Grade: 4.5/5
Genre: Drama
Seasons: 1
Ages: 14+
One of the best shows of the year! Chess is the star in this intense drama about an uber talented girl who learns the game at an early age living in an orphanage and then showcases her talents against boys at the school level, subsequently at the national level against the mighty Russians. Based on Walter Tevis’s 1983 novel, drama is set in the mid 1950s where a women’s role was confined to the kitchen, not in competing with men at anything, let alone, at chess. Anya Taylor-Joy (from “Emma”) does a remarkable job playing the role of Beth Harmon and her get up is done with aplomb – straight out of the 50s. Audience is transported into that period of time as we follow Beth’s rags to riches story. A positive collateral impact of the show has been the massive interest surge in the “boring” game of chess. Since the release by Netflix, “chess.com has added nearly 13 million new members…More than 2.3 million of them have joined in the past month. An amateur chess tournament called PogChamps became a sensation in June, drawing a combined 50 million viewers on gaming platform Twitch and becoming the most-watched chess event of all time. Chess sets are selling out, and last week an executive at a game company told NPR that October sales were up more than 1,000 percent. “ (Washington Post)
