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You’ve already seen series like “Queen Gambit,” but that doesn’t mean it’s not worth watching

Netflix's new mini-series may pretend to tell a story about chess using the moves of the game, but in practice it is direct and adopts familiar practices of a story about a genius who has to deal with her breasts.

In the end it's part of what makes "Queen Gambit" fluid and sweeping

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• Queen Gambit

• Anya Taylor-Joy

• Netflix

• TV review

Ido Yeshayahu

Wednesday, October 21, 2020, 12:00 p.m.

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Trailer for the "Queen Gambit" series, starring Anya Taylor-Joy (Netflix)

Scott Frank has written the screenplays for some of the most iconic films of recent decades, including "Logan - Wolverine", "Illegal Novel", "Special Report" and "Catch Shorty" - the first two even won him an Oscar. In 2017. Netflix has created a mini-series he created, the "Godless" Western, which was and remains one of the amazing products the streaming giant has to offer. So it's clear that a new mini-series that Frank created for the streaming service raises some expectations, which is a bit of a problem for her. "The Queen's Gambit" is just a cool series. "The Queen's Gambit

," whose seven episodes air tomorrow (Friday) on Netflix, is based on the groundbreaking novel by Walter Tabis (who also wrote the books on which "Eddie Plasson" and "Color" were based. The Money "(starring Paul Newman). She tells the story of the success of Beth Harmon, a young orphan in the 1950s and 1960s, who gained world fame for her natural talent for chess. Beth sees the game board, and after persuasion on her part, also gets to learn from him how to play and turns out to be a prodigy. But as always - genius has a price. The orphanage provides for all the children

Sedative pills on a regular basis, which develops in Beth a dependence on addictive substances that lasts for many years afterwards.

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Sealed and mysterious face.

Ania Taylor-Joy, "Queen Gambit" (Photo: Netflix)

Ania Taylor-Joy ("Emma", "Split") stars as the adult Beth, and is surrounded by holidays throughout the series Thomas Brody-Sangster (Joan Reid from "Game of Thrones" who also starred in "Godless") Bill Camp ("Event Night"), Harry Melling ("Harry Potter" movies) and others.

Taylor-Joy is not the actress of the century - in fact Ayala Johnston, who plays the protagonist in her childhood, is much better and more captivating than she is - but she does do a solid job, and mostly she has something special thanks to which she probably stars in so many notable projects: her signed face And the mysteries.

These serve well the story of a quiet genius that flourishes.

Relying on the series' names and episodes - all of which are game terms like "exchanges" and "double legs" - "Queen Gambit" may be trying to create a brilliant chess strategy in the way it constructs the story.

In practice she is direct and adopts well-known screenwriting practices.

Although Beth's childhood in the orphanage is relatively refreshing and free of obvious clichés, and there is also great sweetness in the relationship between Beth and Mr. Sheibel - we have already seen the heroine's addictions in a thousand other places, and "Queen Gambit" has a hard time saying anything new.

"You sound like Susan Hayward in one of these movies," someone says explicitly in the sixth episode, the least good in the series.

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The relationships in her life add, soul, complexity and beauty.

Tillior-Joy with Thomas Brody-Sangster, "Queen Gambit" (Photo: Ken Warner / Netflix)

To the credit of the series and Taylor-Joy it can be said that they make sure to maintain fashion and restraint even when the protagonist's life goes into a spin, preventing the series from becoming an explicit and exploitative melodrama.

In fact they add to its power.

Also helps is the fact that the bottom line is that "Queen Gambit" is a descendant of a long line in a very effective genre: sports movies.

It's hard to miss with the stories of someone conquering himself to conquer the world, and along the way there are games and battles and tournaments that illustrate his greatness.

These moments miraculously elevate the genius of the protagonist, and the power inherent in them cannot be denied.

It's exciting to follow Beth as she recognizes more and more of her abilities and limitations, while being completely clueless about other basic things, including the rules of the game that she is so good at, and including the ability to organize her soul and life.

"In the words of Thomas Huxley," the series quotes, "the chessboard is the world, the tools are the phenomena of the universe, the rules of the game are what we call the laws of nature. The player on the other side is hidden from us."

For Beth the chessboard is the understandable thing, the element she can control and overcome even in the face of opponents hidden from her.

Life is the challenge she must face, and gradually she realizes that these things are intertwined.

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We have already seen these afflictions a thousand times.

"Queen Gambit" (Photo: Phil Bray / Netflix)

Yes, the concept is not particularly fresh, but as mentioned does the job. Throughout her life, Beth's attempt to arrange her life like tools on a board yields quite a few exciting moments, especially in the face of her traumatic childhood from which moments often float in her memory. The last memory of her mother before her death is really chilling, the relationship with Mr. Sheibel is heartbreaking whenever she remembers it, and other relationships with people who get into her life add soul, complexity and beauty.

Beth's marvelous talent injects Azuz into a game that is not exactly the most exciting thing on earth, or at least not photographed as such. "Queen Gambit" is also not content with this but does well to find along it a plethora of creative visual ways to present chess battles in a way full of animals. Sometimes on a split screen like in a robbery movie, sometimes on a huge board that the audience is watching, sometimes with an interpretation of radio broadcasts, sometimes even without seeing the board at all but only the faces of the characters. With elegant yet sweeping music, these are moments that convey the tension, the interest and sometimes even the storm, even without the viewer being a chess expert (in fact, maybe experts will enjoy less, who knows if it is not full of nonsense). Because again, as in a good sports movie, here too the series is actually about players and less about the game. And like her protagonist, "Queen Gambit," is captivating, flawed, and touching.

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