I finished it the other night and really enjoyed it. Thought the cinematography was great, especially in the last few episodes. I've never focused so much on a character's eyes or lips in a showdown scene.
Netflix's The Queen's Gambit-Review
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Last: 6 mo ago by Stat Monitor Repairman
I finished it the other night and really enjoyed it. Thought the cinematography was great, especially in the last few episodes. I've never focused so much on a character's eyes or lips in a showdown scene.
Kept hoping for a topless scene in the later episodes, never got it.
plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose
Welcome to atmag's ability to annoy everyone on any topic imaginable.WestAustinAg said:This is OCD level stuff here...relax and enjoy *art*.aTmAg said:No, what I want is for a show that presents itself as being based on a true story to refrain from tarnishing a real person's reputation with lies. If the person was bad, show the bad he/she did. Don't make up bad stuff (especially when the person is good).The Milkman said:
Right, so you want your shows and movies to either be 100% accurate or 100% fiction.
I know a lot of you are mad about mr scheibel but it really makes sense. She lived her whole life thinking no one cared about her really and she used people/drugs whatever she felt she needed to get what she wanted. It was only the end where she realized he really did love her as did jolene and benny and all the others. Thats why his wall of her success hit her so hard.
proudest member of the fightin texas aggie class of 2005.
DVC2010 said:birdman said:
There were a couple of things in last episode or two that could have been awesome, but they missed slightly.
The scene where Beth plays chess with old man in park was good. It would have been less obvious if she just took a walk on day off in middle of the tournament. Then she could stumble on them and realize her joy in playing chess and how much the Soviets and chess fans loved her. Simple
It was unnecessary to have Mr. Schaibel pass away. She and her friend could have visited the school for ten easier reasons. She had mostly conquered her demons and done right by the people in her life.
The last scene should have been Mr. Schaibel receiving a package. It's got $10 and the king from her World Championship victory.
I disagree with your second point. I think it's important that [sp]her decisions actually cost her something. She kicks the substance addictions almost instantly, so I think it's important that the audience sees some scars [/sp]
Your suggestion would have made me happier, but I think it would have made the show worse.
This was really my biggest issue with the story. No body just stops taking drugs/alcohol on their own like that. An episode (or maybe interlaced into a few) of her going thru withdrawal and struggling. I know that's an odd complaint. Otherwise really liked the series.
. I think its TCTTS's schizophrenic sock account ...expresswrittenconsent said:
Weird how in your life you are never wrong, and are always mischaracterized. Seems like when that is ALWAYS happening, it means either you communicate very poorly, or you are the kind of pedantic person who argues every point and is incapable of admitting wrong.
Schizophrenic? Ha, except I don't need a sock account to express that exact same sentiment, which I've done so many times from this account.
TCTTS said:
Schizophrenic? Ha, except I don't need a sock account to express that exact same sentiment, which I've done so many times from this account.
??? I can't say I've seen you do this before???
" Weird how in your life you are never wrong, and are always mischaracterized. Seems like when that is ALWAYS happening, it means either you communicate very poorly, or you are the kind of pedantic person who argues every point and is incapable of admitting wrong."
agracer said:DVC2010 said:birdman said:
There were a couple of things in last episode or two that could have been awesome, but they missed slightly.
The scene where Beth plays chess with old man in park was good. It would have been less obvious if she just took a walk on day off in middle of the tournament. Then she could stumble on them and realize her joy in playing chess and how much the Soviets and chess fans loved her. Simple
It was unnecessary to have Mr. Schaibel pass away. She and her friend could have visited the school for ten easier reasons. She had mostly conquered her demons and done right by the people in her life.
The last scene should have been Mr. Schaibel receiving a package. It's got $10 and the king from her World Championship victory.
I disagree with your second point. I think it's important that [sp]her decisions actually cost her something. She kicks the substance addictions almost instantly, so I think it's important that the audience sees some scars [/sp]
Your suggestion would have made me happier, but I think it would have made the show worse.
This was really my biggest issue with the story. No body just stops taking drugs/alcohol on their own like that. An episode (or maybe interlaced into a few) of her going thru withdrawal and struggling. I know that's an odd complaint. Otherwise really liked the series.
