Season: Mini Series
Genre: Drama
Number of
episodes: 7
Year:
2020
Starring: Anya Taylor-Joy, Bill Camp, Marcin Dorocisky, Thomas Brodie-Sangster,
Marielle Heller, Chloe Pirrie, Harry Melling, Jacob Fortune-Lloyd
Description: Orphaned at
the tender age of nine, prodigious introvert Beth Harmon (Anya Taylor-Joy)
discovers and masters the game of chess in 1960s USA.
Review: As a young girl, Beth
Harmon is sent to a boarding school to be prepared for adoption. Here she
discovers her vocation by playing chess every day with the janitor in the
basement. The masterly skills she creates for chess will turn her life upside
down.
A mini-series has more playing time than a movie, so there is more time
to develop they story, but fortunately you are not stuck with endless seasons
that take up your life. Netflix drama miniseries “The Queen’s Gambit” is about competitive
chess. A subject that must scare a lot of people, thinking it might be boring
or uninteresting. Well, think again, because it’s a fascinating, captivating and
surprisingly mind-blowing series.
I personally don’t know how to play chess, I don’t understand the game
nor have I any connection with it. That’s why the praise is even higher for
this series, to make it so accessible and interesting for every viewer through
the eyes of Beth Harmon we see how she interprets the chessboard and prepares
herself for every possible move. Thanks to the impressive acting, clear editing
and well written script, the chess games are portrayed in such a way that the
tension can run high.
An advantage of a mini-series, as mentioned before, is the longer time
we can spend with out main characters. In seven episodes we follow Beth Harmon
from a young girl with talent for chess to an international celebrity with an
addiction to pills and alcohol. The latter is an important point as it helps
her to visualize every move in her head and to stay sharp. The chess pieces
throw themselves over her like shadows, totally consumed by the game. In terms
of content, “The Queen’s Gambit” is about following your passion, and the
(mental) costs involved. There is a prize for the talent you have and most of
the drama in the series comes from this subject. How far can you go before you
reach the limit?
We visit different countries, the era of the 50s and 60s is nicely
portrayed and the mini-series gives the feeling that this can be a true story,
that’s how credible it is played. The title is also strong: the name of an important
opening move with which Beth Harmon regularly claims her victories.
This series is fantastic. A series about chess that should be boring,
but is extremely fascinating and you just can’t stop watching. Now I wish I
could play chess like that. Or even at all.
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