I'm a Humanities/Philosophy prof for 18 years, and, to confess, have watched only the first ep of the show, and don't feel like watching more. If anyone else experiences this show as pandering and just kinda dumb, you might relate to my experience...

For me, there is a scale when it comes to shows/films about something that I have some intimacy with; Jill Solloway's brilliant show, I love dick, for instance, is a 10/10 for me in respecting my intelligence and creating a show FOR people who might know something about rural pretentious contemporary art seminars, aesthetics, feminism, etc...as opposed to creating something that tries to incessantly explain what it is about to everyone else. Jill Solloway, like David Simon, doesn't care about mainstream audiences. I want to feel like I am being hurled into the middle of a world, like if I sit up in my seat and really pay attention, my attention will be rewarded. Instead, I just couldn't focus on this show; I'm entirely certain that I would have completely understood every single theme, joke, and character dynamic if I just had it on in the background, like a sitcom episode I'd already seen.

This show is well acted and clearly has some insider knowledge in it's bones. But it's about as smart about English departments as CSI is about law enforcement. It's about literature, but it isn't even trying to be literature. Yes, our enrollments are plummeting and many of my colleagues are struggling to for relevance, sanity, and simply employment. Does this show actually have anything to say about that, other than, 'hey, look at this, jokes about tweeting Moby Dick and some drama about budget cut meetings, and here's a random Hitler Salute to comment on cancel culture!' I'm tired of these competent but uninspired shows, I suppose, because there's just so dang many of them...