The Queen’s Gambit has ended
up becoming one of the hottest TV shows of 2020. And, of course, I had to watch it. Not only is the buzz for it considerable
enough to amply fuel my curiosity, but it revolves around a topic I find
interesting: chess.
I like and play chess, though I’m not a die-hard enthusiast. Still, it’s something I recognize as
fascinating. While there have been
numerous fun attempts to reimagine it, chess is already amazing as it
originally is. It’s probably the
ultimate game. Everyone can get into it,
but only an elite few can truly master it.
For there is perhaps no other game in which there is an extreme distance
between its entry point and its peak form.
That means the basic gameplay is so easy to grasp and get the hang on, and
yet, when the game is played at the highest level, it’s radically far more
complex and intense.
The Queen’s Gambit, as far
as I remember, is the very first chess-centered work of fiction I’ve ever
encountered that I found to be remarkably enjoyable.
The 7-episode miniseries is set during the Cold War, and tells the
story of chess prodigy Beth Harmon (Anya Taylor-Joy). After surviving a horrific car crash that
took the life of her mother, 9-year-old Beth is taken to an orphanage. There, she meets the custodian Mr. Shaibel
(Bill Camp), and through him, discovers her talent and love for chess – and
winning. As a teenager, she gets adopted
by Mrs. Wheatley (Marielle Heller), and soon after, she starts her career as a
professional chess player, travelling around the USA to take on the best chess
players of the country. Eventually, she
gets into the world stage, where she encounters her most formidable rival – the
Soviet world champion Vasily Borgov (Marcin Dorociński).
At its core, the storyline here is pretty familiar. Beth is a phenom. Her genius earns her fame and success. She’s obsessed about her craft and remaining
on or getting to the top. At the same
time, she’s dealing with trauma and loneliness.
Believing that drugs and alcohol allow her to optimize her performance
as well as deal with pain, she constantly turns to them, which unsurprisingly results
to her spiralling into addiction. And
thus, as she grinds her way toward her goals, she must also wrestle with her
personal demons. It’s the kind of story
we’ve seen a thousand times already. It’s
the stereotypical “rockstar” character arc.
Nevertheless, it doesn’t come off as tiresomely derivative, since it’s
so well-told that it’s quite absorbing.
Moreover, there’s something about the plot’s structure and beats that
reminded me of anime storytelling. I
couldn’t quite put my finger on it, but there were times when I was watching it
that I felt like I was watching an anime.
Anya Taylor-Joy, with her magnetic screen presence and her nuanced
portrayal of Beth, is also a major factor why The Queen’s Gambit is so compelling to watch. I won’t exactly call it her breakout role,
since she’s been relatively famous since doing The Witch. But her
performance in this show is an absolute tour de force, and she will probably be
most known for playing Beth Harmon from now on.
Aside from Taylor-Joy’s Beth, none of the performances and characters
really struck me much, save for maybe Bill Camp as Mr. Shaibel and Marielle
Heller as Mrs. Wheatley. It’s probably
because the parts of this show that I found most touching were those that
revolved around the respective dynamics that Beth shared and developed with
these characters. Meanwhile, the rest of
the cast were fine. But, for me, they
simply served functions in pushing the story forward, rather than being
compelling characters on their own.
Moreover, The Queen’s Gambit
is so immersive because, well, it utterly immerses the audience into its world,
thank to its cinematic production design.
As a period piece, it completely succeeds in aesthetically capturing the
look and ambiance of its 1960’s setting.
Working in complement to this is the thoughtful choice of songs for its
sound track, which further defines and evokes the sense of that time period. In fact, it’s so effective as a period piece
that, in some weird way, it felt to me at times that Beth Harmon was a real
historical figure rather than a completely fictional character, and I was
watching her biopic.
Lastly, the costume design deserves to be praised on its own,
specifically the work put into dressing Beth.
Look, I’m not even a fashion fan, but I found Beth’s wardrobe in this
show to be stunning. I enjoyed a fashion
anime called Smile Down the Runway
earlier this year, but as far as I remember, The Queen’s Gambit is the first ever show where I was made to
excitedly look forward to what the main character would be wearing next. It’s also likely that Anya Taylor-Joy simply has the talent to make anything she wears look good. Lol.
I had a blast with The Queen’s
Gambit. It does have some
imperfections, is thin in a few places, and inserts the typical leftist propaganda. But the fact that I didn’t bother to detail
any flaws in the body of this review is a testament to how negligible they are. All in all, The Queen’s Gambit is a thrilling, worthwhile, gratifying watch.
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