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Richard Jackson's avatar

I'm at a remote, undisclosed location in the Frank Church Wilderness, where I can access the internet (read takes) but not stream video (form my own opinion on media), so I appreciate this thoughtful contribution to the Discourse. I have a soft spot for chess stories, especially on film or television where they occupy a sweet spot within the tendency of American mass media to turn stories about Creative or Intellectual Genius into stories about sports - chess is already a sport! So I'm glad to see further affirmation that this one is worth checking out; I'll try to remember to do so when I can in a few months.

Just to carry on a bit from your first paragraph (and not at all as a criticism of this post, which is good): it's always mystifying to me that discourse about film and TV always seems to be boiled down to its narrative aspects. It was probably inevitable that narrative cinema would be its triumphant mode - we like to tell, and be told, stories - but it's not the only thing you can do with film, and even when it's what you end up doing there are non-narrative features, such as costuming and set design, or acting, or cinematography, that either support or undercut that narrative and deserve attention, discussion, and praise, or criticism. It's best when everything is done well and all works together, but if there wasn't much more to a show than great art design it could still be enough.

Happy Anniversary to the final Calvin and Hobbes strip. 25 years! Makes me feel old, being able to remember it.

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bikemogacz's avatar

Agree with you on most everything, especially that it's nice to look at nice things. My one "hot take" is that the lack of narrative tension you mention hurts it as a 7 hour series and it would have been much better as a 2 hour movie.

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