Watched it all over the last two days. Absolutely loved it. I love chess and the personal issues in it were so an amazingly accurate portrayal of things I went through. Besides she’s gets weirdly hot towards the end.
I enjoyed the show. Was very well done for a period piece. Jojen Reed's character was a bit corney but good. Harry Beltik was also a good character. Laughed a decent amount at the play-by-play during the chess matches. And the match with the young Russian was pretty awesome
This guy's actor is so great for this time period. The Devil All The Time is set in the same timeframe and he plays such a good role there.
One of my favorite shows of the year. There is just something about having a protagonist being the best at what she does that just hooks me in. Obviously I was rooting hard for Beth the entire time, but the side characters are what made the show. Beltic, Benny, her mother, her roommate from the orphanage, Mr. Shaibel (Played by hall of fame character actor Bill Camp), the villain Borgov. They were all just perfect accompaniments to Beth. Spoiler: Season spoilers I was worried the show would get a little tropey with the awful adopted parents. But it was just really surprising and sweet that her adopted mother really cared for her. Sure she was selfish and indulgent with how she drank constantly and seemed to enjoy the money her new daughter was earning. But she only asked for 10%. which showed some real mutual respect. I really felt bad for her mom and she had such a tragic ending. Their relationship was just so charming to me. Then the final chess scene at the end was great. Again, it could have gone down a trope with the evil Russians plotting some take down of Beth. But they were kind and showed her so much respect. The old man complimenting her as she kicked his ass with a smile on his face. Then Borgov gave her that big hug when she finally defeated him. I got emotional man!
As a recovering alcoholic, The show did a great job with small subtleties with his thoughts of a drink can constantly creep in.
Really, really enjoyed this series. Some small grievances: Spoiler I wish they would have provided more specifics on Beth's pre-orphan family situation. They indicate her mom was a genius. In the first episode, Beth finds some advanced math book authored by her mom. I don't think they ever explain what happened to her mom (I assume she just went crazy or had mental illness; Beth said she never drank. Maybe she got into pills like Beth?). How did her mom blow through all of her family money and all of the money she "married into?" Was Beth's rich biological dad not responsible for child support? Why didn't he care enough about her to help support her. Wish we knew more about him. How did Beth walk away from a high speed head-on collision with a truck wearing no seatbelt? I can't see any scenario where she survives that, let alone walks away without a scratch. Needed more bathing suit shots of Beth. Some gratuitous boob shots would've been nice. It drove me crazy that she never looked up Mr. Scheibel, and he died without her ever talking to him again. I know that was an integral part of the arc, but it still made me mad. I wish at the end she would have looked up the pre-med student who came to see her in Lexington and apologized for the way she acted. Stupid thing to bitch about (and we can fairly assume she did). Why did Benny carry a knife for self-defense? Is there a backstory there, or were they just trying to highlight he was a little off and quirky. Is a shot of Beth's ass getting out of the bathtub too much to ask for? Did it really cost $25-30k in today's dollars to travel to Moscow in the 1960s. Why did she love Townes? Dude seemed creepy af during their Vegas interaction Beth reminded me (looks and personality) of a girl I briefly dated in college (excuse my humble brag), before I irreparably slipped into the friend zone. That girl was buried on my spank bank bench. She's going to get a lot more playing time moving forward. I haven't really played any chess since 2nd grade, when I was on my school's chess team. Now I want to start playing. I spent an hour last night in bed reading chess strategy on the internet. My wife was not impressed.
Been meaning to read the book for years and have just never gotten around to it. Started the first episode today and enjoyed it. Seems to be done well.
Great show. I think it’s being a little over praised because the content machine is no longer going brrrrr due to the pandemic so people were starved for something new and creative. The jojen reed actor is bad, and was bad in godless too. I don’t know why he’s getting these roles.
Holy shit... He has a super recognizable face but I guess I’ve never paid that close of attention to Dudley in the movies.
Netflix top 10 usually blows but this rivals the boys and the mandalorian In a year with few shows, those have fucking delivered got a few episodes left
Haven’t watched it yet, but I’m stoked to see something about chess doing well. I just wanted to chime in and say that Bobby Fischer Against the World is a must-watch doc, for any of you that haven’t seen it.
Man this show got me in the feels a lot. Maybe 8 months of quarantine setting in but it hit the right notes a lot. Haven’t been binging anything at all recently but I got through this one in two nights.
Enjoyed it. Liked the final scene but was disappointed with the call from the guys back in America. Still no idea how the Townes storyline makes sense.
Spoiler The whole friend from the orphanage calling her cracker, every guy from her past coming together to decipher chess moves, a Harry Potteresque magical chess board appearing. it just all seemed very rushed to me. I’m just not sure what they were working toward.