I think you are hitting on something that I liked about this series but took some conditioning to get used to and that is this show never took the story too dark. Several times throughout I was thinking ok here comes some abuse, or some sketchy situations. Like the orphan house, janitor, adopted father, photo session in the room, Russian stoner class mate, etc. But every time the show never goes down that path. Maybe we just expect these prestige shows to take the dark turn and so when it doesn't happen it feels off or not as good. But I got to appreciate it as the show went on.
Why are people mad about Scheibel?atag said:
I know a lot of you are mad about mr scheibel but it really makes sense. She lived her whole life thinking no one cared about her really and she used people/drugs whatever she felt she needed to get what she wanted. It was only the end where she realized he really did love her as did jolene and benny and all the others. Thats why his wall of her success hit her so hard.
1. She didn't pay him back
2. Some felt he didn't need to die.
2. Some felt he didn't need to die.
Finished this weekend and loved it; but have these thoughts:
- First half was riveting. Lagged a bit towards the end but regained form in the last episode.
- As an old fart, I appreciate that she showed growth and development as a character (don't want to give away too much and too lazy to learn how to redact comments).
- Makes me want to watch SFBF again. One of my favorites of all time. "He's better at this than you'll ever be, at anything."
- Makes me want to re-watch the HBO documentary about Bobby Fischer. Really interesting discussion about the fine line between genius and insanity, and the chicken and egg debate re: chess: does one have to be somewhat insane to be great at chess or does the pursuit of being great at chess drive one insane?
Considering there are many child prodigies in chess and many chess greats were great from a young age, I would think the former. Not many chess greats become GMs later in life.Txmoe said:
- and the chicken and egg debate re: chess: does one have to be somewhat insane to be great at chess or does the pursuit of being great at chess drive one insane?
I think this show did an awesome job of avoiding falling into so many classic story tropes, when there were plenty of opportunities to do it:
-Avoiding the horrific/abusive orphanage scenario; the headmaster was not some old heartless, abusive disciplinarian like the common story trope. Beth wasn't bullied by her fellow orphans or abused by staff members...
-Mr. Scheibel wasn't presented either as some gooey surrogate father figure or turned into some creepy abuser who took advantage of her. (I think reuniting he and Beth and/or her paying him would have suggested a relationship more than what she ever perceived it to be. That was the point to me; she didn't realize how significant she was to him until she found the memory board.)
-Antagonists were presented even-handedly. Harry, Benny, her high-school nemesis, Borgov...none had some wicked hidden agenda against her, and while all initially seemed sketchy/out to get her, all we're ultimately portrayed as sympathetic/flawed in their own way, and even friendly to her.
-Her adoptive mother was not portrayed as some out of control alcoholic, but a functioning one. They didn't play out the trope of the parent/relative exploiting their prodigy kid, taking all the profits, and turning into some controlling/abusive manager.
-Beths sexuality was in her control the whole series; she was not sexually coerced or abused like so many shows will do to female characters. Her sexual encounters were all fully in her control and consensual, and really about her exploring her own sexuality and relationships.
-They didn't over explain her back story, her mother, or real father. They left it a mystery, with a few scattered clues; they revealed only as much as Beth herself knew/could remember.
I just thought they were so careful and measured with the story as a whole and didn't take the bait to go down those typical melodramatic story arcs we've all seen a million times...
-Avoiding the horrific/abusive orphanage scenario; the headmaster was not some old heartless, abusive disciplinarian like the common story trope. Beth wasn't bullied by her fellow orphans or abused by staff members...
-Mr. Scheibel wasn't presented either as some gooey surrogate father figure or turned into some creepy abuser who took advantage of her. (I think reuniting he and Beth and/or her paying him would have suggested a relationship more than what she ever perceived it to be. That was the point to me; she didn't realize how significant she was to him until she found the memory board.)
-Antagonists were presented even-handedly. Harry, Benny, her high-school nemesis, Borgov...none had some wicked hidden agenda against her, and while all initially seemed sketchy/out to get her, all we're ultimately portrayed as sympathetic/flawed in their own way, and even friendly to her.
-Her adoptive mother was not portrayed as some out of control alcoholic, but a functioning one. They didn't play out the trope of the parent/relative exploiting their prodigy kid, taking all the profits, and turning into some controlling/abusive manager.
-Beths sexuality was in her control the whole series; she was not sexually coerced or abused like so many shows will do to female characters. Her sexual encounters were all fully in her control and consensual, and really about her exploring her own sexuality and relationships.
-They didn't over explain her back story, her mother, or real father. They left it a mystery, with a few scattered clues; they revealed only as much as Beth herself knew/could remember.
