yeah i'm still thinking about this series ... (been watching interviews and makings of, on youtube) so consider this a BUMP !!! lol
Where are the elderly people? Where are her gradparents? Where are her adoptive grandparents? It is not that she is running into the woods from everyone. The series perpetuates the American notion that children should live with their parents only until graduating high school, and that elderly people should live somewhere else like in an asylum (and die there from something like COVID-19 in droves). Interesting, that when she went to Russia, she saw more elderly people on the streets, so the filmmakers picked up at least this bit correctly. But what is being advertised to us? Future without parents and grandparents? Congeniality brought by sedatives and narcotics? This is a traditional Hollywood trope when an individual with superior abilities confronts the whole world. As such, this show is nothing more than yet another superhero narrative. At least she was taught to play chess, it is not like she learned the moves in her dream.
I’m guessing I’m one of the few people who thought this series was boring. Stopped watching after episode 5 or 6.
My wife and I just finished the series last night. Yeah, I know, we're late to the party, but we have a lot of stuff to catch up on. It was painful realizing how thoroughly I've forgotten chess in the 50 years since I've played - I was actually pretty good as a child. The drinking and drugs subplot was annoying and excessive, although I can understand the desire to have something to tamp down an overactive brain. The smoking really annoyed me. I absolutely want to see this director get a movie and see their work on a big screen. Almost everything. Some of the phones were incorrect. Phone handsets didn't have RJ11 connectors in the early 60s. Instead, they had big rubber strain reliefs. And the phone at her home was also odd. It should have been a standard Western Electric desk model, but instead had a switch to the left. But the thing that really got me was just how good the quality of the phone call from her friends in New York was. Vickie got a phone call from a friend in Moscow back in the early '90s, and it had so much noise that we could barely make out what he was saying. And this guy had an office just off Red Square, so it's not like he was in the boonies. (here's our friend being interviewed about how the early Internet was a tool to resist the hardliners who had arrested Gorbachev.) Edit: They didn't overstate the prevalence of tranquilizers at the time. I spent a week a mental hospital in 1970 being evaluated before the school board would let me go to high school, and everybody got tranquilizers, simply because it was easier for the staff.
apparently, the book is about this ..... the stress of being a ... champion .... just look at all our rock stars and movie stars etc ..... i personally don't think it was excessive, as it is part of what was being explored via her character .... a good message for younger AND older folks alike ..... is it the ________ that makes me ... come up with ideas (or perform so well, etc etc) .... or is it .... ME? does the ______ HELP me though ? do i ..... NEED IT? can i BE great ... without it? all important questions that get explored. ymmv.
Just finished watching this last night. I don’t watch a lot of television shows but this totally captured my attention and kept it across 7 episodes. I agree that it is a beautifully shot show with smart writing and terrific acting. Well worth your time.
I read the book after seeing the miniseries. I thought the series was pretty good, if overlong and repetitive, but I really liked the book, especially the chess matches, which were very well written. The last match was as exciting as any action scene I’ve ever read and had a terrific emotional grace note that wasn’t in the series.
it overcame the hesitancy I had in it in the beginning episodes and turned out to be a very good series.
We finished it last night and it was the best series I have seen in a long, long time. Honestly, I wouldn't sweat the small stuff; i.e. details on this show. It's almost impossible to get everything perfect. What I find interesting it that there seems to be no physical media available yet for this series. Will it ever be released on Blu-Ray?
Just finished watching this the other night. One of the best single season shows I've seen along with Freaks & Geeks. Somewhat predictable but entertaining as hell. I'm not into chess so whatever glaring inaccuracies there were I didn't notice.
