronicle.com.
