The Queen's Gambit (Netflix miniseries)
Nov. 6th, 2020 12:50 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
queenluaWhen Bird Guy and I sat down to finish watching Haikyuu!!, and the trailer for The Queen's Gambit flashed on the screen, I felt like I was getting absolutely sucker-punched by The Algorithm. It's a hot nerd chick? and she's kicking ass in chess? in Kentucky??? Did Netflix make this shit in a lab to appeal to me specifically?
"Do you want to watch this instead?" Bird Guy asked.
"I think we have to," I said, with gleeful resignation.
And gosh, what a satisfying watch. It's ultimately a feel-good story, a wish-fulfillment story, a straightforward narrative where Our Hero Obviously Wins, but it's got just enough teeth to be interesting, and very strong acting which makes the whole thing relentlessly compelling. Small wonder it's been such a success; my brother and both my parents (all people with very different tastes!) have called me in the past week to say "hey, I'm watching this thing on Netflix, I'm really liking it and I think you would too..."
I enjoyed the whole thing (though I'll note the first episode was my least favorite; it moves more slowly than the rest), but let me babble about Mrs. Wheatley, since that was definitely the most compelling arc—
When Mrs. Wheatley comes up with her clever, lucrative plan to start traveling with Beth to chess tournaments all over the country, you're torn. Oh, you don't mind if she's doing this for purely selfish reasons at the start. Her husband's a piece of shit who just abandoned her, and she's depressed and broke. Of course she grasps on this sudden lifeline; of course she's got dollar signs in her eyes. But you very badly want her to be good for Beth. Not even because Beth needs it, necessarily—Beth's dealt with shitty adults her whole life, and she can deal with one more. But because Beth deserves a decent fucking adult in her life, just as much as Mrs. Wheatley deserves a fucking break.
And sure enough, while Mrs. Wheatley's never a conventional mom, she grows to be exactly the kind of mom best-suited to Beth. After Beth wins the tournament in Cincinnati, Mrs. Wheatley very gently, shyly asks Beth if she might have an "agent's fee" of the earnings—a modest enough share that you know Mrs. Wheatley's not out to exploit her daughter; she just wants to not be broke. And sure, as Beth's career takes off, Mrs. Wheatley enjoys the travel and the glamor and can be a little silly (/ alcoholic). But she also devotedly calls the school to make up illnesses so Beth can focus on what she cares about; Mrs. Wheatley plays defense when reporters take their questions for Beth in rude directions; she doesn't get in Beth's way or ask "what about chess?" when Beth starts trying out the whole partying thing, and so on.
Of course, while these are all nice things, lots of them could also just be self-interested. So I wasn't 100% sure on where I stood with Mrs. Wheatley, until this scene at the end of episode 3, when Beth's venting to Mrs. Wheatley after losing her first tournament (I'm taking the novel excerpt here, since they reproduce it word-for-word in the show):
I'm a sucker for arcs where both people become better people precisely because of their love for each other—not better in the sense of, becoming Good People TM, but better because they're paying attention to someone else, and someone's paying attention to them, and done rightly that's all you need.
<3 mrs wheatley <3
"Do you want to watch this instead?" Bird Guy asked.
"I think we have to," I said, with gleeful resignation.
And gosh, what a satisfying watch. It's ultimately a feel-good story, a wish-fulfillment story, a straightforward narrative where Our Hero Obviously Wins, but it's got just enough teeth to be interesting, and very strong acting which makes the whole thing relentlessly compelling. Small wonder it's been such a success; my brother and both my parents (all people with very different tastes!) have called me in the past week to say "hey, I'm watching this thing on Netflix, I'm really liking it and I think you would too..."
