Mostly I loved the series. But I did have a couple of issues. So with that in mind...
SPOILER ALERT!!!!
One minor and one major quibble. Minor: I was thrown that the series was set in Kentucky. I've spent a good deal of time in Kentucky -- around that period. And it's the South. You hear accents there. If it were set in Indiana, or Illinois, or Upstate New York I wouldn't be bothered at all, but I felt they really missed the flavor and distinctiveness of Kentucky.
Now my major issue: And this stems from my writer's background -- all of Beth's problems were solved easily and usually by other people or convenient outside forces. If she needed money, people would swoop in to provide it. If she needed strategy support, all of her fellow chess whizzes would converge to provide it (even if they been on bad terms with her). Angels in her life always showed up at just the right time. Her ex-classmate, the gay guy she had a crush on -- they could have called the series "You've Got a Friend."
When the Russian chess masters were plotting against her, they did it in her hotel, down the hall from her room, with the door to their room open. And Beth happened to pass by at just the right moment to eavesdrop.
Personal taste, I prefer when characters actively solve their own problems. Or at least taking those steps. That's one of the reasons why I love LUPIN on Netflix. It's great fun watching him ingeniously wriggle out of seemingly impossible situations. I just think it makes for better storytelling.
I never read the QUEEN'S GAMBIT book. Maybe all of those moves are in there and the series is just being faithful to the material. And like I said, for the most part I loved the series, but that aspect bugged me.
Your ending is a post of its own: is it better to be faithful to your source or is it better to improve upon it?
ReplyDeleteIt's true that in the book Beth Harmon took action to try and rescue her life. She made a desperate effort to locate and contact her old friend/enemy Jolene. In the TV series, Jolene just magically appears just when she's needed most. I thought this was one of the few weak spots in the adaptation.
ReplyDeleteThis probably wasn't clear to a non-chess player, but the Russians weren't cheating when Beth observed them helping Borgov analyze his adjourned game. This was quite legal. I think the scene was meant to emphasize the fact that Borgov was being assisted by some of the best players in the world, while Beth was all alone in Moscow. Maybe they could have made that clearer to an audience of "civilians"
I was hoping that LUPIN would be a series-length version of the Python's DENNIS MOORE sketch.
ReplyDeleteGreat points! I loved the series, even though I'm not a fan of period pieces. As a writer, I could see where you would find holes in the plot, although, I could gather that as a fan, you really enjoyed it.
ReplyDeleteHi Ken, Friday Question: I've been a Joss Whedon fan for 20 years, so naturally I was very disappointed to learn this week that he'd been creating toxic work environments, both on set and in the writers' room (according to Jose Molina, he would brag about making writers cry). My questions: first, how common are these bully showrunners? And second, is there really less tolerance for this behavior nowdays, or is it just for the cases that go public? Thanks!
ReplyDeleteYou're absolutely right.
ReplyDeleteJust finished (thank fucking god it's over) Your Honor last night. It took place in New Orleans & I rarely if ever heard any kind of accent. Coupled with a story SO dumb, so contrived. If you were a smart judge, you'd put a damn leash on your imbecile child. The only true thing about the series is that the kid got it, he deserved it.
Norma, it begs the question if it was that bad, why did you stick with it to the end?
DeleteOn another topic, Ken (and other radio folk here), I thought you might enjoy this site I saw flagged on Twitter that lets you click on a map of worldwide radio stations to listen to any of them:
ReplyDeletehttps://radio.garden
wg
You are right about the solutions to her problems being "Super easy, barely an inconvenience". But the show came out at the nadir of the virus initial outbreak and the positive feeling of the show outweighed any story holes.
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ReplyDeleteThough I have enjoyed The Lord of the Rings - the films and the novel - it seems clear that Tolkien resorted to "miraculous rescues" several times when the heroes were doomed. Closer observers may object, having greater "insight" into "LOTR fantasy logic", but to the casual fan, they seem like "cheap writer's tricks".
What a fantasy writer "gets away with" is cheaper in worlds non-fanstastic.
