What “After the Hunt” Gets Right
Annie Julia Wyman, writer of The Chair, reflects on Luca Guadagnino’s After the Hunt. In 2017, she left academia for entertainment due to the tough job market for humanities Ph.D.s. She then co-created The Chair, a Netflix show exploring the academic world she left behind.
Portrayal of Professors and Academia
During the writing process, Wyman and her co-creator discussed the complex personalities of professors. They can be:
- uptight
- self-aggrandizing
- depressive
- controlling
- petty
- kind
- idealistic
- noble
- wise
Often, several of these traits appear simultaneously. They also explored the material struggles professors face, which they believed would resonate with viewers outside academia.
Setting and Conflict
The fictional campus, Pembroke, is undergoing corporatization. Humanities enrollment is falling, causing professors to panic and compete intensely. This climate is especially difficult for the Head of the English Department (played by Sandra Oh), the first woman of color in that position, who fights to preserve their jobs.
Wyman and her team found drama in this tension, heightened by the heroine’s romantic involvement with a colleague described as a “sad, white, not-quite-so-old dude” who challenges campus cancel culture.
Reception and Reflections
When The Chair premiered in 2021, Wyman feared it might seem undignified or too brutally honest to her academic peers. However, these worries proved unfounded as the show was well received.
“During our writing process, my cocreator and I talked a lot about professors, about how they can be uptight, self-aggrandizing, depressive, controlling, petty, kind, idealistic, noble, and wise—sometimes all at the same time.”
“Pembroke, the fictional campus where our show takes place, is corporatizing. Humanities enrollments are dropping; our professors start freaking out, clawing at each other, retrenching.”
Summary: Annie Julia Wyman’s insights reveal how The Chair authentically captures the complexities and struggles of academic life amid institutional change and personal conflicts.