This ‘Back to School’ month is the perfect time for Netflix’s new college-set series “The Chair,” starring Sandra Oh (“Killing Eve,” “Grey’s Anatomy”) as Dr. Ji-Yoon Kim, the first female head of the English department at (fictional) Pembroke University.

A prestigious “lower-tier Ivy,” Pembroke has always favored its rich, white students and faculty, so the newly elected Chair faces not only gender prejudice but also racial bias. A single mother, she’s raising an adopted daughter, Ju-Ju (Everly Carganilla), with the help of her widowed, Korean-speaking father (Lee Ji-Yong).

Kim has a budding romance with smugly popular professor Bill Dobson (Jay Duplass), who gives a Nazi salute while discussing fascism and absurdism, an incident that results in a viral scandal.

In addition, she faces a difficult decision since the inscrutable Dean (David Morse) is determined to cull the entrenched faculty. Unable to fire anyone with tenure, he urges her to nudge certain senior professors, her mentors, toward early retirement.

Instead, she tries to help them boost their enrollment numbers. That includes Elliot Rentz (Bob Balaban), a Melville expert, and Joan Hambling (Holland Taylor), a salty medievalist, devoted to Chaucer.

Plus, there’s the dilemma of a Distinguished Lecturer, David Duchovny (“X-Files,” parodying himself, wearing a red Speedo), and Dr. Yasmin McKay (Nana Mensah), fighting for tenure.

Created by actress Amanda Peet and Annie Julia Wyman, it’s a workplace drama set in a profession that’s obsessed with status and prestige. Wyman earned a PhD in English from Harvard; producers David Benioff and D.B. Weiss met at Trinity College, Dublin, while pursuing Master’s degrees in Irish literature; and David Duchovny earned a Master’s from Yale in English, starting (but never completing) a PhD there.

The series was filmed in Pennsylvania at Washington & Jefferson College and Chatham University’s Shadyside campus. And if you spot a photo of Dr. Kim’s ‘ex,’ yes, it’s Daniel Dae Kim (“Hawaii-Five-O”).

On the Granger Gauge of 1 to 10, “The Chair” is a wryly satirical 7, skewering resistance to diversity and inclusion in contemporary academia. Netflix is streaming each of the series’ six half-hour episodes.

When actor-turned-director David Oyelowo (“Selma”) was growing up, he missed the sense of magic and wonder that he yearned to experience on-screen and was acutely aware of the lack of mid-budget family films featuring performers of color.

Set in the Pacific Northwest, “The Water Man”revolves around inquisitive 11 year-old Gunnar Boone (Lonnie Chavis from “This Is Us”), whose mother (Rosario Dawson) is dying of leukemia and military father (Oyelowo), recently returned from Japan, just moved the family to the small logging town of Pine Mills.

After an eccentric mortician (Alfred Molina) tells Gunnar about a local legend known as the Water Man, dream-haunted Gunnar, who is working on a graphic novel, is determined to track down the mythical figure.

Apparently, the Water Man was a miner who drowned with his wife in a flood.  After a mysterious piece of ore miraculously brought him back to life, the nether-worldly Water Man has spent decades searching for his wife’s body so that he can resurrect her.

Toting his dad’s souvenir samurai sword, Gunnar is joined by Jo (Amiah Miller), a homeless teenager who claims to have seen The Water Man on the edge of a nearby forest and can lead Gunnar to him.

But they’re unaware that there’s a raging a wildfire headed toward them, a very real threat that engages the participation of the local sheriff (Maria Bello).

Scripted by Emily A. Needell and produced by Oprah Winfrey, the mystical escapism marks Oyelowo’s directing debut, filming in rural Oregon and incorporating a surprise stampede of wild horses and a waterfall of beetles.

“What’s amazing about streaming is that there’s hard data,” Oyelowo was quoted in Yahoo!Life. “Netflix can tell you when someone stopped watching and who stayed to the end.” Oyelowo has been amazed at “The Water Man’s” global popularity, reaching Top 10 lists in the Philippines, Romania, Colombia, Spain, Kenya, Nigeria, Portugal, Poland, Malaysia, France, Israel, Kuwait, Thailand, South Africa, Ecuador and Panama.

On the Granger Gauge, “The Water Man” is a subtle, sensitive, supernatural 6, a family-friendly fantasy/adventure streaming on Netflix.

As the wannabe thriller “Till Death” begins, duplicitous Emma (Megan Fox) is breaking off an extramarital affair with an employee (Aml Ameen) at her wealthy husband’s law firm.

She’s married to Mark (Eoin Macken), a suspicious creep who – after giving her a chic ‘steel’ necklace to celebrate their 11th anniversary – blindfolds Emma, who is understandably nervous, and drives her to their remote, snow-bound vacation home on a lake for a romantic interlude.

When she awakens the next morning, Emma discovers she’s handcuffed to Mark, who promptly shoots himself in the head, splattering blood all over Emma and their bedroom.

Unable to extricate herself from the shackles that firmly bind her to Mark’s corpse, she drags him around the room, then down the stairs and around and about, trying to escape what amounts to a calculated death trap, since scheming, sadistic Mark has made sure that Emma’s cellphone is disabled and their car won’t start.

That’s when two thieves (Callan Mulvey, Jack Roth), including one who assaulted her years earlier, arrive on the scene, determined to break into a secure safe that requires not only a numerical combination but fingerprint authorization.

It should be noted that – throughout her ordeal – while struggling to survive – Emma’s hair and makeup remain ‘perfect,’ as if gorgeous, glamorous Megan Fox (“Transformers”) couldn’t bear to face the reality of Emma’s dilemma.

Scripted by Jason Carvey to run a taut 88 minutes, it marks the feature directorial debut of S.K. Dale (Scott Dale), who filmed in frigid Bulgaria.

But the plot contrivances are beyond absurd – with the home invasion eventually veering into Stephen King-type horror.

On the Granger Gauge, “Till Death” is a tensely twisted, yet tawdry 3, available at Redbox kiosks and streaming on Apple TV, Fandango and other platforms.