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Post by mllemass on Nov 2, 2020 23:42:47 GMT
Has anyone else watched this? I’m still on episode 5. When I first started watching it, I thought it was a movie - until the second episode began! It’s good! It’s about a girl who plays chess, and it’s both weird an interesting. I’m avoiding reviews because I don’t want the ending spoiled, but I did read one description that called it “feminist”. It has never once occurred to me that this series is “feminist”, but I suppose having a protagonist that’s not male must make the series feminist to some people. And here I just thought it was a show about playing chess that happens to star a girl.
Since they play a lot of chess, it mostly takes place indoors. But I just read an article saying that some outdoor scenes were shot right here in my city, with a couple of streets downtown standing in for 1950s Kentucky. That sounds about right. Ha!
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Post by sgev1977 on Nov 3, 2020 0:55:45 GMT
I haven't watched it but I have seen a few people comparing it to Patrick Melrose I thought that maybe that's a spoiler but I sincerely don't know!
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Post by dickens38 on Nov 3, 2020 1:09:19 GMT
Can any other compare with Patrick Melrose? Or am I being biased?
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Post by mllemass on Nov 3, 2020 1:37:50 GMT
I haven't watched it but I have seen a few people comparing it to Patrick Melrose I thought that maybe that's a spoiler but I sincerely don't know! No, they’re not at all alike - so far, at least. The protagonist, Beth, is more like Alan Turing (or even Sherlock) than Patrick Melrose - if we want to compare her to Benedict roles.
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Post by MagdaFR on Nov 3, 2020 2:19:34 GMT
Has anyone else watched this? I’m still on episode 5. When I first started watching it, I thought it was a movie - until the second episode began! It’s good! It’s about a girl who plays chess, and it’s both weird an interesting. I’m avoiding reviews because I don’t want the ending spoiled, but I did read one description that called it “feminist”. It has never once occurred to me that this series is “feminist”, but I suppose having a protagonist that’s not male must make the series feminist to some people. And here I just thought it was a show about playing chess that happens to star a girl. Since they play a lot of chess, it mostly takes place indoors. But I just read an article saying that some outdoor scenes were shot right here in my city, with a couple of streets downtown standing in for 1950s Kentucky. That sounds about right. Ha! I started watching it and I liked very much the first episode. The girl is terrific. I think Anya Taylor-Joy is too old to play a 15 years old. Anyway, that's not that important.
I watched some more episodes -till part of the fourth, I believe- but it started to bore me. Or perhaps I was tired. When she's playing on the ceiling it was interesting once but not that many times. Also, the story is not believable.
I think they called it feminist because it is about a girl doing something -playing chess- almost reserved to men in that period. Also, at least for what I saw, she is a genius and she wins almost every time. She has attitudes that weren't common for women and even less for girls in the 50's. I doubt that the men would have accepted a girl like her the way the series show. There is no conflict there.
I don't think it has much in common with Patrick Melrose. Both are addicts but the reasons aren't similar.
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Post by mllemass on Nov 3, 2020 5:44:04 GMT
That’s one of the things I like so much about it. We’re being shown everything through her eyes, and she’s been sheltered enough not to be aware that girls don’t do the same things boys do. I think only once she was told by one of the tournament organizers that they weren’t set up to accommodate girls (or something like that). Other than that, there’s no conflict about it because she doesn’t see any. She’s had almost no parenting in her life, so she learns things through experience. For a genius, she very naive about many things. Also, the men at the tournaments were mainly shown as chess geeks who were more scared of her than unaccepting.
As someone who absolutely loved math when I was in school, I envy people who are so good at a particular thing - in this case, chess. I grew up hearing that boys were better at math than girls, but that wasn’t my experience. I was better than all the boys (and girls) in every math class I was ever in, so I did think I had to be kind of a freak going against nature. But that didn’t hold me back from doing something I loved. Besides, everyone in my family is really good at math, so I always knew it had nothing to do with being a girl or boy - it was a skill that ran in families.
I could totally relate to Beth seeing chessboards in the shadows and practicing moves on the ceiling. I’m one of those people who see patterns where other people don’t (I’ve never seen chessboards, though - that’s impressive!) But then, the drugs she was taking helped with that.
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Post by MagdaFR on Nov 3, 2020 13:56:58 GMT
That’s one of the things I like so much about it. We’re being shown everything through her eyes, and she’s been sheltered enough not to be aware that girls don’t do the same things boys do. I think only once she was told by one of the tournament organizers that they weren’t set up to accommodate girls (or something like that). Other than that, there’s no conflict about it because she doesn’t see any. She’s had almost no parenting in her life, so she learns things through experience. For a genius, she very naive about many things. Also, the men at the tournaments were mainly shown as chess geeks who were more scared of her than unaccepting. As someone who absolutely loved math when I was in school, I envy people who are so good at a particular thing - in this case, chess. I grew up hearing that boys were better at math than girls, but that wasn’t my experience. I was better than all the boys (and girls) in every math class I was ever in, so I did think I had to be kind of a freak going against nature. But that didn’t hold me back from doing something I loved. Besides, everyone in my family is really good at math, so I always knew it had nothing to do with being a girl or boy - it was a skill that ran in families. I could totally relate to Beth seeing chessboards in the shadows and practicing moves on the ceiling. I’m one of those people who see patterns where other people don’t (I’ve never seen chessboards, though - that’s impressive!) But then, the drugs she was taking helped with that. I don't really understand why it was set on the 50's. I searched for women in chess and till now only one woman, Judit Polgár qualify for a World Championship tournament. That's from her wikipedia page. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Judit_Polg%C3%A1r Look at this: That's why I say it is impossible there was such an acceptance of her and her wins in the 50's when chess was almost male. They're more accurate the reactions from the press and public making it a thing on her being a woman and not paying attention to what she had done. Anyway, there are things I liked very much like her clothes, the sets, the actors. I'm probably going to finish it to see where it goes and how they deal with her mental health. I'd like to read the book, though. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Queen%27s_Gambit_(novel) The book is from the 80's and for what I read the miniseries is very faithfull to it.
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Post by mllemass on Nov 4, 2020 3:54:29 GMT
I just finished watching it. It was so good!
I was so happy and relieved that she got the happy ending that she deserved. It was so sad to see that she had literally never been wanted by anyone in her life, so when all her chess buddies came through for her at the end, I actually cheered out loud!
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Post by MagdaFR on Nov 11, 2020 13:57:57 GMT
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Post by MagdaFR on Dec 11, 2020 13:57:26 GMT
From the same guy who did that The Crown video.
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