Ana Taylor-Joy stars as an orphaned chess prodigy who rapidly makes her way up the levels of chess in a seven-episode series. The show does centre around chess but, coming from someone who has never (and probably never will) understand the strategic game, you don’t have to have an interest in the sport to enjoy the show. They have characters who don’t know anything about chess that get explained the things that the audience needs to know. The actual chess scenes are filmed so intricately and entertainingly that you’re always on the edge of your seat to see who wins.

It’s you’re next obsession and the perfect series to binge for the following five reasons:

A Terrific Female Lead

Beth Harmon (played by the beloved Anya Taylor-Joy best known for her role in The Witch and 2020’s Emma), the series lead, brings us into the show with her tragic backstory and her distinctive and unapologetic personality. She is cocky, brilliant, feminine, and a master at the one thing she dedicated her life to. She is a strong woman without following the established tropes in media already. She is interesting and flawed and realistic. 

She is a female character who isn’t just a man with boobs. She has struggles and she has character development and she doesn’t just live for the men in her life. Frankly, it’s the opposite. All the love interests in the show become infatuated with her but she focuses on herself and her mother instead.

Her ambition and her drive push her to every tournament she goes to, not the men she meets at the tournaments. 

The Fashion

I’m sure that you’ve already seen clips and trailers of this show on your Netflix, Tik Tok, and Instagram pages so you’ve probably already seen the stunning fashion from the era. The show takes place throughout the late 1950s going into the 1960s, the Cold War era with the tensions throughout the united states and the USSR as its backdrop. Beth Harmon, the lead of the show, finds love for fashion early on in the series and our TV screens never stop displaying her immaculate taste. 

Already, the 150s-1960s had some amazing fashion but something about the charm of the show and the outfits that they picked out makes the era even better. The best part about it is that Beth never fails to look stunning, she never backs down from her femininity at the male-dominated chess scenes and wears what she likes — not what anyone else chooses out for her. 

The Actors and the Writing

The show features Anya Taylor-Joy, as mentioned before, as Beth Harmon; Thomas Brodie-Sangster as rival turned friend Benny Watts (who is known as the little boy from Love, Actually and one of the teenagers of The Maze Runner movie series); and Harry Melling as another chess rival turned friend Harry Beltik (known for his role in 2020’s Devil all the Time, some of his time in the Harry Potter movie series, and The Ballad of Buster Scruggs). Outside of these somewhat studded celebrities, the rest of the cast shows no signs of drag. 

Everyone apart of this show pulls through with their skills. No one drags other actors down with bland or bad acting but instead pushes each other up. This is mostly because of their chemistry and expertise but also because of the intriguing writing that they’re acting out. This is all thanks to creators Scott Frank and Allan Scott, the series is hard to stop watching.

Every scene rails you in more than the last and you care for each and every character that ever shows up in Beth’s life. You follow along and you don’t notice how much time has passed until you’re done the whole show. You learn with beth, you cry with her, and you laugh with her. You watch her journey towards, through, and out of addiction. You watch her push people away and mend her relationships at the end. 

Feel-Good Underdog Story

It’s nothing new from a lot of other sports movies and Tv shows we’ve all seen at least once, but it’s a nice take on the genre. We watch our underdog go from a new, yet gifted chess player, to a successful chess player with an addiction problem. We watch her overcome obstacles and stereotypes. We watch her grow and shape into the young woman she was meant to be. 

It’s a satisfying tale that wraps you up and takes you into the world of Beth Harmon. From the beginning, you’re on the edge of your seat, waiting to see her win at chess and at life.

By: Zara Smith