|
 https://www.imdb.com/title/tt10048342/ I was impressed enough with this series to feel it merited its own thread. It is in my opinion the best original Netflix content so far. The source material is the novel of the same name by Walter Tevis. It's a drama about Elizabeth Harmon, an orphan who discovers a fascination with chess. It turns out that she's a chess prodigy, and her career progresses from small local tournaments to the heights of international competition. Along the way there is drama related to her alcohol and drug issues as well as her relationships with the various men in her life, most of whom mentor her chess career in different ways but are ultimately surpassed by her. The film is set in the early 1960's Cold War era and Harmon's opponents in the climactic events are fictional Soviet Grandmasters. There are many references to actual historic masters and champions of the chess world, but Harmon herself and the actual characters portrayed in the film are fictitious. Harmon's character is almost a fictional reimagining of a Bobby Fischer like character, a brilliant chess child prodigy who emerges into prominence during the Cold War but is also burdened with a lot of baggage and a turbulent personal life. Harmon is played by Anya Taylor-Joy, previously known for The VVitch, Thoroughbreds and Emma. It is a standout performance. One of the things that really struck me is how well written and complex almost all of the characters in the film are. For instance, the mother who adopts her from the orphanage could easily have been a shallow caricature of a boozy failure of a suburban housewife but her character and her relationship with Beth are drawn with detail and care. The nerdy brotherhood of tournament chess players with its colorful characters and hierarchy of merit is captured pretty well. It's a very small world and not only do the big names know each other not only through published games but also personally, but the second and third tier personalities usually have a personal connection as well. This is portrayed well in how some of the chess nerds Beth meets from her very first events are encountered again and again at different events throughout her career. The various tournament chess scene characters like Harry (the Kentucky state champ who is Beth's first big competitive scalp), Benny (the eccentric U.S. champ), and the Levy brothers (friendly chess nerds and hangers on) seem very familiar to anyone familiar with tournament chess or really any insular hobby or sport. The series is a period piece, it's beautifully shot and the early 60's wardrobe, costume and soundtrack are spot on. Of many excellent scenes, one that stood out to me is at the Mexico City tournament when Beth first runs up against the top Russian Grandmasters. She is in the back of the elevator when their team enters, and unaware of her presence (and the fact that she speaks Russian), the world champ doesn't discount her chances, saying "she is an orphan. She is like us, a survivor. Without victory, what will her life be?" At the same event, her match against the even younger Russian child prodigy is a great illustration of the predator's circle of life in chess. The world champion is at the peak of his abilities but soon to be in decline against younger opponents, and he recognizes and acknowledges this. Beth, a teenager, is already too old in the cruel math of chess to be regarded as a child prodigy anymore but is still just on the threshold of realizing her full potential. The Russian child represents the next generation of talent that will eventually overtake Beth when her abilities decline.  As a casual chess player I was a bit sad that the show didn't linger a bit more on some of the chess boards. Also the pace of the game was sped up for dramatic effect which I also understand, and the fact that a huge portion of competitive games among top players end in draws is glossed over, but all of these departures from realism are for good reason and effect. Special praise to Isla Johnston who plays the young Beth Harmon in the orphanage. She really nails the scenes where Beth first becomes fascinated by chess watching the old janitor play in the basement (who then becomes her first teacher and mentor). Really captures the single mindedness of a child who suddenly discovers and becomes obsessed with something very well.
|
#
¿
Nov 17, 2020 16:01
|
|
|
|
| # ¿ May 10, 2024 00:52 |
|
|
One other comment I’ll make. For those put off by the fact that the orphanage setting in the first episode is a bit grim dank and depressing I would strongly advise you to stick with it. It’s an excellent episode anyway and absolutely integral to everything that follows.
|
|
#
¿
Nov 17, 2020 19:51
|
|
|
Astroman posted:I also knew he wrote The Man Who Fell to Earth but didn't realize he wrote The Hustler and Color of Money. It's rare to see an author switch well between scifi and other genres. Interesting. Maybe the competition elements common to chess and pool hall hustling are fascinating to him.
|
|
#
¿
Nov 18, 2020 03:54
|
|
|
I think one of the main issues I have with the show is the fact Beth is portrayed as dominating all of her games so thoroughly, with virtually no losses or draws (with a couple of notable exceptions). It's unusual for even the very best players to be so head and shoulders above their competition as to crush through events beating everyone, I think Bobby Fischer's career was kind of like that, not sure about more recent champs like Carlsen or Kasparov.
