Television Review

The Queen’s Gambit: Limited Series

A prodigious introverted orphan discovers and masters the game of chess in 1960s America. But child stardom comes at a price…

Walter Tevis was an American novelist with three books adapted into successful movies: The Hustler (1961), The Man Who Fell to Earth (1976), and The Color of Money (1984). His 1983 novel The Queen’s Gambit didn’t get the big screen treatment, although many planned adaptations fell through (one would have been Heath Ledger’s directorial debut, starring Ellen Page). But then Netflix ordered a limited television series, written and directed by Scott Frank (Logan), which plays more to the story’s long-form strengths.

The Queen’s Gambit follows the rise of chess prodigy Beth Harmon (Isla Johnston), whose mother was killed in a car crash when she was nine, resulting in her being sent to an orphanage. A withdrawn person by nature, Beth nevertheless makes friend with a more outgoing black girl called Jolene (Moses Ingram), and finds comfort in the tranquilliser pills every orphan’s prescribed daily.