The script in this Netflix series is simply not good enough

The humor and drama both recover a bit along the way, but the series remains mediocre.

The first problem With “The Chair” is that Netflix presents it as a comedy. It gives greater expectations for humor than the series can fulfill. The other problem is that it also fails to participate adequately as a drama series. With six short half-hour episodes, the season ends as I begin to care about the characters in “The Chair.”

Ji Eun Kim (Sandra Oh, “Killing Eve”, “Grey’s Anatomy”) has just taken the position of the first female chair of the English Department at Pembroke University. The department is suffering, especially since most of the professors are old and outdated, and thus attract few students.

When the widower and the star are a lecturer Bill (Jay Duplass, “Transparent”) is hurt for making an abusive hand gesture in class, and students film it and post it on social media, ultimately threatening the work of both Bill and Ji Yeon. The fact that they have obvious feelings for each other doesn’t make things any easier either.

The first episode of the series struggles to get involved while establishing the workplace, Ji-Yoon’s relationship with her co-workers, and her family’s situation. Ji Yeon is also the single mother of adopted daughter Jo Jo (Everly Karganella), who is defiant at home and school.

Sandra Oh has been shown That she has comedic talent on “Killing Eve,” and it’s not her fault that she doesn’t do well here. The text is simply not good enough to make the funny moments seem like organic parts of the action, or to actually laugh at them.

Much of the humor in the series has to do with older white men struggling to adapt to the modern era. Because these old men wield power, they press for new styles and colleagues, and minority women are particularly affected. There is more painful truth than pleasure in this, but it highlights several important points about institutions like this. There are certainly many “chair” struggles that are eerily real problems in both American and Norwegian universities.

baking attempts The threads of work with the other lecturers in the English Department were completed only halfway. Joan (Holland Taylor), an older lecturer who has seen a little bit of everything over the years, is a funny character, but the situations he ends up with seem too fragmented to be true to her development.

Both humor and drama recover a bit during the short season. The chaos that arises around little Jo Jo is the most entertaining, and I care more about the mother-daughter relationship than I do about Ji Yeon’s job.

However, this is not enough to make the series more than average.