The continued act of showing that women are facing such great struggles in the workplace goes on, and to be fair, The Chair does present Sandra Oh as a woman that is being brought in to quench the flames of scandal that a male Chairmain of an academic department apparently caused with his unwanted antics. It’s not exactly a new story but it’s not an old one either since The Chair is taking a look at giving Oh’s character a wealth of challenges to face that have been highlighted in the real world as well. In other words, the realism in this comedic project is bound to make some people bristle a bit, while others might get a kick out of it since it’s likely to make them feel that the folks at Netflix and those they’re working with are listening to what’s going on in the world. The fact is that anyone that sees this as merely the vindication of how hard women have to work and the vilification of the old guard and men, in general, might need to stop taking things so personally. It’s a story, and an amusing one, of a system that might need a good shake now and then to remember what it’s like to change and grow in different directions rather than remain stodgy and set in its ways.
With that in mind, a lot of people are already commenting in a positive way upon seeing Sandra Oh return to the small screen since this is where she’s thrived for so long, even though her talent isn’t necessarily limited to TV. Taking a look at the trailer it’s easy to see that she hasn’t lost a step over the years, and is still just as effective as she’s always been. In this particular role she’ll be taking on the persona of a woman that is being given a seriously rough task that will stretch and likely test her ability to deal with people and with her own life since as it’s been seen over the last several years, the issue with college campuses and those in any position of authority has been tenuous at best, as scandal has been the word of the day for a while now.
Injecting comedy into this matter is definitely necessary since otherwise, one might as well watch YouTube or Facebook videos that denote the issues that various universities have been having over the years. While it’s not quite the same, it’s not too far removed when one thinks of the faculty issues that have occurred way too often, and the various scandals that said various schools have had to deal with. This type of story isn’t so far removed from reality as anyone might think, and in fact, it’s far closer than a lot of people are willing to admit. But putting a comedic spin on it at least dampens the dire feeling a bit, and is bound to keep people from becoming too aggravated while watching it. Again, if anyone takes anything they see in fiction personally, then it’s time to re-evaluate their life and their value system, since anything seen on Netflix, apart from documentaries, is cleverly worked fiction that’s placed there to entertain and to, yes, gain a reaction, but usually, one that doesn’t involve personalized anger.
Sandra has managed to convince a great many people over the years that she’s fully dedicated to each role she takes, and that same feeling comes through in this trailer since her role is one that demands a great deal of her and one in which she’ll have to take on the iniquities of a system that people still rail against for a number of reasons. It does feel as though a project such as this will cause a good deal of discussion as well as debate, which is all well and good since it will get people to open up when talking about how they really feel when it comes to various institutions and the practices they employ when dealing with their faculty members. Some would love to say that there is no equality between men and women, while others would love to argue that there’s more equality than people appear to think.
It’s a continual argument that has been fed into by the entertainment industry over the years and has never really been resolved. Temporary fixes have been applied that don’t work for everyone, while more permanent fixes are needed in order to solve the problem, not just debate about it. But perhaps there might be a bit of inspiration taken by this project. Don’t hold your breath obviously, but it’s always a hope that imagination could help fix what’s been broken for so long. We’ll just have to wait and see how things turn out.
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