What “After the Hunt” Gets Right

Annie Julia Wyman, the writer of The Chair, shares insights on Luca Guadagnino’s After the Hunt.

Leaving Academia for Entertainment

In 2017, I left academia for the entertainment industry—reflecting the challenging job market for humanities Ph.D.s. Despite this, I co-created The Chair, a Netflix show about academic life.

Exploring Academic Life in The Chair

During the writing process, my co-creator and I discussed professors’ complex personalities: they can be uptight, self-aggrandizing, depressive, controlling, petty, kind, idealistic, noble, and wise—all at once. We also highlighted a material desperation familiar within academia, hoping it would resonate with non-academic viewers.

Setting and Conflict

Pembroke, the fictional campus, is undergoing corporatization.
Humanities enrollments are declining, sparking faculty anxiety and conflicts.
Older, predominantly white male professors complicate things for the English Department head, Sandra Oh—the first woman of color in that role.
Sandra Oh’s character is determined to save faculty jobs.
The heroine falls in love with a colleague—a troubled, white male who challenges campus cancel culture.

Reception of The Chair

When The Chair premiered in 2021, I feared it might offend friends and mentors in academia by portraying the field as undignified and overly silly. However, those concerns proved unfounded.

“We 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... is corporatizing. Humanities enrollments are dropping; our professors start freaking out, clawing at each other, retrenching.”

Author's summary: Annie Julia Wyman reflects on the authentic portrayal of academic life and its challenges in The Chair, revealing both the complexities of professors and the shifting landscape of higher education.

The Yale Review — 2025-11-04