So far as "cheating" goes - the bloody Russians transparently cheat - perhaps even routinely. This is certainly so in sports - which was what made beating the USSR so delicious before Pres. Carter decided to boycott the Moscow Games in 1980.
(the most important reason to my young self was transparent Soviets designs on world domination - come to think of it, they were very much like a non-mystical Mordor with more terrible weapons)
In chess, the Soviets regarded it very much like a team sport with great propaganda value (the collective vs. the self-autonomous).
One way they "cheated": in "Candidates tournaments" - percursors to "World Championship cycles" Soviet players would strategically draw vs. each other - making it very difficult for non-colluding players to win.
To play standard openings 15-20 moves into a neutral middle game may not be "against the rules" - but "that's not cricket" as our British friends would say.
Read the novel. They actually took out some of her self-directed action. I don't know why. (Spoilers) Towards the end of the story, she is the one who seeks Jolene out, she is the agent of her fate. For the life of me, I don't know why they made the change with Jolene just showing up on her doorstep. Also, this is a story about someone who thinks she is worthless. So the struggle, which worked for me, is letting love and help in. She is a loner who has to accept help to win. She can't beat the Russian on her own, because he is working with a team. That all worked for me, I wonder if you missed it because you're a man who doesn't understand how hard it can be for a woman to accept help when she feels, at her core, she doesn't deserve it?
ReplyDeleteI haven't seen "The Queen's Gambit," but regarding accents/dialects, that has always been one of my pet peeves. Even though the medical drama "St. Elsewhere" was set in Boston no one had a Boston accent. TV GUIDE rationalized it this way. Because St. Eligius was a teaching hospital it had doctors from all over the country. Therefore, you wouldn't hear a lot of Boston accents. But what about "Cheers?" With very few exceptions Cliff was the only one that had a Boston accent. Not what you would expect in a local, neighborhood bar. "Chicago P.D." is yet another example. No Chicago accents. The "Law & Order" franchises were pretty good about the various New York dialects, but of course, they film in New York. For the most part however, it really doesn't matter where most TV shows are set. Any reference to location is merely window dressing.
ReplyDeleteM.B.
(Spoilers) I saw this nitpick pointed out on the Web: Regarding the scene near the end when her friends assist her over a long-distance phone call, wouldn't the KGB have been listening in? And even if their conversation wasn't against the rules, wouldn't the KGB have passed along the details to Beth's opponent?
ReplyDeleteThe way the show cured Beth’s addiction was also bothersome to me — she needed to sober up before the big match, so...she just did?
ReplyDeleteWait a minute. You spent time in Kentucky? I can't picture it. Details, please.
ReplyDelete"Beth's problems were solved easily and usually by other people or convenient outside forces." I've gotten that note before. Of course it's usually more interesting when the character has to get out of a pickle on their own, but sometimes stuff falls into people's laps. It is an actual thing that happens to people. Now, when it happens every episode it becomes too convenient.
ReplyDeleteIn any case, The Queen's Gambit was a hit so clearly most viewers didn't care that her problems were solved in a jiff. In other words, going forward, if I get that note again I'll use the "Queen's Gambit" defense.
Creating films or television series based on novels or plays. That's such a can of worms, ain't it? I can honestly say that I want to see people still trying, knowing that almost all of them are going to fall flat or be disappointing.
ReplyDeleteThen again there's MASH, with a distinct creative message in novel, film and television show, that kept evolving over time. I would go with the latter. It would sort of be like the Beatles only recorded "Please Please Me" and then quit. Sure, Robert Altman had something to say, and he deserves his due. But the show turned into something else, in real time, that I think had a lot more cultural impact.
Also, Frank Burns eats worms.
@Mike, Chicagoans don't have accents, unless you are from da sot side
ReplyDeleteI only watched a few episodes, they have NEVER had the Queen on! Back to the Crown for me
ReplyDeleteI agree about THE QUEEN'S GAMBIT. I didn't notice the accents--though I agree with you--but I also thought the plotting was convenient. The acting was great, production values were high, but I was not as blown away as my friends were.
