Sandra Oh made her name with Grey's Anatomy as the ambitious cardiovascular surgeon in the making Dr. Cristina Yang, whom fans have missed dearly since she departed the show more than a decade ago. Viewers looking for more of Oh may have found their way to Netflix's The Chair, a 2021 academic drama series with Oh starring as a professor and chair of the English department at a prestigious university. The short-lived series shares some of Grey's Anatomy's themes of the hurdles women face in specialized fields such as academia or medicine.

A recent breakup in best of Grey's Anatomy's jokes. The combination of complex, earnest storytelling and dark comedy makes it seem like Oh could never do better, but she gives spectacular performances elsewhere.

The Chair Features Sandra Oh Like You've Never Seen Her Before

Sandra Oh Stars As A Trailblazing English Professor

In The Chair, Dr. Ji-Yoon Kim (Oh) has just become the first woman of color to be the chair of the English department at Pembroke University, a fictional Ivy League-style school in a New England-esque setting. Ji-Yoon is also navigating difficulties as a single mother, having finally successfully adopted her daughter in her 40s. The series also stars actors such as Jay Duplass, Bob Balaban, Nana Mensah, and Holland Taylor as Ji-Yoon's colleagues. But Sandra Oh is doubtlessly the cornerstone of the show.

There is something of Cristina in her, as she is clearly an accomplished scholar and ionate about her work. However, there is honestly no winning for Ji-Yoon as she attempts to combat long-ingrained biases in academia and has to deal with other English professors' problems (some worthy of her attention, others definitely not). Oh makes this a compelling character study and overview of a historically discriminatory profession, as Ji-Yoon is endlessly frustrated when she gets nowhere but keeps trying because she cares so much about it.

Why Netflix Canceled The Chair After One Season

The Chair Never Found Its Audience

Netflix never provided a definitive reason for the cancellation of The Chair; in fact, they were mostly silent on the show's status after the first season's ending, until everyone assumed it had been canceled, and the cast and crew confirmed as much. Nowadays, too many Netflix shows are canceled early when they don't achieve monumental viewership, and The Chair was likely just another project that didn't reach Stranger Things' heights. Reddit s' comments also suggest that the show's subject matter was more niche and not well-d, thus it never reached the audiences it could have.

The Chair Is Highly Underrated & Deserved More Love

Sandra Oh Leads A Complex Exploration Of The Culture Of Academia

The Chair comes to something of a satisfying ending where it seems like no one is happy, but Ji-Yoon is at peace, having been pushed out of a job that was driving her crazy anyway, but at least saw to it that a deserving colleague was made the new chair. However, The Chair never got the attention or praise it deserved as a tightly written series that examines the best and worst of academia. It features an array of subplots that explore implicit racism and sexism, opinions on cancel culture, and cover-ups in this profession.

With the storylines of Ji-Yoon fighting to see another woman of color get tenure and trying to get a male, white colleague to apologize for a mistake, the privileges in this setting are on full display. Another female colleague who has been there for years can't even get a proper office, while all of them are facing the English department being cut back, as people see it as less valuable in the modern age. The Chair is a layered narrative that dives into both why literature is important and what faculty grapple with to get this message across, making for another stellar Sandra Oh project.

Source: Reddit