The Queen's Gambit
The Queen's Gambit
8.596%94%
Orphaned at the tender age of nine, prodigious introvert Beth Harmon discovers and masters the game of chess in 1960s USA. But child stardom comes at a price.
Angel reviewed6d ago
Around episode 6, it starts to lose steam, and from there it goes from bad to worse.
I'm not saying the series is poorly made; it's not a bad series, with good dialogue and performances. But if you know the story of Bobby Fischer, it reeks of propaganda.
In a world where reality doesn't matter and fairy tales are what's in fashion, I can understand why this is more interesting than the life of a madman who has been applauded by Russian chess masters for 50 years and who ended up exiled in Iceland because the United States wanted to arrest him.
In The Pawn Sacrifice, the final part alone is a thousand times more interesting than this entire series. The last line of that movie:
"People think there are many options, but... there is only one right move."
And the words the real Fischer says at the end:
"Does chess basically represent the search for truth? So... I am searching for the truth."
Nothing in this series has that kind of depth.
The final competition seems like something out of a Harry Potter chapter, where the kid is showered with praise and applause as he passes each test, without barely showing what's happening on the board or what Fischer actually did: invent a new kind of chess. He amazed people by creating chess that had never been seen before.
And then there's that Disney stamp, of course—the story can't have a bad ending. Good thing it's "based" on Fischer's life, right? A fantasy where chess masters can spend vast amounts of time on fashion and drugs. Sure. He could have also hit himself in the head with a hammer during each match; what does it matter, since the brain isn't important, right? xD.
It reminds me a lot of what happened with the new Star Wars films: a female protagonist who, in a couple of months, becomes the most powerful Jedi in the history of the saga. Here, it's a female protagonist who becomes the youngest world chess champion in history. "Based on a true story"—it's hilarious.
I think a time will come when we have to decide if we want to watch propaganda or history on TV. If Cleopatra could see this... xD.
I would rather watch a well-made series about Joan of Arc or the creator of Wing Chun, Ng Mui, instead of having them change a person's gender to tell me a story and then expect me to believe it, especially when she rides off on Rocinante's back at the end.
It's like telling people the story of the discovery of the continuum hypothesis, but instead of telling how Georg Cantor slowly went mad trying to solve it, you tell the story of Karen Scrabble and how, while getting high and drunk, she achieved the enlightenment of infinity and grasped the most fundamental principles of mathematics. It all culminates in an epic finale where her boyfriend photographs her as she drives off in her convertible, wearing her latest outfit, to play the game of set theory with old men in the park.
Perhaps—and I'm just saying perhaps, in my humble opinion—a story like that might confuse the person watching this great work a little bit, especially those impressionable young people who wander the world, you know, the youth.
"Learn chess, study math, and if you become the best, don't worry, you won't go crazy!" Happily ever after and all the rest xD.
It would have been so easy to just tell the life story of Judit Polgár. They could have even explained why she beat Kasparov even though the judges turned a blind eye during the match. But no, let's keep lying and deceiving, giving a woman credit for accomplishments made by men. I wonder what would happen if we did the opposite :). Poor James Glaisher.
Shall we continue? ;)