ReplyDeleteI recall from years ago that you talked about walking up and down the Sunset Strip with your cousin from Kentucky. It struck me as so odd that I still remember it years later. How about a little color and detail? Any connection to pronouncing your name Le-Vine and not Le-Vean?
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Unknown - Really, Chicago has no distinct accent? I'm not American but can speak with an American accent, as I spent a couple of years in the Chicago area as a kid. I always figured the way my sister and I pronounce the e sound in words like "dress" and "test" - almost like "druss" and "tust" - was a Chicago (or Illinois) thing, was I wrong? Is it just us? :)
ReplyDeleteSomeone OT but a Friday question: have you listened to this podcast? https://www.rollingstone.com/tv/tv-features/too-long-didnt-watch-episode-5-lena-dunham-cheers-1122281/
ReplyDeleteIf so, what do you think?
Southerners have accents? Strange, when I moved north I thought it was all the Northeners that talked funny. [Hey, eventually by 10th grade I started sounding like them and broadcasting school did away with what remained of my Southern "accent".....except for a couple of words.]
ReplyDelete"The Queen's Gambit" was an international production with many parts being filmed in my hometown of Berlin. The fictional Henry Clay High School in Lexington, Kentucky, is acutally a school in Berlin. Berlin also doubles as Paris, Moscow, Cincinnati and Las Vegas. (A childhood friend is an extra in a Las Vegas hotel scene.) The set and costume designers, the CGI department and the producers obviously went to great lengths to make locations appear authentic, but I bet it was much more difficult to hire supporting actors with a genuine Southern drawl here in Europe.
ReplyDeleteThat's the same problem with Breaking Bad. Saul Goodman seems to have an answer for all their problems.
ReplyDeleteInteresting you mention Lupin. I gave it a try and couldn't make it through the first episode simply because of, what I thought were, cheats. They way he gets his extra men into Louvre seemed ridiculous, then only one guy at the cameras, etc. etc., to me so I turned it off.
ReplyDeleteHi Ken,
ReplyDeleteLong time lurker, first time commenter. I have to respectfully disagree with you. To say that “all of Beth's problems were solved easily and usually by other people” is a little disingenuous. Either that or you missed the central conflict of the story - Beth’s addiction.
It’s the thing that elevates this story. Otherwise, all we have is Rocky Balboa in a dress playing chess. I see this as the difference between plot and story (or theme). This is not the story of a rugged individual overcoming obstacles to becoming the best chess player in the world. Beth’s rise through the ranks of the chess world is the plot.The story, or conflict, is that of an incredibly isolated woman pushing people away through her drug use while trying to connect to them through chess.
The Russians were not “plotting” against Beth, they were preparing to play against her. Yes, it was overly convenient for Beth to happen upon an open door and see them, but we learned about the Russians coordinating during the Mexico City tournament. For Beth to reach out for help from her friends isn’t the result of a convenient outside force, it was a resolution to the conflict she carried through the show - does she further isolate herself by retreating into her drug use or does she reach out for help?
The show ends with her walking through a Moscow park full of men playing chess and joining one of them in a game. Why? She had literally just beaten the best player in the world. She did it because, like Luchenko before her, she was now able to play for the pleasure of playing.
Either that or they edited out the part where after winning against the man in the park she jumps up on the table and yells “Murica! Suck it losers!”
In a distant podcast Ken has noted that The Crown is not his cuppa tea.
ReplyDelete"Unknown" mentioned this series which reminds me to suggest two notable episodes:
Beryl (Ep 203) - about Margaret and her new photographer boyfriend. Worth watching for the persuit and capture (and the lovely actress who is *almost* as lovely as the personnage herself).
"Margaretology" (302) - about Margaret's spectacular American tour. Worth watching even if one skips to the middle with her scenes with LBJ - with some big bellylaughs.
Beth also claimed in later episodes that she didn't play chess by reading a book. Except that, as a kid, that's ALL she did: read books about chess strategy. Maybe the drugs made her forget?
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