The Queen's Gambit

[Syne]

While I love Anya Taylor-Joy, even Emma (definite chick flick), this looks pretty dark and humorless. Probably not my thing.

So dark, dull and lifeless.

That's what I thought.

[C C]

[...] It isn’t exactly Annie. So dark, dull and lifeless. “The Sun won’t come out tomorrow and it’s a hard drug life”. I’ll watch episode two.

Now if it was instead "dark" in a monochromatic or grayscale context, that doesn't bother me one bit (more on that further down, though.) Dark in even the mood or ambiance sense isn't even a deterrent as long as there's something kinda' novel about it (i.e., not the usual substance abuse stuff or confined solely to that area).

What's odd is that I'm usually into retro that's either genuine or historically located there, but I'm experiencing some kind of temporary aversion to television set in the '50s and '40s lately. It's also half the reason I haven't tried to sample Ratched. The other reason being that the creator of American Horror Story is responsible for it, and I can only handle one series of his irritating, chalkboard-clawing, scattershot, multi-polar insanity, "is there any character at all in this season that's not abominable?", frenzied frothiness a year.

Maybe this phase of reluctance I've entered actually has something to do with color rather than the time period of shows. Because I've been so bombarded in recent weeks by Hubby diving into Noir and neo-Noir movies. Saturday night we watched 1964's Lilith and 1962's Station Six-Sahara.

With respect to the latter, I'm pretty sure he was purely prodded by its poster that featured Carroll Baker prominently. But I was surprised by the movie suddenly shifting away at one point from what had seemed to be its (male) protagonist character, and going into stealth mode. The psychological exploration of those guys in the sands going nuts over a woman was maybe a little more subdued or calculated than the usual chest-beating and ape antics, too.

What I'm looking forward to finally seeing is Ivan's Childhood. I only saw the first few minutes of it, but the B&W cinematography in even that snippet was mesmerizing. (No doubt it depends on a well-preserved or restored copy of the film, though. The usual deteriorated, hand-me-down reels of classics that some broadcast, cable or streaming channels dabble in would lose a Gen-Z attention span faster than demon-infested swine running over a cliff from a Jesus exorcism.)

[Zinjanthropos]

Managed to get thru episode 5 last night, I'm taking my time. Still finding it predictable. You know I don't even know the name of the actress playing Beth Harmon but I get the feeling she's probably pretty good looking in real life. Actually I don't look at the credits. Harmon finally beats her nemesis, the guy reminds of DiCaprio for some reason. Waiting for her drug use to catch up with her and the inevitable match with the Russian.

Beth Harmon: Chess version of The Borg

[C C]

I'll probably watch this eventually. I don't really know what my subliminal hang-up is right now. Whether it's waiting to put more distance between the last substance-abuse(?) story or additions of things like Zin's Seven of Nine metaphor.

[Zinjanthropos]

I'll probably watch this eventually. I don't really know what my subliminal hang-up is right now. Whether it's waiting to put more distance between the last substance-abuse(?) story or additions of things like Zin's Seven of Nine metaphor.

I don’t think underneath all her drab librarian garb one will find Jerry Ryan there but it would be a definite bonus. I was thinking Borg because she seeks perfection at all costs. I know it’s only chess but she is remorseless and unfeeling, probably two good qualities to have when slaughtering someone

[Leigha]

I’m not sure why I won’t give this series a try. But seeing that Rotten Tomatoes has given it an impressive 100%, it might be worth seeing what all the hype is about.

[Zinjanthropos]

Whew! Just got through episode 6. Kept hitting the stop button on my remote to see how much time was left. There’s only one more, I hope. Gone too far to stop now. Told my wife that we’d be seeing Jolene again and I was getting worried but she shows up at the end. Hope Jolene makes #7 interesting. Never seen such a predictable show, like who knew the cute Parisian suicide chick would ruin the day?

[Zinjanthropos]

Done. Last episode(7). I now know how the end of The Cold War started.