"The Queen's Gambit" and "The (Queen's) Crown"

After making good use of our Netflix subscription in recent weeks, allow me to offer some critical commentary.

"The Queen's Gambit" is a limited series, seven episodes, that tells the story of Beth Harmon.  When her mother is killed in an auto accident (?), eight year old Beth is consigned to a hell-hole of a girls' orphanage in Kentucky in the late 1950's.  While there, she learns to play chess after being taught the game by the custodian of the orphanage, who is about the only staff member there that shows Beth any trace of kindness.  It soon becomes apparent that Beth is a prodigy at chess, even if she is somewhat of a social misfit after she gets adopted by a couple that consists of a cold fish adulterous father and a mother who drinks too much.

Beth is able to enter some local chess tournaments where she quickly becomes a name among the chess people.  The story goes on from there, as Beth advances to regional, national, and eventually, international tournaments in the chess world.  Along the way she falls prey to booze and drugs.  We get to meet characters who populate the world of chess at its highest levels, some of whom want to help Beth out, but will she listen to them? Will this end up being a story of a wasted life or a story of redemption?

To be honest, through the first three episodes of the series, I found it to be interesting, but I was also wondering what all the fuss was about from my friends who had already seen the show.  It picked up in the fourth episode, and the final three episodes were fantastic.  It might help you enjoy the show even more if you knew the intricacies of the game of chess, but it sure isn't necessary, and the way some of Beth's key matches are filmed and told in the story make the game - and, hence, the show itself - tremendously exciting.

Beth is played by 24 year old actress Anya Taylor-Joy.  I am not familiar with her previous work, but she was excellent in this.  She transforms herself from an awkward adolescent in the orphanage to a nerdy teenager in high school to a self-confidant young adult (when not drinking to excess) to a stunningly beautiful young woman who sweeps to international renown, at least in the chess world.

"The Queen's Gambit" gets Three Stars from The Grandstander.

Corrin, Coleman, and Anderson

Season Four of "The Crown" dropped last week, and, of course, we gobbled up all ten episodes in a matter of three days.  Yeah, it's a soap opera, but a well made one and great fun to watch and wonder...."Did shit like this REALLY happen in the Royal Family?" and "Are the Windsors really this screwed up?"

Season Four introduced two new players into the saga of Queen Elizabeth II, Margaret Thatcher, Britain's first woman Prime Minister, and Diana Spencer, who would become the Princess of Wales when she marries Prince Charles.  Charles, by the way, is portrayed in this like (a) a complete doofus, (b) a serial adulterer, (c) a complete doofus, (d) a most unpleasant sibling, and (e) a complete doofus.  Did I mention that Charles comes across as a complete and total doofus?

Thatcher is played by "X-Files" alum Gillian Anderson, and she will probably win an Emmy for this portrayal.  Diana is played by a young woman named Emma Corrin, and, by the way, Diana had her "issues" too.  Perhaps she and Chuck deserved each other.

There are some great stories told in this season, and perhaps my favorite one came in Episode 5, "Fagan."  It tells the story of unemployed house painter Michael Fagan who breaks into Buckingham Place not once, but twice, on separate occasions, and on the second trip, he actually enters the Queen's bedroom and has a conversation with her.  I remember when the incident happened, but this version, no doubt enhanced for dramatic purposes, for I doubt that Elizabeth ever actually revealed what the two of them conversed about before he was captured, was really a great hour of television.

This season made me especially appreciate the casting that we have seen in Seasons 3 and 4.  Olivia Coleman (Elizabeth), Tobias Menzies (Phillip), Helena Bonham Carter (Princess Margaret), Erin Doherty (Princess Anne), and Josh O'Conner (Charles) are all really good in their roles.  All of them will be replaced by different actors, older actors, in Seasons 5 and 6.  Their replacements will have some tough acts to follow.

One problem with these streaming series that drop all at once:  after gobbling them up in three days or so, we have to wait another year before the next season comes out.  Bloody hell, as the Windsors might put it.

"The Crown" Season 4 gets Three and One-half Stars from The Grandstander.