Checkmate! "The Queen's Gambit" Won Me Over.
- Vega
- Nov 1, 2020
- 3 min read
Netflix
Release Date: October 23, 2020
How do you make a story about a remarkable chess player resonate with an audience? By not focusing on chess, and that is exactly how Netflix's The Queen's Gambit has risen to be one of the most critically acclaimed series this year. Based on a game I care nothing for and barely know how to play, as well as set in a time period I have no interest in visiting, this show had all of the elements worth scrolling right past. In case you ever wonder why casting is important and why movies/series want to nab at least one recognizable name, it was Anya Taylor-Joy in the lead role that got me interested. Rising to prominence in 2016's The Witch, Taylor-Joy has also built a name for herself in M. Night Shyamalan's Split/Glass, indie thriller Thoroughbreds, a pair of BBC One series, and recently as Illyana Rasputin/Magik in the long-delayed
The New Mutants. Even with only a handful of years under her belt, I would be hard-pressed to find another actor who has delivered such an array of strong performances in such limited screen time. With the weight of my interest weighing on her ability to draw me in to story that initially offered me little interest, Taylor-Joy absolutely stuns as chess-prodigy Elizabeth “Beth” Harmon, well, beginning in the second episode at least.
Three episodes in and craving more, the story begins with a semi-unique and bold choice. The first episode opens with Taylor-Joy's Beth as we get a glimpse of her current life situation before being taken back to the beginning of her story. The rest of the episode has Beth primarily portrayed by two other actresses as we learn of her younger years and the tragedy that set it all in motion. A divisive choice for sure, I can understand both of the popular arguments: don't nibble at the future and leave where Beth is now a surprise versus knowing where she is now allows us to focus more on understanding how she got there. Either way, as odd as it may have felt in regards to the first episode's pacing, I felt it was ultimately forgotten once you see how Beth's life and future begin to be shaped by her childhood experiences. An orphanage, drugs, and an unlikely companion set quite the well-paced stage for the underdog(?) story about to unfold. Like a chess match, everything the show does feels well-planned, well shot, and purposeful, leaving little room for error for what appears to be a feel good story that we are already teased may not end well.
The tone of the series and the choices it makes in telling Beth's, story is summed up perfectly through the presentation of the chess matches. The chess board itself, the pieces, the moves, are never the focus of attention, it is, instead, the characters who remain in the foreground. The expressions on their faces, their interactions, the pacing of their movements, that is where this series has shined. At least through the roughly first half of the limited series. No primary character (except perhaps Mr. Wheatley) is left as simple and one-dimensional, narrative choices are made that allow for questions and less conventional decisions, such as when Beth's adoptive mother asks her for ten percent of her winnings. Of course, there are some signs of what may happen to character's around Beth and to Beth herself, but her rise in the chess world and how that impacts her development as a person are far more than intriguing enough to warrant a binge watch, regardless of any predictability. One's childhood is highly predictive of one's future and I am very interested to see whether Beth can escape that cycle or fall to a predetermined fate.
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