McCreadyandChess

Dependant upon which side of the pond you sit, you may have noticed The Queen’s Gambit became the number one show on Netflix recently or not! Courtesy of the current digital revolution sweeping the globe, no one lies beyond broadcasts. It’s not often chess reaches ”the silver screen” and when it does it’s usually in the form of documentary and not TV series. But the latter fits into mainstream media more -that audience being old Joe Public of course. Given that its an American production, and what with dumbing things down being a cultural norm out there, this obviously set alarm bells ringing for those of us in parts of the world that are cultured comparatively. And for those of us who are academics also, it raises questions over the definable nature of the market and whether a domestic market does indeed exist anymore? If not, exact who is your intended audience and how is this reflecting in the scripting/writing process? Admittedly, at first I assumed it was all going to be very American and that all the characters were likely to be obtuse, the plot ingratiating, that we’d see cars crashing through windows and things being blown up all the time, and all the characters had either a hotdog or hamburger in their hand, and were loudmouthed throughout too -but perhaps that’s just me succumbing to stereotypes and not thinking properly!

The current world champion Carlsen described it as being ‘a bit too unrealistic’, which is either him being diplomatic or that being something of an understatement. I found it be something of a joke from start to finish and stopped watching early on. I did notice that most chess players really enjoyed it but perhaps that’s a reflection of the conservatism chess is spellbound by rather than a cinematic appreciation of what was shot. What I mean is that the show deviates from the trite we usually end up watching considerably in terms of content, since documentary doesn’t incorporate and depict aspects of deviancy like the aforementioned show does. I tried to watch it three times but just couldn’t force myself and found it to be superficial and all too mainstream American.

Anyway, if you want to watch a clip between the main character and an actual female chess protégé, then click on the link below. It’s not exactly wonderful viewing as Judit is rather shy and perhaps excessively polite. The comments from the main character in the show are most certainly not going to be remembered as a great advert for it, and if anything, far from it. It made me wonder whether the cultural difference and backgrounds in play, was alas, too great to be overcome.

https://en.chessbase.com/post/queens-of-chess-beth-harmon-and-judit-polgar-have-a-little-chat