Watching The Gambit on Netflix made me do two things that I never thought I would do in my life: watch over 40 minutes of YouTube videos about chess strategy, and be fascinated by Attracted by necklace man wearing cowboy hat.
If you haven’t seen it yet, this show follows the journey of a Kentucky orphan, played by the beautiful deer-alien Anya Taylor-Joy, who becomes a chess champion in the 1960s, which I watched The sexiest TV show ever watched. Forget moody vampires or 20-year-olds with washboard abs playing high schoolers—the hottest thing on TV right now is two people concentrating on each other sitting at a chessboard.
The show itself was beautifully shot and every outfit worn by Anya Taylor-Joy's Beth Harmon was so beautiful that I found myself wandering around most of the time, Look for flowy A-line dresses and knitted hats. Taylor-Joy's performance is predictably brilliant - nuanced, funny and serious at all the right moments - but the real surprise is when the unexpected Bishop glides forward, plunging the audience into the inevitable. The Realm of Death is the supporting actor of the play.
Benny dresses up like Young Indiana Jones in a half-hearted attempt to play Jack Sparrow for Halloween.
During Beth Harmon's journey through life, she meets a series of fantastic chess-playing boys who adore her in the best possible way. They are powerful forces of benevolent masculine energy, capital Good Boys, who would be right at home in a Nancy Meyers movie (see: The Internship , Home Again or It's Complicated) John Krasinski ).
First up we have Harry Beltik, a Kentucky state champion played by Harry Melling, who you may recognize from Harry Potter "The actor who plays Dudley Dursley in the series. How come I don't see a thousand tweets about how Dudley Dursley owns Neville Longbottom? ! (I know – “read another book” – but come on, it’s a relevant cultural tone!) He’s totally Neville Longbottom! Merlin is really sexy now, especially now that his character has had his teeth straightened, and what makes him even sexier is how much he cares about Beth and wants her to be good at chess.
The same can be said for the show's true wild card sex icon, Benny Watts. Benny dresses up like Young Indiana Jones in a half-hearted attempt to play Jack Sparrow for Halloween. Like the kids in AP English class reading The Communist Manifesto in the back of the room, or like Crocodile Dundee going to Westworld. marvelous. We were given a cowboy hat, a long leather duster, and a knife hanging from our belt . There are multiple necklaces. A ring and a bracelet. All of this is perfectly concealed by the thinnest mustache ever worn by a Columbo villain. My only sadness is that this show didn't come out a month earlier, so I would have had a few weeks to assemble the necessary stainless steel jewelry and convince my boyfriend to dress up like him for Halloween.
Every actor I mentioned is British and speaks with a perfect American accent. Well done, gang!
And, for those who like to indulge in "want-to-feel-old" rituals, fictional chess outlaw Benny Watts is played by Little Drummer Boy Thomas from Love Actually · Played by Thomas Brodie-Sangster.
Love, boys actually have sex! And a mustache!
Jacob Fortune-Lloyd, the last of the show's main trio of good boys, plays Townes, whom Beth falls in love with early on and who Eventually a friendship was formed with him. Townes is a dream ship in the chess world. There's not much to say about Townes, other than the fact that he's objectively fantastic, and that every actor I mention, including Fortune-Lloyd, is a Brit with a perfect American accent . Well done, gang!
The friendships Beth develops with the boys around her—including another pair of adorable, chess-loving twins—add necessary wholesome sweetness to a show that's not afraid to dip into human darkness. Without spoiling anything (be sure to watch it), there's a scene where Beth gets the call and finds all of her boyfriends on the other end supporting her as a team that moved me to tears.
Sexy abs or a leather trench coat are fine, but "The Queen's Gambit" reminded me that one of my favorite dynamics to see on screen is the genuine friendship between people who love each other. It doesn't matter whether they had sex or not - it was like between Monica and Chandler on Friends , Abed and Annie on Community , or The Boys It's just as obvious between Wallace and Veronica.
There's nothing sexier than kindness and support, even a hat and a leather trench coat.
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