Maybe the rave reviews set my expectations way too high or I've absorbed too many of my wife's sports anime in passing, but I found this series very underwhelming. It had an annoying tendency to introduce potentially dramatic material and then immediately deflate it or do nothing with it.
The show never manages to bring you into the world of the characters. Through all their jargon and esoterica about chess, it all falls meaningless on you because, I suppose, we're just suppose to marvel at how complicated it all is as a way to establish her genius at the game, because it's never explained in any substantial or understandable way how she plays the game so differently in her own mind. Conversely, look at how Moneyball uses two characters with different understandings of the game to create a way to bring the viewer into the world through their dialogue. I understood and appreciated more about a sport I didn't care about at the end of that 2 hour film than I did after 7+ of this series.
Because her awakening in chess occurs at the same time as her drugging, the series leaves you wondering how much of her ability is her and how much is the substance dependency. I'll assume this was on purpose, but it's all smoke and mirrors to create the illusion of a flawed character. She never struggles because of it, succeeds and is lauded & praised at every competition, and literally kicks her self-destructive habits, including an almost life-long dependency on the tranqs, in the FIRST act of the LAST episode. Does this impact her in any way? Not at all. She has a moment of hesitation in the last game but uses the Force, I guess, and discovers it was her all along like there was an understanding placed into the viewer that it might not be.
Subplots abound that go nowhere and cost Beth nothing. Her adoptive father returns to claim the house. Will she have to face homelessness? Depending on her friends in the chess world to survive? Will she have to grow at all? Nope, she just happens to have enough money to buy him off in the same scene. Instantly, the tension evaporates. She's blown her money and can't go to Russia for her match. Jolene just lends her money with no string attached. Instantly, the tension evaporates. Borgov is being accompanied in America, they say, by KGB in case he 'tries to escape'. The state department agent tells Beth to be aware if Borgov tries to pass any sign or message to her. Is Borgov trying to defect? Will he send a message to Beth in their game? Nope. It goes nowhere. Then why even bring it up, writers? You know things mean things in your story, right?
And for all the time the last two episodes waste, including a moment where Beth makes a phone call and the camera literally wanders away on a house tour for no reason, it ends the story at such a weird place that I started looking for meaning where there wasn't any. The old man she sits to play resembled Shaibel to the point that I said 'oh my god, it's the same actor and she's symbolically playing her mentor again as an equal!'. Wrong. Not the same actor. It just ended on some old man in a park in Russia. Nothing resolving her trauma over her real parents, her substance abuse, the men she's used and regained trust with for no reason. Nothing. Well, I guess Jolene's going to get her money back, so that's something.
The acting is top-notch and the production design is second to none (minus some awkward greenscreens in Russia), and for the layman, I'm sure this was dramatic and intense, but this is definitely not for people looking for a story and experience as engaging and complex as the game itself.
The show never manages to bring you into the world of the characters. Through all their jargon and esoterica about chess, it all falls meaningless on you because, I suppose, we're just suppose to marvel at how complicated it all is as a way to establish her genius at the game, because it's never explained in any substantial or understandable way how she plays the game so differently in her own mind. Conversely, look at how Moneyball uses two characters with different understandings of the game to create a way to bring the viewer into the world through their dialogue. I understood and appreciated more about a sport I didn't care about at the end of that 2 hour film than I did after 7+ of this series.
Because her awakening in chess occurs at the same time as her drugging, the series leaves you wondering how much of her ability is her and how much is the substance dependency. I'll assume this was on purpose, but it's all smoke and mirrors to create the illusion of a flawed character. She never struggles because of it, succeeds and is lauded & praised at every competition, and literally kicks her self-destructive habits, including an almost life-long dependency on the tranqs, in the FIRST act of the LAST episode. Does this impact her in any way? Not at all. She has a moment of hesitation in the last game but uses the Force, I guess, and discovers it was her all along like there was an understanding placed into the viewer that it might not be.
Subplots abound that go nowhere and cost Beth nothing. Her adoptive father returns to claim the house. Will she have to face homelessness? Depending on her friends in the chess world to survive? Will she have to grow at all? Nope, she just happens to have enough money to buy him off in the same scene. Instantly, the tension evaporates. She's blown her money and can't go to Russia for her match. Jolene just lends her money with no string attached. Instantly, the tension evaporates. Borgov is being accompanied in America, they say, by KGB in case he 'tries to escape'. The state department agent tells Beth to be aware if Borgov tries to pass any sign or message to her. Is Borgov trying to defect? Will he send a message to Beth in their game? Nope. It goes nowhere. Then why even bring it up, writers? You know things mean things in your story, right?
And for all the time the last two episodes waste, including a moment where Beth makes a phone call and the camera literally wanders away on a house tour for no reason, it ends the story at such a weird place that I started looking for meaning where there wasn't any. The old man she sits to play resembled Shaibel to the point that I said 'oh my god, it's the same actor and she's symbolically playing her mentor again as an equal!'. Wrong. Not the same actor. It just ended on some old man in a park in Russia. Nothing resolving her trauma over her real parents, her substance abuse, the men she's used and regained trust with for no reason. Nothing. Well, I guess Jolene's going to get her money back, so that's something.
The acting is top-notch and the production design is second to none (minus some awkward greenscreens in Russia), and for the layman, I'm sure this was dramatic and intense, but this is definitely not for people looking for a story and experience as engaging and complex as the game itself.