If you are looking for an excellent and original story that evokes emotion without seeming stereotypical or over-dramatized, you absolutely must watch The Queen’s Gambit on Netflix. It is the beautiful story of an orphan becoming a chess grandmaster which rivals sports movies such as Miracle and Invincible.
Beth Harmon, played by the lovely Anya Taylor-Joy, becomes an orphan at the age of nine and is sent to an orphanage where she begins her journey with addiction, alcohol abuse, and the game of chess. As she gains notoriety, she is shaped by the friends, enemies, and the mistakes she makes along the way. Fortunately, there wasn’t a moment where things felt uncomfortably predictable or out of place. In between the heartbreaks and the successes, the story of Beth Harmon is one that resonates with the very core of humanity: you can become something out of nothing and persist beyond your demons.
For viewers who don’t understand the game of chess, the story doesn’t focus too heavily on the game’s complex strategies. The Queen’s Gambit and The Sicilian Defense are mentioned, but are not crucial to the story of the show. Instead of relying on strategy, the show focuses on how the characters deal with different tactics, other characters, and the world they are surrounded with.
The Queen’s Gambit is by far the pinnacle of Netflix’s miniseries’, but falls short of the greatest mini-series of all time Band of Brothers. The beauty in the characters and their storylines surpasses the storytelling of many longer form television shows. From addiction to unrequited love, The Queen’s Gambit encompasses the breadth of the human experience. This seven episode season of television will continue to change the way people view brief episodic content and will attract people to the game of chess for generations to come.
