A show about chess? How captivating could that really be, you wouldn’t think very so, but the “Queen’s Gambit” surpassed my expectations. As of October 23, Netflix released another original series. This time it follows a young woman named Beth as she climbs her way to being the best chess player in the world while also struggling with a push and pull to her addiction of pills that she thinks helps her game.
The show opens up with her big match against Russian player Borgov, the reigning world champ. However; we don’t see that particular match until much later. Instead, the story begins with eight-year-old Elizabeth Harmon recently orphaned and sent to an orphanage where she meets a cast of characters such as the rough on the edges Jolene another orphan, Mr. Shaibel the custodian, and Helen Deardorff who runs the place with an iron fist under the guise of a kind hand.
Beth soon finds herself in the care of grouchy Mr. Shaibel as she is enchanted by the game of chess, he always plays alone by himself in the basement. Not long after, he takes her under his wing to help teach her the game igniting her passion for chess. This doesn’t help with her growing addiction though. The pills that are given daily to the children; she stashes to use late at night to visualize the chessboard on the ceiling.
It doesn’t take a young Beth long to master the game and with the help of Mr. Shaibel sets her off on a chess filled adventure once he refers the girl to the local High School’s chess club faculty advisor and with little effort, Harmon easily defeats the best member of the club.
However, her addiction comes to a crashing halt and the series cuts to about six years later when Beth is adopted.
Now in high school herself, Beth is an outcast set on finding someone to play chess with now with a new mother who barely seems to pay attention and a new father who’s never around. With a chance of entering a local chess competition, the newcomer Harmon finds herself put against real chess players. Each one she beats to the astonishment of the men.
Mrs. Wheatly is now a divorcee and steps into her own of becoming her daughter’s mother as she helps Beth step up in the world of chess. Beth on the other hand doesn’t care much for the money she wins from her competitions, she just wants to win and become the best but childhood trauma and a new alcoholic mother don’t help much.
The “Queen’s Gambit” kept me watching from start to finish. I binged the limited series in about two days (it would have been one if I hadn’t got distracted). The visuals and the music help to pull together a compelling story accompanied by stellar acting.
Full of obsession, a strong female lead, and a hint of romance sprinkled in as Beth grows into her own. This isn’t a romance at all. It is about one woman wanting to be the very best at her craft: chess.
It doesn’t seem like a typical watch and I almost gave up after episode one, but it pulled me in and I couldn’t stop. If you like dramas with strong female leads in a period where no one expects a woman to accomplish a “man’s” sport then the “Queen’s Gambit” should make it on your Netflix watch list.
Personally, I would rate it a 7/10. It wasn’t one of my favorites nor my typical genre. I give it this rating for a few reasons. While the acting was phenomenal and the setting was great, at times it got a little confusing with the backstory, and Jolene’s character seemed like a stereotype to me. She was one of the few Black girls at the orphanage and while she took on the role of “big sister” to Beth, we see her as a crude little girl telling Beth to save her pills for later not to mention she was the only somewhat important Black character. They do seem to revive her when she comes back years later when they’re both in their twenties, but I can’t excuse the racist undertones she was first painted in. However, the show is about Beth Harmon so in that aspect in drawing in viewers to tell a compelling narrative about chess, I think it deserves almost all the hype it gets. I never would’ve guessed I’d love a show about chess, so, “Queen’s Gambit”, checkmate.