|
|
#
¿
Nov 18, 2020 16:58
|
|
|
Med School posted:I really enjoyed the character of the adoptive mother. She captures the feeling of being trapped in a relationship. I didn't realize the actress was also a director. It was a pretty great, and complex, role. She could be a flawed foster mother without being a one dimensional stereotype, their relationship was complex but it was mostly a positive thing.
|
|
#
¿
Nov 23, 2020 06:02
|
|
|
Grem posted:This series was really great, but I felt like the back half of it wasn't as strong after the mom died. Not having competed myself but having a friend or two in college who were GM/IM types the nerd brotherhood regulars at the tournament scene seemed like they were depicted pretty well. You could say it is somewhat true of any sport or hobby that has a small insular community, you could even get a little of that flavor from the people hanging around a big Starcraft tournament, perhaps. My main beefs were: Beth wins virtually everything, not only doesn't lose a game except for a couple notable incidents, but one gets the impression she doesn't even draw. The high number of draws in tournament play would probably be somewhat tedious though. Not sure if other world champs crushed everyone as thoroughly as she is portrayed as doing except maybe Fischer and/or Magnus Carlsen? Also, resolution of substance abuse issues seemed a bit too conveniently neat and tidy. It makes sense that after seeing Mr. Schaibel's bulletin board shrine that she could have been seriously motivated to clean up, to renew her dedication to chess as a way of respecting his dedication to her. But most people can't just drop years of heavy alcohol and pills cold turkey without some significant physical and emotional toll to be borne. Zwabu fucked around with this message at 06:10 on Nov 23, 2020 |
|
#
¿
Nov 23, 2020 06:05
|
|
|
Riptor posted:I also enjoyed this up to the point where the mom died, after which I felt it became very repetitive Yeah, I do feel that this stretch dragged a bit. Not having read the book, I understand that a big difference is that in the book, it's Beth who reaches out and contacts Jolene who then comes to help her, rather than Jolene simply showing up out of the blue to the rescue. I think it's an unfortunate change in the show because that's a pretty important distinction.
|
|
#
¿
Nov 26, 2020 18:43
|
|
|
Zaphod42 posted:I enjoyed this, although as a weirdo nerd who actually likes chess and played a ton of it as a kid, I was really put off by how much they avoid the chess matches most of the time. Yeah considering that they went through the trouble to get Kasparov and Pandolfini (former World Champ and a grandmaster) to be chess consultants and Kasparov actually picked and made up real games, it would have been nice if they actually, you know, showed the board for at least a tiny bit here and there. Instead of "she's crushing these guys, take our word for it"
|
|
#
¿
Dec 5, 2020 09:08
|
|
|
It would be nice if they'd linger a bit on the board on a critical move. I recognize that 99 percent of the viewers probably don't know anything about chess, but given that you got a world champ to pick out games for the key matches, it would be cool if they chose a particular brilliant move for the critical move in the match and at least tossed the chess nerds in the audience a bone once or twice. I totally get having the players move at more blitz/rapid like speeds for the sake of pacing. I actually like that the one game against the Russian kid phenom in Mexico City was the only one that had that ponderous slow stressful feeling of a difficult game, the kind where you lose a couple of pounds during the game, and went to adjournment.
|
|
#
¿
Dec 6, 2020 05:48
|
|
|
sticklefifer posted:I watched a couple videos on a Youtube chess nerd channel analyzing the matches from the show, and apparently they actually did have all that match continuity, because the channel was able to follow the matches all the way through, and make educated guesses at what happened between the parts they didn't show. They were able to follow it in real time? Or because they would freeze frame the show from time to time to be able to look at the board?
|
|
#
¿
Dec 6, 2020 07:30
|
|
|
Jows posted:I was also expecting the whole "rape and/or abuse" as a character device the whole front half of the series. I was very pleasantly surprised they never went that way. Yeah when Beth first gets picked up by the adoptive couple, the way the husband is eyeing her through the rear view mirror made me think "uh oh". But then you realize later he was just sizing her up as a companion for the wife he was going to leave. I don't know to what degree it's discussed in the book, but it seems pretty obvious that the reason Mr. Shaibel is apparently forbidden by the orphanage not only from playing chess with Beth but even talking to her or acknowledging her once their chess playing sessions were discovered has nothing to do with chess. He's obviously suspected of pedo shenanigans or they want at least to avoid any appearance of such. So yeah, when she first goes into the dank basement to check out what the old man is doing, it did not seem like a good situation.
