The Queen’s Gambit – Review: The Classiest Series of 2020

This is a non- spoiler review for The Queen’s Gambit

The Queen’s Gambit features the story about an orphan chess prodigy that’s surprisingly not based on a real story but a book by Walter Tevis. The show was created by Scott Frank (also the director) & Allan Scott for Netflix and it was one of the best things to come out for streaming this 2020.

The premise is straightforward. A recently orphaned discovers she is a chess prodigy, almost by chance, and starts to define her life around the classic board game. The story covers her life almost entirely in a linear fashion from the day she became an orphan at the age of 8 until she becomes 24 years old. Such as the game itself, the series is a mixture of elegance, detail, and careful advancement that will hook you up from the very beginning. It’s such a classy series.

The Queen’s Gambit just made competitive chess become entertaining for massive audiences.

Don’t miss our review on The Trial of the Chicago 7, Netfix’s other most recent hit, by clicking here

The Queen’s Gambit as a Time Machine

The production & set design, combined with its delicate cinematography make it a fantabulous thing to watch. Every detail is carefully perfected to deliver an outlook that rivals the best period pieces. Add the fact that the costume design is also flawless and you have yourself the complete package. Even Beth’s wardrobe is so well-thought out that most of her time her outfits resemble something chess-related, whether the patterns on her coats look like chessboards or sometimes her outfit as a whole may appear to be inspired by a chess piece.

All of these precious details really make you feel as if you are IN the 60s while watching this, I mean, you’ll literally going to feel that you have been transported to this period piece.

Chess Is Back

Anya Taylor-Toy steals it as she gives a fabulous performance as Beth. She definitely carries out the weight of the series and you do feel the progress that her character is making. Anya has proved again & again that she has what it takes to shine at the very top of the industry. She’s just so consistent & talented.

The Queen’s Gambit is exceptionally well-paced and entertaining, to the point that it makes chess exciting, which speaks lengths about its director, Scott Frank. I used to play chess and I like it, but this is next level. I mean, it’s set up as Beth being the rockstar of chess with all her past trauma, addictions & genius talent.

The story is excellent. This is the upbringing of a girl that has had almost the worst luck in life since she was a child. From nothing, she discovers chess while being in the orphanage by one day stumbling upon Mr. Shaibel, the janitor, only to discover she is a genius for the game. And not only that, but she’s also obsessed with it. The perfect formula for an engaging story about talent (Just look at other obsessive artist stories like Whiplash, Black Swan, or I, Tonya, and you know that that set up demands an amazing story.)

As a side tip, the chess games are really fast, so you’ll need to pay very close attention to her expressions & the music to get a grasp and know if she’s losing or winning at the moment, but you’ll most probably predict the outcome since the games’ outcomes truly are predictable.

My Nitpicks

However, the only downside for us was that the stakes never felt as real as I would’ve liked. Don’t get me wrong, the plot & Beth’s development are very good and had me quite invested, but she had lost many things before at random that I didn’t feel as if she had real losing possibilities in her matches, and the ones she lost felt (again) really predictable & formulaic (I won’t say more about her loses to avoid spoiler territory). The thing is, she sometimes feels too OP and some of her personal losses feel as if they come. There’s one really critical plot point at half-way through the series, that just didn’t make sense to me, as if the place for that moment should’ve been in another time to raise the stakes on her battle between her addictions & her quest on becoming the best at chess, and not when the plot.

Yes, the matches were entertaining, but I felt as if it needed an extra push to make it turn it up a notch and make it thrilling since I never actually felt real danger for her in the tournaments. It’s predictability and lack of stakes made it become just short of becoming something truly memorable for years to come. I don’t know. Maybe it’s just me.

I mean, how great would it have been for her ego & development, if she would’ve lost to the young Russian boy that proved to be the best match ever in her life up until that point. Even though she played trice with Borgov, I felt as if he was too distant of an antagonist.

In Conclusion

Nitpicking aside, this is an amazing show. I mean it made chess exciting for massive audiences. I binged it in less than 2 days.

The best thing about The Queen’s Gambit, besides its overall design (production/set/costume), is without a doubt its consistency; something that many series lack nowadays. This is not a rollercoaster that goes from excitement to boredom and back to excitement again, but a constant show that gets progressively better with each episode. There are no filler middle episodes or boring plotlines that don’t pay off… Weeeeeeell maybe except the plotline on her parents’ backstory. That could’ve been explained a little bit better. I mean, I don’t think it was that much important for Beth’s story after the second episode, but the show made it look as if it were in later episodes.

Anyway. Just turn Netflix and watch this thing. It’s only 7 episodes and it is worth it.

Score: 9/10