The Queen's Gambit

 

                           One of the very few times other than the Witcher I binge on Netflix, and strangely enough this was the first time I watch a show where chess is exciting for once. In all fairness I wasn't really paying attention much to upcoming shows other than The Boys and Witcher, for understandable reasons Pandemic was kicking my ass and I was in thoughts of becoming Thanos, if you take by meaning. The Queen's Gambit, is what I like to call a, well in all honesty it’s a coming of age story but I guess when you think about it more like a coming of age story with some interest mainly because a lot of what the chess sequences is the fascinating part the other part I have to say is a bit on the meh side but I have to say is a decent quality Netflix series, staring the ever beautiful Anya Taylor-Joy and Moses Ingram who was one of the baddies in the Obi-Wan TV series, and lots of other unknowns. 

                           Set during the Cold War era, orphaned chess prodigy Beth Harmon (Anya Taylor-Joy) struggles with addiction in a quest to become the greatest chess player in the world.

                            You know the term Sex, Drugs and Rock & Roll? Well, I honestly never thought they can upgrade chess with sex and drugs until I watched this show. In terms of acting wise there's really not a whole lot to say when it comes to Anya Taylor-Joy, and what she does very well is show this woman from a young age learning all the values of life, first as a young girl she seems confused then finds a purpose in life when she first discovers chess but then she begins to realize what a gift she has in terms of finding her opponents weakness, then through the course of her teenage/adult life she begins not make some of the best choices in life but hey neither did Darryl Strawberry but he the guy at least found his calling in the Catholic faith. Moreover, overusing so much alcohol and pills for which again this rest my case about a chess player bringing sex and drugs to world of chess, I'm kind of curious now is any other chess players use booze and drugs to get ready for a chess match. Furthermore Anya Taylor-Joy does such a great job throughout the show being a bit of a shy girl to a confident and sexy woman through the course of the show and she really does such a great job at that, the other actor I will say does a great job in the show as well is Bill Camp who plays the mentor who guides Beth into the world of Chess, and granted he has only two episodes of spotlight, he does a great job all the way through. If there was anything negative I can say about the show is probably the awkward sex that happens during episodes five and six and well, also four I should include that with when she's experimenting with weed, but then she reconnects with some of the guys that she beats and they of course hook up, but as an audience member it just felt way to awkward and I mean Taylor-Joy is too attractive for some of those guys and to be honest she deserve much better just saying, but granted this is a TV show, but in all fairness the real interesting part of this show is the Chess sequences and her character for which they really should of focused more on that then all the dudes who got beat by her and years later they wanted to hook up with her, which is just way to awkward for me. Although all of it is saved during the last episode where she goes to Moscow and face off with the Russian's which to me, I was into the most. In all honesty all of the chess sequences and the character of Beth Harman are interesting and if they focused more of that than having these awkward sex scenes, aftermath I guess I would be interested with this show more or re-watch it again, but really the show itself felt real slow at times and really took me a long time to watch the whole mini-series, but I will admit it’s an interesting show to watch and you'll get some great moments but then I think I'm pretty much, better off not watching the show again unless I feel like wanting to watch it again.