I enjoyed the whole thing (though I'll note the first episode was my least favorite; it moves more slowly than the rest), but let me babble about Mrs. Wheatley, since that was definitely the most compelling arc—
When Mrs. Wheatley comes up with her clever, lucrative plan to start traveling with Beth to chess tournaments all over the country, you're torn. Oh, you don't mind if she's doing this for purely selfish reasons at the start. Her husband's a piece of shit who just abandoned her, and she's depressed and broke. Of course she grasps on this sudden lifeline; of course she's got dollar signs in her eyes. But you very badly want her to be good for Beth. Not even because Beth needs it, necessarily—Beth's dealt with shitty adults her whole life, and she can deal with one more. But because Beth deserves a decent fucking adult in her life, just as much as Mrs. Wheatley deserves a fucking break.
And sure enough, while Mrs. Wheatley's never a conventional mom, she grows to be exactly the kind of mom best-suited to Beth. After Beth wins the tournament in Cincinnati, Mrs. Wheatley very gently, shyly asks Beth if she might have an "agent's fee" of the earnings—a modest enough share that you know Mrs. Wheatley's not out to exploit her daughter; she just wants to not be broke. And sure, as Beth's career takes off, Mrs. Wheatley enjoys the travel and the glamor and can be a little silly (/ alcoholic). But she also devotedly calls the school to make up illnesses so Beth can focus on what she cares about; Mrs. Wheatley plays defense when reporters take their questions for Beth in rude directions; she doesn't get in Beth's way or ask "what about chess?" when Beth starts trying out the whole partying thing, and so on.
Of course, while these are all nice things, lots of them could also just be self-interested. So I wasn't 100% sure on where I stood with Mrs. Wheatley, until this scene at the end of episode 3, when Beth's venting to Mrs. Wheatley after losing her first tournament (I'm taking the novel excerpt here, since they reproduce it word-for-word in the show):
“You can’t finesse everything, dear,” Mrs. Wheatley said. “Nobody can.”Wowowow. That's not just being a mom, that's being a really good mom—instead of just knee-jerk reacting against the (unpardonable!) insult, Mrs. Wheatley knows that her daughter's lashing out because she's angry and young and still figuring out how to even deal with failure. And so Mrs. Wheatley takes it in stride, because she knows Beth needs her support now way more than a lecture. I wouldn't have blamed her if they got in a fight (it really was a shitty thing to say), but ah, how much more satisfying this was.
Beth looked at her. “You don’t know anything about chess,” she said.
“I know what it feels like to lose.”
“I bet you do,” Beth said, as viciously as she could. “I just bet you do.”
Mrs. Wheatley peered at her meditatively for a moment. “And now you do too,” she said softly.
I'm a sucker for arcs where both people become better people precisely because of their love for each other—not better in the sense of, becoming Good People TM, but better because they're paying attention to someone else, and someone's paying attention to them, and done rightly that's all you need.
<3 mrs wheatley <3
Mrs. Wheatley FTW
Date: 2020-11-06 09:41 pm (UTC)The story was really well executed. I love single season storylines--it keeps everything concise.
Re: Mrs. Wheatley FTW
Date: 2020-11-07 12:09 am (UTC)yesssss, very much agree. miniseries length is probably my favorite TV format and it was so satisfying to see it done so well here.
thanks for dropping by~
no subject
Date: 2020-11-07 04:50 am (UTC)I just started watching this this morning! Turned on Netflix, saw the trailer at the top and was intrigued. I'm only a few episodes in (the house party after her Russian class), but I've been pulled in for sure. Glad to see that it's "ultimately a feel-good story" because some of the tension has me grimacing, I can relax now lol.
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Date: 2020-11-08 10:00 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2020-11-07 09:34 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2020-11-08 09:59 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2020-11-08 08:22 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2020-11-08 11:43 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2021-01-28 03:11 am (UTC);_____; it was so good I loved that so much
I watched this sufficiently long after reading this post, so when Beth got adopted I went "oh no, terrible adults? Depressing dream crushing adults?" and then as the minutes went by I got very murky memories of deciding to watch this somewhat on the basis of the adoptive parent/child dynamic, and relaxed enough that I enjoyed it more!
That quoted exchange above -- wow wow wow!
no subject
Date: 2021-01-29 10:31 pm (UTC)