The Queen’s Gambit S1 E1 (Netflix) Review

It’s just after 12:30am and I’m not tired yet. The husband and black lab are snoring away in dream land. So I decide to check out a new show on Netflix called The Queen’s Gambit. I thought to myself it’s #1 in Netflix rankings, I’ve heard some good things, but it’s a movie about chess so it should help me fall asleep and I’ll rewatch (or not) at a later time. BIG MISTAKE. Because at 1:30am I found myself wanting to watch the entire series.

The Queen’s Gambit follows the story of Beth Harmon, who at nine years old (Isla Johnston) is sent to live at an orphanage since her mother died in a car accident and her father is out of the picture. She befriends Jolene (Moses Ingram) who shows her the ropes and gives her advice on how to navigate her new life. One day she’s asked to clap erasers for her teacher in the basement of the school. There she meets Mr. Shaibel (Bill Camp) who is playing chess by himself. Beth is intrigued and asks to play. Shaibel shuts her down. At night, Beth dreams of the chess board. It doesn’t hurt she’s taking “vitamins” we all know aren’t vitamins but hallucinogens. After several asks, Shaibel finally relents. They play constantly with him teaching her the game in stages. She plays strategies in her head at night. Eventually Shaibel realizes this girl is a star. She’s brilliant and she has a unique gift. He is blown away at her ability to learn and gives her a book called “Modern Chess Openings” so she can continue to advance at the game. Since I know less than nothing about chess, I had to look up what “openings” are. Simply put, it’s how you strategically start the game. There are all kinds of openings for the game including, dun dun dun, the Queen’s Gambit!

After seeing her brilliance at chess, Shaibel introduces her to Mr. Ganz (Jonjo O’Neill) from the high school chess club. She beats him pretty easily and he wants to get her over to his chess club to test her against his team. Ganz gets approval from Helen Deardorff (Christiane Seidel) to bring Beth to the chess club. At the same time this is happening, Beth is no longer receiving her “vitamins” as the state has shut the orphanage down. This becomes problematic since she starts experiencing withdrawal symptoms. Even with this issue, Beth goes to the high school, plays all the boys at the same time and dismantles them. Afterwards, even though she was told not to go to the basement anymore by Helen, she visits Shaibel to recount her victories and proudly tells him how she beat all the boys in an hour and twenty minutes.

The withdrawal symptoms get worse and Beth has a plan. During the movie for the orphans, she leaves to go to the bathroom and breaks into the infirmary where this is still a huge jar of the green “vitamins.” In what is sure to be a sign of more dangerous habits to come, Beth jams a fistful of pills in her mouth. Then she takes another. She also puts several into her pockets for later. Unfortunately, she is caught by Helen and the entire orphanage as she’s sneaking out with the whole jar. She drops the jar crashing onto the floor with green pills everywhere and Beth collapses onto the floor as well.

I got a very “A Beautiful Mind” type feeling with this episode. Between the gorgeous music and the scenes where Beth is “practicing” chess at night and we see visions of chess boards everywhere, I felt the same way I felt watching John Nash decipher a math equation. There was a hint early on to Beth’s brilliance when you see the flashback to living in the trailer with her mother and her mom is burning an advanced mathematics book. And since the last words her mother spoke to her before she appears to cause the accident purposely were “close your eyes”, you are also seeing the madness her mother suffered as well. We can already see Beth’s unconventional personality affecting her time at the orphanage. In positive and negative ways. The addiction to the pills is surely a sign of bigger problems in her future of balancing her brilliance and her madness. The question will become, how much of the madness was there to begin with and how much will be accentuated by the pill popping.

The acting, the cinematography, the music, and the story were all beautifully constructed. I can’t wait to see where this story goes. And I’m excited to see Anya Taylor-Joy pick up the role of Beth as she ages. For those of you who watched the first episode, what are your early thoughts? No spoilers please until I’ve seen the full season!