The Queen’s Gambit

I saw Queen’s Gambit when it was first released, and enjoyed it thoroughly. I rewatched it over the past two weeks while crashing with my in-laws, and although it is still good, I had to slightly lower my rating.

The plot is a standard hero’s journey mixed with a generic sports movie. Our hero has a lot of potential, but needs to learn to overcome adversity. Instead of a training montage, we get a battle with drugs and alcohol. Given that this addiction is the primary antagonist in the film, it gets relatively little screen time. All in all, the plot is just a secondary feature of the show. As are the characters, actually. Beth, our hero, is pretty awful to everyone, all the time. The writing is good enough to make me continue to root for her, but it is unclear what she brings to the table. The supporting cast is mostly guys who are either attracted to her, impressed with her ability, or both. The writers don’t bother to go much deeper than that with any of them.

The real hero of this show is the excellent detail work. The costumes, makeup, music, and scenery are all top notch. The writing is also strong, which helps to overshadow the relative weakness of the plot and characters. It’s a good show, 7 out of 10.