The Queen's Gambit

Synopsis
The series follows young Elizabeth "Beth" Harmon, an orphan who becomes a chess prodigy and champion. In the process, she also becomes a depressed alcoholic addicted to tranquilizers.

The plot is a basic comin-of-age story, with the rising, inevitable downfall and redemption at the end. It is supposedly a fictional biography of Bobby Fischer, and chess history enthusiast will have a fun time guessing which character represents which real life player.

Technical review
This TV show is absolutely gorgeus, the lavish scenery pops out the screen thanks to a superb cinematography, if a bit by-the-book at times. Costumes are spot on and perflectly reflect the year in which the scenes are happening and they also evolve convincingly as time passes in the story.

Anya Taylor-Joy will stare you to death through the entire show. The male actor were simple odious, except the soviet player. That one I found nice. And the janitor. But there is no tradition of "resigning" when you are losing as a beginner, in fact, it is much better to continue playing so the beginner can see a game through and learn the endgame. Aaaanyway...

General review
The chess parts were pretty good, if a bit unfocused. Sometimes they skip entire games, that kinda annoyed me. Thinking back about it... there don't show that many full games.

The drama parts... were not as good. Also, it has a very obvious structure:


 * 1) Beth wins everything, until she loses to a superior rival.
 * 2) She gets depressed and begins to binge on booze and drugs and/or obsesses over chess.
 * 3) Someone comes and rescues her and/or helps her train her chess.
 * 4) She wins everything until she loses again and goes back to 2.

The bottom line
"Not enough chess"

Score: 3 out of 5 stars