|
|
#
¿
Dec 8, 2020 18:37
|
|
|
College Rockout posted:I never got any sense of impropriety from Mr Shaibel. Beth first gets introduced to chess because a teacher sends her to the basement to clean the board erasers. That doesn't happen if there's rumors swirling around about Mr Shaibel. There's also a scene where Beth is eating chocolate in the basement telling him about the chess matches at the high school that happens after Deardorff finds out about him teaching her chess. It's only after Beth ODs on the tranquilizers that she gets banned from playing chess completely (not just with Mr. Shaibel) and their relationship changes. That's right, I forgot that sequence of events. Never mind. I didn't suspect Shaibel of anything. I was thinking more that's what the orphanage reaction was based on, but you're right. That scene of kid Beth happily gloating about how she crushed all the high schoolers with chocolate smeared all over her face made me laugh.
|
|
#
¿
Dec 9, 2020 04:46
|
|
|
Why can't it be both. 
|
|
#
¿
Dec 24, 2020 01:14
|
|
|
One thing that bugged me a little bit is that Beth did less research into historical chess greats and the current champions than I would expect of any top chess player. I feel like anyone who gets completely fascinated and immersed in any activity has a desire to learn about the history and lore of that activity, and in the case of current players you have a direct incentive to study their games to help you better form competitive strategies. Although maybe I'm wrong about that, I just looked a a stream of Hikaru Nakamura, one of the top world players, with another popular chess streamer, where they were discussing the various world champs and greats from history and ranking them, and I was shocked that the other guy, who also has a popular chess stream, seemed to be barely familiar with the names or stories of some of the world champs. It really surprised me that a guy who kind of lives and breathes chess had these big gaps in his knowledge of the greats, there haven't been that many world champs and prominent contenders. I really liked the scene in the elevator (Mexico City) where the Russian champ and his retinue come in and don't see Beth and she overhears them talking trash about how she's a lush and how her playing style is limited, and the champ says to not underestimate her, she's an orphan, a survivor like us, for her there is only winning because if she doesn't win what is her life? And yeah Beth finding her bulletin board wall that the handyman/janitor had made was pretty devastating emotionally.
|
|
#
¿
Dec 24, 2020 08:03
|
|
|
Okay I suppose I'm talking more about her not researching the Russian champ when she was the one who had the ambition to play him or become one of the top players, and Benny having to tell her about him. Even if you don't know you're going to play a match against that guy you'd research his games to learn from them. The current world champ will generally represent the strongest play that has been exhibited yet since their play builds upon knowledge gained from previous players, so their games are an essential resource to learn about the strongest ways to play in the present. Also Harry shouldn't have had to tell her stuff about Morphy and his sad end, he's easily the most famous American historical chess figure after Fischer and anyone who's slightly into chess knows about him.
|
|
#
¿
Dec 24, 2020 18:44
|
|
|
Shimrra Jamaane posted:So how is the general chess community taking this show and it’s inspiration for an explosion in interest in chess? Are they mostly all happy about it or are there insular assholes scoffing at it? Overall no one who makes a living in chess could be anything but really happy about it. Obviously the immediate hype is fading but it will lead to some percentage of those newly interested sticking with the game which is bound to be significantly more than before. Top American Grandmaster Hikaru Nakamura has a chess stream on Twitch that gets up to 10K or more viewers at a time which is WAY higher than a lot of popular streamers of big games. I don't know what numbers he was getting before Queen's Gambit but I seriously doubt it was that high. To be fair Hikaru is really good at streaming, he "gets" it more than any other big time chess player, and has the gift of gab and has a good personality.
|
|
#
¿
Dec 27, 2020 18:22
|
|
|
Yeah, for casually dabbling in chess it might be rare but for anyone serious or who plays a lot en passant capture is an important consideration in every pawn move so it would be a gross blunder for a top player to miss a winning move (for them or their opponent) because of not considering it.
|
|
#
¿
Dec 28, 2020 20:07
|
|
|
|
| # ¿ May 10, 2024 00:52 |
|
|
Bulky Bartokomous posted:Hi, thread I just wanted to drop by and say that I'm not typically a TV/Movie crier. And by that I mean that I could list every show/movie that has made me cry because there are only a handful of them. The last episode of this didn't just get a tear out of my, but like actual crying. It was the scene where she found the bulletin board. Holy poo poo, it hit me like a sledgehammer. What a fantastic miniseries this was. Yeah I found that scene emotionally devastating too as did many. And only made so because of the context from the first episode.
|
|
#
¿
Jan 24, 2021 18:09
|
|