Take Three: The Chair

The Chair: Season 1, Episode 3 “The Town Hall” (B+)

What Bill did to get himself into hot water didn’t make a lot of sense and shouldn’t carry much weight because of how little thought he gave it, but his inability to just admit that it was a mistake that doesn’t reflect his values is only going to get him into more trouble. Dafna tried to advise him that it wasn’t a good idea, and, despite breaking into “Springtime for Hitler” while previewing what he was going to say at the town hall, Bill seemed to have some strong ideas and good sentiments. Unfortunately, it took a sour turn when he couldn’t just apologize, and the poor timing of Dean Larson and the campus police showing up turned it into a very problematic spectacle. Ji-Yoon couldn’t contain her anger about the dean having his wife select David Duchovny as the lecturer, and she didn’t want to believe that he was actually a bestselling author, especially since she had to correct the dean on his use of “to who.” Elliot flailed when his students called him on not taking issue with the personal actions of the writers he was venerating, and Yaz had a perfect response to that which should enable her to feel some control over the classroom again. Holland Taylor really is terrific as Joan, dryly alleging that the evaluations said she was too exciting before literally burning each one. I was happy to see Bob Stephenson from “Ultrasound” as the IT guy who was happy to help her read the reviews that turned out not to be so positive and in some guys, very graphic in a way that took Joan a few moments to understand.