I just thought they were so careful and measured with the story as a whole and didn't take the bait to go down those typical melodramatic story arcs we've all seen a million times...
A thoroughly reasonable take on a thoroughly reasonable series that was excellent without falling into typical hollywood preachy and emotional tracks.
Pretty much nailed my thoughts exactly. I'm not one to be impressed by cinematography and costume design aspects of movies/shows, but this show was nearly perfect.
My one small nitpick is that they went out of their way to cast the "Jesus organization" in a bad light.
My one small nitpick is that they went out of their way to cast the "Jesus organization" in a bad light.
Username checks outNoahAg said:
My one small nitpick is that they went out of their way to cast the "Jesus organization" in a bad light.
(I've always wanted to be able to post a "user name checks out" reply)
In the book her black friend molests her on one occasion. I guess due to Me Too they chose to leave that out.BDG02 said:
I think this show did an awesome job of avoiding falling into so many classic story tropes, when there were plenty of opportunities to do it:
-Avoiding the horrific/abusive orphanage scenario; the headmaster was not some old heartless, abusive disciplinarian like the common story trope. Beth wasn't bullied by her fellow orphans or abused by staff members...
-Mr. Scheibel wasn't presented either as some gooey surrogate father figure or turned into some creepy abuser who took advantage of her. (I think reuniting he and Beth and/or her paying him would have suggested a relationship more than what she ever perceived it to be. That was the point to me; she didn't realize how significant she was to him until she found the memory board.)
-Antagonists were presented even-handedly. Harry, Benny, her high-school nemesis, Borgov...none had some wicked hidden agenda against her, and while all initially seemed sketchy/out to get her, all we're ultimately portrayed as sympathetic/flawed in their own way, and even friendly to her.
-Her adoptive mother was not portrayed as some out of control alcoholic, but a functioning one. They didn't play out the trope of the parent/relative exploiting their prodigy kid, taking all the profits, and turning into some controlling/abusive manager.
-Beths sexuality was in her control the whole series; she was not sexually coerced or abused like so many shows will do to female characters. Her sexual encounters were all fully in her control and consensual, and really about her exploring her own sexuality and relationships.
-They didn't over explain her back story, her mother, or real father. They left it a mystery, with a few scattered clues; they revealed only as much as Beth herself knew/could remember.
I just thought they were so careful and measured with the story as a whole and didn't take the bait to go down those typical melodramatic story arcs we've all seen a million times...
Ervin Burrell said:
And Harry Beltik was Dudley Dursley in Harry Potter.
He also acts out the "I've got no arms, no legs, and I've never been f'd before" joke in Ballad of Buster Scruggs
Southlake said:
It was worth it for the wallpaper alone...
Not enough love for Southlake's brilliant take on the series. One of the funniest things I've read on TexAgs in a long time.
Anya Taylor Joy is absolutely captivating and going to be a huge star. And those who mentioned the music are correct, it was fantastic, as was the set design and wallpaper
Ordered the book as soon as I finished
Best show of the year
Ordered the book as soon as I finished
Best show of the year
Watched the first two episodes last night. Question for those who have played competitively before or those smarter than me. How do the tournaments typically work? Is it just a standard tournament tree with a winners and losers bracket? If so, how does offering a draw affect your tournament position?
What an amazing series! So glad we didn't watch the typical Christmas movies. Watched this over the last two days with ours kids and their SO's and everyone loved it.
Ditto on the characters, sets, music, etc. and avoidance of the typical cinematic stereotypes that ruin so many shows!
Ditto on the characters, sets, music, etc. and avoidance of the typical cinematic stereotypes that ruin so many shows!
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No, it's not at all a tree, the full pairing system is about 100 pages long but here's an oversimplification of it...
1st Round
100 players
All players are ranked from 1st to 100th based on their rating. The top half of players plays the bottom half 1 v 51, 2 v 52, etc, 50 v 100
It's a slaughter round where upsets are rare.
2nd Round and on....
Everyone with 1 point is on a pool and paired with others with 1 point the same way. Everyone with 1/2 point (draw) is pored same way. Everyone with 0 points is paired same way.
3rd Roind and on...
Everyone with 2 points is paired in a pool, 1 1/2, 1 etc.
