"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.

Kwickie Kapsule Kritical Kommentaries

Our friend Barbara recommended this documentary to me a few months ago, and I caught up with it earlier in the week.  "Hosted" by Jakob Dylan (who appears to be as laconic in demeanor as his father, Bob), the doc takes you on a terrific ride exploring the pop/folk/rock music scene that centered in the Laural Canyon area of Los Angeles circa 1965-67.  It features interviews with such people as Brian Wilson, David Crosby, Stephen Stills, Graham Nash, Tom Petty, Eric Clapton, Ringo Starr, and Michelle Phillips.  If you are of that era and/or just love that music, I highly recommend it.  Two things that stood out to me: One, the absolute reverence that all of these artists had and continue to have for Brian Wilson, and, two, the scene of a 70-something Stephen Stills laying down a guitar solo track in an LA recording studio.

Three solid Stars from The Grandstander.

O'Connor, Colman, and Menzies

We finished watching Season Three of Netflix' "The Crown", and I think that of all the people that I've spoken to who have watched this, my bride included, I am the only one who has liked it.  The focus of their criticism seems to be "Olivia Colman isn't as likable as Queen Elizabeth as Claire Foy was in the first two seasons."  My response is that Colman is playing a different woman - older, more experienced, perhaps more jaded - in the time period covered (1964-77).   I liked her in it.  I also thought that Tobias Menzies was a better Prince Phillip.  Josh O'Connor as Prince Charles plays a prominent part of this season, a season that portrays Charles as a total boob.

Also of note is Helena Bonham Carter as Princess Margaret.  Fun Fact:  In the 2010 movie "The King's Speech" (which I just re-watched and is a terrific movie, btw), Miss Carter plays Queen Elizabeth, the wife of King George VI and the mother of the the current Queen and the late Princess Margaret.  All she needs to do now is find a vehicle where she would play the current Queen Elizabeth and she will have achieved a Windsor Family Trifecta.

Season Three of "The Crown" gets Three Stars from The Grandstander.

Kracinski and Rapace

We so much enjoyed last year's first season of "Tom Clancy's Jack Ryan", and we were anxiously awaiting this new season.  How much did we like this one?  Not so much.  This one was so implausible that I found myself getting totally PO'd with the total ridiculousness of it.   

WARNING:  The next paragraph contains possible spoilers.  Feel free to skip over it if you haven't watched the entire series as yet.

Have one American special forces soldier fight off a couple of platoons of Venezuelan soldiers?  Sure why not.  And how many times is John Kracinski's Ryan going to disobey orders and go it alone against first, a camp full of vicious mercenaries, and then, even more ridiculous, the entire Venezuelan army, or so it seemed, after every American in the entire country was ordered by the US State Department to evacuate the country.  Screw you all, says Jack, I'm gonna do this MY way.

Okay.  You can go back to reading this post now.

The whole series made me realize why I quit reading Tom Clancy novels after about the third one of these flights of fancy.

One cool aspect of this series was the appearance of Noomi Rapace, the Swedish actress who appeared in all those Girl With the Dragon Tattoo movies.  She's an asset to anything that she's in, but she isn't in this one nearly enough to get "Jack Ryan" any more than Two Stars from The Grandstander.


On a brighter note, an email from Amazon arrived this morning informing us that Season Three of "The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel" is now available for viewing.  Can't wait to get into that one soon.

What We Are Watching On TV

In the past week, we have committed to throwing ourselves into several streaming television series.  

The first was Amazon's "Modern Love". Eight episodes that we have already finished.  Really delightful take on varied forms of love and romance in a contemporary setting. We found it thoroughly delightful.

Next came Season 2 of "Jack Ryan", also on Amazon. We've been waiting for this one ever since we devoured Season 1 a year ago in about three days. The first episode promises more of the same slam bang action.

Yesterday I re-upped for Netflix (get the first month for free!) as Season 3 of "The Crown" debuted last night.  As followers know, Claire Foy has been replaced by Oscar winner Olivia Coleman as Queen Elizabeth II to show a "more mature monarch" (or the Queen as an "old bat", as she herself stated in Episode 1) as the time frame has shifted to 1964. Other cast members have also been replaced, most notably Helena Bonham Carter as Princess Margaret. The actors playing Phillip and others have also been replaced, but, honestly, who cares about them? Episode 1 was excellent and the new season promises to be a good one.

So far, we have watched only one episode each of "Jack Ryan" and "The Crown." We are going to try to savor these rather than devour them in only three or four sittings Wish us good luck with that.  

We also gave Amazon's "Fleabag" a try, although we are two seasons behind on this Emmy Award winning series. Have only seen one episode thus far, but it was enough to make us want to revisit it and give it a shot.

And, of course, we are very anxious to catch the new season of "The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel" when it returns to Amazon next month.

Lots of good TV viewing in the weeks ahead.