Spoiler I mean, there was a precedent set for 2 of those. She said she'd been struggling to see the moves without drugs until after she found joy in the game, on the call with the guys back home(this is also shown by the fact that she plays for fun, not training or competition, for the first time since the early episodes, at the end, with the old guys in the park). Think it also had to do with her making peace with the stuff about her mom. I was totally fine with that part. The Jolene part was iffy. My problem with the guys calling comes with Beth beating many of the best players in the world at the Russian tournament without drugs or help...but then to get over the hump, she needs help from a bunch of dudes not nearly as good as her - help that proves worthless when Borgov plays something they didn't think of, and she ends up flying solo anyway. I get it's a play at something mentioned earlier - the Russians helping each other during adjournments - it was just corny. For the life of me, I still can't figure out the Townes thing. Was he gay? He says he was confused...but she broke his heart. They agree to be friends. Just all very confusing.
International travel has gotten much cheaper than it used to be. I recall that the first time I flew SFO-Amsterdam in 1977 the ticket cost $500. Also keep in mind that travel behind the Iron Curtain wasn't easy, you didn't just book a flight to Moscow and go. You needed special visas, and probably took a train in from somewhere close (in 1977 we trained in to Moscow from Helsinki). So I could see the costs adding up. Interestingly, once you were in the USSR and could find a flight, they were dirt cheap because they were heavily subsidized. We flew Aeroflot from Khmelnitskiy to Krasnodar and back in 1990, and I think a one-way ticket cost 13 rubles, which at the official exchange rate at the time was about $3 (unofficially it was less than a dollar). Of course, you needed connections in order to get a spot on these flights, and we had a local Ukrainian bigwig and aspiring Central Committee member who wanted to impress us, so we were treated like minor royalty
Tourism in 1977 (Leningrad and Moscow), sister-city delegation in 1990 (Ukraine). My mother was director of the sister-city program with a Ukrainian city, so she and my father went there a few times. I accompanied them in 1990, right after graduating from Cal in PolSci/IntRel with a serious Soviet focus. My parents had hosted a Soviet exchange teacher for a year, so she wanted to show us her hometown of Krasnodar. Local bigwig offered me a grad school spot in their university. I politely declined
I liked it. Anna Taylor-Joy is a budding superstar. But the ending was too neat and felt unearned. If I really wanted to push the criticism, I would say it really undermined the show's function as a character study, but I enjoyed it too much. But it kind of felt like a dream sequence
Flew right through this show. Even with a short season, they really did a great job of developing the characters. Made me want to play around with some online chess. Chess.com app seems to scratch the itch and I like the puzzle mode. Speaking of which, they have a thing where you can play a bunch of computer players, some real, and you can "play" Beth Harmon at different ages. Just to respond to a couple of things from the thread. Spoiler Towns thing - yes he's gay and while the story was short on him and then she later confesses to being in love with him - I think you can reasonably assume they socialized a decent amount outside of what is shown. There is a scene early on when Beth runs into those two guys - Matt and Mike - and she's like "oh my god what are you doing here!?! like they were friends. I just assume she spent a lot of time around these initial Kentucky people at local chess things just on a regular basis. So just assume they know each other more. Then also remember even by the end of the show she's only 22. So while brilliant, she's still socially a teenager so being in love with the first guy who respects her isn't too far fetched. While the chess is mature, the teenage drama isn't. I watch shows like Killing Eve too much because I kept thinking things in this show had some motive or twist. For example, when her mom died I thought there was nefarious doings because the KGB was in the building. I kept expecting a twist. I just needed to see things at face value in this show. Just like Benny and his knife. He's just a weird dude who lives in a NYC basement being obsessed with chess. So the knife had no meaning to be revealed later. He's just weird. Jolene coming back was cool but she really should have been part of her life before even just a little bit. Same for Mr. Scheibel. In the beginning I expected him to actually adopt her. I was shocked he never came up again but again you have to just remember she was still really young and not socially mature necessarily. I was cool with the Disney ending. Just for a show like this that was about respect and overcoming failures and following your dream or whatever. As a short series, the Disney ending I felt liked worked great. If you didn't end it that way, it would be too vague. This tied it up nicely even though I sit and wonder what Matt and Mike are doing in NYC.
Finished the show last night and thought it was really good overall. There are some fair plot holes brought up itt but I think a lot of that has to do with being limited on time in 7 episodes
Show was amazing thanks to the lead actress. Show itself was “female attractive Bobby Fischer”. Honesty a great concept.
Haven’t read this thread yet but binged it this weekend. Thought it was based on a true story and was looking forward to reading up on it more. It’s not based on a true story. I feel dumb!