The 100 pages are how to handle the fact you never play the same person twice, have to have somewhat balanced colors, who gets moved up/down due to odd numbers, and when you are/are not allowed to play team members
It's called a Swiss system and was OBVIOUSLY designed by chess people
Edit: drinking and on phone, sorry for typos
1st Round
100 players
All players are ranked from 1st to 100th based on their rating. The top half of players plays the bottom half 1 v 51, 2 v 52, etc, 50 v 100
It's a slaughter round where upsets are rare.
2nd Round and on....
Everyone with 1 point is on a pool and paired with others with 1 point the same way. Everyone with 1/2 point (draw) is pored same way. Everyone with 0 points is paired same way.
3rd Roind and on...
Everyone with 2 points is paired in a pool, 1 1/2, 1 etc.
The 100 pages are how to handle the fact you never play the same person twice, have to have somewhat balanced colors, who gets moved up/down due to odd numbers, and when you are/are not allowed to play team members
It's called a Swiss system and was OBVIOUSLY designed by chess people
Edit: drinking and on phone, sorry for typos
Great show and we loved it. I noticed this too though and it was pretty blatant pro-USSR. I actually commented to my wife during the final episode that it almost felt like they were about to have her defect to the USSR because the happiest she had ever been in her life was while she was there. And really its open to interpretation if she actually did. Also, the State department guy mentioned he was really there because they had suspicion that the main Russian player may want to defect and then...surprise....she's the one that may actually do it but to the USSR.SquirrellyDan said:
I just finished the series and I thought it was awesome. Only gripe is the effort they put towards romanticizing Russia and the Cold War towards the end, but loved it overall.
Regardless, really well done show and that actress is going be huge after this. She will get a GG out of this.
Let's be fair. It was attempted murder-suicide.Smokedraw01 said:rynning said:
Other than the drugs, drinking, and sex, it's pretty family friendly.
Don't forget the suicide.
Beth just happened to survive it.
Wow. I want to echo some of the other thoughts on this thread- that was one of the best shows of the year. I too, like a previous poster said, am sucker for watching these 'rags to riches' type of stories. And this was was SO well told and presented. The set design and the music were awesome. Anya Taylor Joy is captivating on film.
The show really hit it's crescendo for me in Ohio with the Classical Gas Montage. Maybe my favorite 2 minutes of television. Just beautiful editing here. That shot of Beth reading is so 60s it hurts.
The show really hit it's crescendo for me in Ohio with the Classical Gas Montage. Maybe my favorite 2 minutes of television. Just beautiful editing here. That shot of Beth reading is so 60s it hurts.
Nothing new to add, great show!
Watched it yeaterday.. Just more terrible liberal trash that attacks Christianity and White Male Americans and glorifies sex, drug and communism.
All of the bad guys were white Christians and the good guys were all jews, blacks or Russians.
And don't even get me started on the bathroom scene.
It was so terrible that I had to keep watching to see how they would further attack me and those I identify with
All of the bad guys were white Christians and the good guys were all jews, blacks or Russians.
And don't even get me started on the bathroom scene.
It was so terrible that I had to keep watching to see how they would further attack me and those I identify with
5 episodes in, and really enjoying it. 2 thoughts I can't shake:
1) Anna Taylor-Joy has been giving off huge Emma Stone vibes. Don't know if it's just the red hair or what, but I can't stop seeing it. Even her mannerisms/voice seem similar.
2) As soon as I saw Benny I thought, "Wow, the meth destroyed Joe Exotic's brain even more that I thought"
1) Anna Taylor-Joy has been giving off huge Emma Stone vibes. Don't know if it's just the red hair or what, but I can't stop seeing it. Even her mannerisms/voice seem similar.
2) As soon as I saw Benny I thought, "Wow, the meth destroyed Joe Exotic's brain even more that I thought"
Wait? What?! Do you really feel this way or are you just satirizing snowflake, Q, trope?
He's not serious. That's his schtick on here.CapCityAg89 said:
Wait? What?! Do you really feel this way or are you just satirizing snowflake, Q, trope?
Well, at least one person wasn't a fan.
https://deadline.com/2021/09/queens-gambit-lawsuit-netflix-nona-gaprindashvili-1234838186/
https://deadline.com/2021/09/queens-gambit-lawsuit-netflix-nona-gaprindashvili-1234838186/
this thread is hilarious
Walked away from this show with the feeling that she ODd, died in her house and the last episode was a dream sequence.
Anybody else get that sense?
Anybody else get that sense?
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