Also FWIW it does a nice job of 'selling' the appeal of chess for a general audience.
I thought the child actors were really great!! The girl who plays Beth as a child really needs to get some consideration for an acting award. She was incredible!Almost finished with the series, will probably wrap it up tonight.
It's way, way better than I expected. Going in I was afraid it would be heavy-handed with gender issues, but they finesse it really well so that it doesn't distract from the core plot and character arcs. Characters are well drawn, the screenwriting is excellent. Casting and acting is damn near perfect, even the child actors.
Also FWIW it does a nice job of 'selling' the appeal of chess for a general audience.
Late to the party but wrapped this up this past weekend. Really enjoyed nearly everything about it. The acting was good, the characters were entertaining, and they did a wonderful job with the time period. I thought the Benny Watts character was ridiculous for a while but the ridiculousness faded as the show progressed. There were references to how awful Ms. Deardorff was but I didn't get that from what they showed, she didn't seem like a wretch.
The ending had me worried...
When they showed Borgov and Co. helping one another to help defeat Beth, it really cheapened their accomplishments for me. Obviously they're good, but if they need to have a round table after adjourning the game in order to win, do they really deserve the title of being the best? Beth then gets help from her friends, which was heartwarming, but made me feel the same way about her potential win. It's team USA vs USSR at that point and I jus thought it was a bit weak and really lessened the title she was chasing. I was very pleased when the ending moves ended up being something they hadn't rehearsed in practice, showing her talent for being intuitive and creative can work.
...but ultimately I think they did a very nice job.
I hope the show ends there and they don't try to force a second season that will stink.
Late to the party but wrapped this up this past weekend. Really enjoyed nearly everything about it. The acting was good, the characters were entertaining, and they did a wonderful job with the time period. I thought the Benny Watts character was ridiculous for a while but the ridiculousness faded as the show progressed. There were references to how awful Ms. Deardorff was but I didn't get that from what they showed, she didn't seem like a wretch.
The ending had me worried...
When they showed Borgov and Co. helping one another to help defeat Beth, it really cheapened their accomplishments for me. Obviously they're good, but if they need to have a round table after adjourning the game in order to win, do they really deserve the title of being the best? Beth then gets help from her friends, which was heartwarming, but made me feel the same way about her potential win. It's team USA vs USSR at that point and I jus thought it was a bit weak and really lessened the title she was chasing. I was very pleased when the ending moves ended up being something they hadn't rehearsed in practice, showing her talent for being intuitive and creative can work.
...but ultimately I think they did a very nice job.
I hope the show ends there and they don't try to force a second season that will stink.
Garry Kasparov was consultant on the show and outside of the chess games, he also advised them on for example the presence of KGB agents when the players were abroad. So the players teaming up, seems like it came from him.
To the spoiler:
Benny alluded to the Russians working as a team as opposed to Americans who play for themselves in earlier episodes. Explains that it's one of the reasons they are so good. Hence Benny and the friends calling Beth in the last episode
Late to the party but wrapped this up this past weekend. Really enjoyed nearly everything about it. The acting was good, the characters were entertaining, and they did a wonderful job with the time period. I thought the Benny Watts character was ridiculous for a while but the ridiculousness faded as the show progressed. There were references to how awful Ms. Deardorff was but I didn't get that from what they showed, she didn't seem like a wretch.
The ending had me worried...
When they showed Borgov and Co. helping one another to help defeat Beth, it really cheapened their accomplishments for me. Obviously they're good, but if they need to have a round table after adjourning the game in order to win, do they really deserve the title of being the best? Beth then gets help from her friends, which was heartwarming, but made me feel the same way about her potential win. It's team USA vs USSR at that point and I jus thought it was a bit weak and really lessened the title she was chasing. I was very pleased when the ending moves ended up being something they hadn't rehearsed in practice, showing her talent for being intuitive and creative can work.
...but ultimately I think they did a very nice job.
I hope the show ends there and they don't try to force a second season that will stink.
The ending had me worried...
When they showed Borgov and Co. helping one another to help defeat Beth, it really cheapened their accomplishments for me. Obviously they're good, but if they need to have a round table after adjourning the game in order to win, do they really deserve the title of being the best? Beth then gets help from her friends, which was heartwarming, but made me feel the same way about her potential win. It's team USA vs USSR at that point and I jus thought it was a bit weak and really lessened the title she was chasing. I was very pleased when the ending moves ended up being something they hadn't rehearsed in practice, showing her talent for being intuitive and creative can work.
...but ultimately I think they did a very nice job.
This show got me super into playing chess and learning about it. I’m probing HF’s chess interest in this thread over at the Geek Emporium...
Any Chess players in our Emporium?
Stop by if you’re interested. Maybe we can get a tournament going or some forum banter about the game.
Question: as a beginner just breaking into the scene, when should I start abusing prescription drugs?
Immediately, better to find out early if you have the gift.
Question: as a beginner just breaking into the scene, when should I start abusing prescription drugs?
I agree that it is a bit overhyped (feels like just a normal/expected progression done well rather than something super special/interesting), but most things that get really hyped these days tend to fall under that category anyways, IMO. I actually thought that given that it was hyped up the way that it was and the way these things tend to work out, I was actually surprised that I liked it as much as I did. I was much more underwhelmed by things like Westworld or Chernobyl, personally.Recently finished it. I liked it a good bit, thought it was pretty good, but expected just a bit more. The people that recommended it were hyping it out the whazoo though, so maybe that negatively impacted my expectations. I was surprised the ending was so tidy (neither a negative or a positive, just a comment).
I was shocked to find the excellent song from episode 6, "I Can't Remember Love," was actually an original song written for the mini-series (and not something from like, 60 years ago). That's quite uncommon, no? I wonder if down the line there will eventually be a best original song category for the Emmy's like there are the Oscars. Trying to think of other shows that had songs written just for the show (that weren't beginning/end title credits).