Netflix, the large streaming site, has recently come out with a new hit show, The Queen’s Gambit.
This drama miniseries is a fictional story that follows the life of Beth Harmon, an orphan and chess prodigy, in her journey to take the chess world by storm.
Based in the 1950s, the show begins in an orphanage where it is revealed that the girls receive tranquilizer pills daily, which leads Beth down a twisted path of addiction.
Scenes like these ones truly showed how common these practices were in orphanages, and how we never really know what happens in the lives of others.
The series follows Beth’s journey from the orphanage to world class chess tournaments. Immediately after being adopted after years in the orphanage, Beth enrolled herself in chess lessons.
Upon watching this show, it became very evident that chess seemed to have a bigger impact and meaning to Beth. She continues to play for reasons besides being talented.
From my perspective, I noticed how it gives her a competitive edge and the ability to assert her dominance over her opponents. Chess has also been something that she’s been doing for the majority of her life, and it may be something that is incredibly familiar to her.
In addition to that, this show touched on many topics, one being addiction. This topic was portrayed in a way that could help audience members see what it’s really like to live a life of addiction.
The show also did an excellent job in developing the characters and making it appear more realistic for the time the piece takes place in. It features all of the people that Beth comes across throughout her entire life, and how much of an effect they have on her as a person, which I feel is very important in the plot development process.
It also shows Beth’s development through her mental health problems and drug addiction in a very realistic way without glamorizing it. The actors and actresses all did a fantastic job in portraying the story.
Throughout the course of the series, one event seems to follow Beth and intimidate her, which is her loss against one of the fiercest players in the world. After losing against this player, it sends Beth into a downward spiral, causing her to have a huge mental health episode with drugs and alcohol, which leads her to a terrifying near death experience.
This is clearly an incredibly difficult experience to go through, and the actress playing Beth handled the portrayal of it very well.
I was able to feel a lot of the emotions presented by Beth in the different scenes, and this scene especially was definitely one to think about.
The lead up to the final scenes of the show were very interesting to watch, and gave lots of context behind Beth’s raw emotions towards her biggest tournament yet, where viewers get to experience her big breakthrough out of her dependency on drugs just in time to face her opponent.
The Queen’s Gambit is a bit of an emotional rollercoaster, but it is very entertaining and interesting to watch.
