What “After the Hunt” Gets Right
Annie Julia Wyman, writer of The Chair, shares insights on Luca Guadagnino’s After the Hunt. In 2017, she left academia for the entertainment industry due to the challenging humanities job market. Soon after, she co-created The Chair, a Netflix series focused on academic life.
During the writing process, Wyman and her co-creator explored the complex nature of professors, describing them as sometimes uptight, self-important, depressive, controlling, petty, kind, idealistic, noble, and wise—all at once. They also addressed a type of material desperation familiar to them, expecting viewers outside academia to relate.
The show is set on the fictional Pembroke campus, which is undergoing corporatization. With humanities enrollment declining, professors begin to panic, turning against each other and withdrawing. Older white male faculty, in particular, resist change, making life difficult for the English Department chair, played by Sandra Oh—the first woman of color in this role—who is steadfast in her effort to save their jobs.
Wyman and her co-creator imagined dramatic tension enhanced by a romantic subplot involving the heroine and a colleague, described as a sad, white, middle-aged man who agitates campus cancel culture.
"When The Chair was released in 2021, I worried it would seem undignified and too truthful about the silliness of our field to my academic friends and former mentors. But those concerns proved unfounded."
Author's summary: Annie Julia Wyman reflects on capturing the complex realities of academia and its challenges through the lens of The Chair, highlighting nuanced realities without exaggeration or disdain.