The Queen's Gambit on Netflix

[Doctor Phibes]

@Aqua-Letifer said in The Queen's Gambit on Netflix:

@Doctor-Phibes said in The Queen's Gambit on Netflix:

Anybody else watch it?

It's SJW as fuck.

So is chess.

Are you honestly complaining about having strong female leads in TV shows?

[Copper]

@Doctor-Phibes said in The Queen's Gambit on Netflix:

@Aqua-Letifer said in The Queen's Gambit on Netflix:

@Doctor-Phibes said in The Queen's Gambit on Netflix:

Anybody else watch it?

It's SJW as fuck.

So is chess.

Are you honestly complaining about having strong female leads in TV shows?

Look at me! I'm a female lead!

That became dated several decades ago.

For example, OK for Ms. Ferraro, not so much for Ms. Palin.

You have your own cigarette now baby!

[Aqua Letifer]

@Doctor-Phibes said in The Queen's Gambit on Netflix:

Are you honestly complaining about having strong female leads in TV shows?

Yeah, Cathy Newman, that's obviously my beef.

The characters, broken down by gender:

WOMEN
Beth Harmon - protagonist. Notice that all her issues are imposed on her by the world. Society (in her case, male-dominated society) is to blame for most of her inner demons.
Alice Harmon - eh, she had schizophrenia but she meant well. You're supposed to feel sorry for her.
Miss Lonsdale - she means well.
Helen Deardorff - she means well.
Jolene - well she's female and black, so of course she's got to be the well-meaning street-wise badass.

MEN
Harry Beltik - White guy. Dick.
The entire high school chess club - All white guys. All dicks.
Mr. Wheatley - White guy. Dick.
Matt and Mike - White guys. Dicks (initially).
Mr. Shaibel - White guy dick with a heart o' gold! (Due to the last name, maybe?)
Townes - White guy, not a dick. What gives? Ah, okay, ambiguous sexuality. Got it.
Mr. Fergusson - Black guy, so, less of a dick. Also let's have him quote some King Lear stuff to elevate black folks a little. (The actor's so good that this came off as normal, but in light of the rest of this list, I absolutely wonder about the writers' motivations. No other side character has an endearing quirk that implies they're more than they seem.)

The show gets a bit of a pass because at times it does break the formula, and in all fairness I don't know how much of this is due to chess in the 60s, and how much is due to TV scriptwriting in 2020.

But I mean come on. By going by race and gender alone, you can guess whether a character's an ally or a stumbling block and be right far more often than not.

[Doctor Phibes]

You haven't spent much time at chess clubs, clearly

[Aqua Letifer]

@Doctor-Phibes said in The Queen's Gambit on Netflix:

You haven't spent much time at chess clubs, clearly.

Entirely fair. But I have spent time around housewives, janitors, and businessmen who travel. In the real world, good people and bad people don't fit so nicely into racial boxes.

[Doctor Phibes]

My semi-joking point was that chess clubs are pretty much filled with white guys acting like dicks.

It's a funny game. When I played at the weekend tournaments there could be literally no females, out of a population of a couple of hundred players. That's changed a bit, now, but it's still a weird game.

The idea of a really strong female chess player was an odd one back in the early 80's when the book was written. People have said the character was based a little on Judit Polgar, but the book actually predates her.

[Aqua Letifer]

@Doctor-Phibes said in The Queen's Gambit on Netflix:

The idea of a really strong female chess player was an odd one back in the early 80's when the book was written. People have said the character was based a little on Judit Polgar, but the book actually predates her.

I'm absolutely down with the premise. As you said, it'd be a rarity. My issue's not with that but rather every other plot decision that seems to be motivated by politics more than good storytelling. Is the book like that, too? I'm guessing it isn't.

[Doctor Phibes]

@Aqua-Letifer said in The Queen's Gambit on Netflix:

@Doctor-Phibes said in The Queen's Gambit on Netflix:

The idea of a really strong female chess player was an odd one back in the early 80's when the book was written. People have said the character was based a little on Judit Polgar, but the book actually predates her.

I'm absolutely down with the premise. As you said, it'd be a rarity. My issue's not with that but rather every other plot decision that seems to be motivated by politics more than good storytelling. Is the book like that, too? I'm guessing it isn't.

It's over 30 years since I read it, but I don't remember it being like that. What I remember about the book is that it stood out due to its more realistic depiction of chess than is common.

[Aqua Letifer]

That's what I heard, too. Put it on my list as I hadn't heard of it until after the show came out.

[George K]

Binged through it in the last few day.

It was great from a cinematographic standpoint. Costumes and sets were wonderful. I didn't find it all that preachy. I did find it, at times, a bit too soapy, starting with the premise: Orphaned girl whose mother kills herself grows up to be chess grandmaster after defeating multiple (male) opponents.

Fun to watch, but I won't revisit it.

[Doctor Phibes]

@george-k said in The Queen's Gambit on Netflix:

It was great from a cinematographic standpoint. Costumes and sets were wonderful. I didn't find it all that preachy. I did find it, at times, a bit too soapy, starting with the premise: Orphaned girl whose mother kills herself grows up to be chess grandmaster after defeating multiple (male) opponents.

Oddly enough, a number of real chess grandmasters had quite strange childhoods. Not quite growing up in an orphanage stuff, but both Bobby Fischer and Garry Kasparov had no father growing up, for different reasons, and both had mothers with exceptionally strong personalities.

Also, as you might expect, the number of top chess players with mental health conditions isn't exactly vanishingly small.

[bachophile]

Book was better. I saw it before the series.