MovieChat Forums > The Queen's Gambit (2020) Discussion > Season 2?

Season 2?

posted 3 years ago by Diddy1111 (364)
14 replies | jump to latest

Where does it go from here? She toppled the unbeatable champ on his turf. Now what? Does she actually settle down with any of these guys? Not sure where this show goes from here. Doesn’t feel like a show to me that will get better with time. Her character kinda redeems herself at the end just never could figure out why she didn’t at least pay back Schiable for paying to get her in her first event. You think she would’ve been appreciative for all he taught her. When he passes and she sees the collage he had of her achievements she regrets blowing him off.

[–] asom (6509) 3 years ago

There is not supposed to be a season 2. It's a limited series.

In the end she paid her respects, insisting to make him famous, even post mortem, as being the one that taught her how to play was much more valuable than the 10$

[–] [deleted] 3 years ago

Exactly. Both points. And I think Mr Shaibel was repaid multiples times just by her succeeding like she did. He obviously was very proud of her.

[–] Diddy1111 (364) 3 years ago

She redeemed her character in the end. But she was a bit hard to root for along the way. She kind of lost herself I guess you could say.

[–] [deleted] 3 years ago

I agree. I was with her almost all along but she began to lose me when she got rude with her surrounding. Especially with that girl who was a fan and came to meet her at the small local contest that she was invited. She just stared at her without smiling or saying a word. I thought to myself "Why are you such a bitch?"

But I started to be with her right after that again as I think she finally admitted she had a problem and started changing her approach and attitude.

I think it was the goal to make her a complex character that was not necessarily lovable from start to end. To me it just made her feel more real. More human.

[–] Quasimodo (16388) 3 years ago

SPOILERS

The way I saw it was that young Beth thought of her relationship with Mr Shaibel as a friendship based on their mutual love of chess. When he sent her the ten dollars she appreciated it and no doubt just never got around to paying him back.

Beth was a very self-centered person. After she had unsatisfactory sex with Harry she went straight back to studying chess and ignored him completely. But when she and Benny had good sex she was annoyed with him afterwards because he started to talk to her about chess when she wanted some pillow talk. It never occurred to her that she was just getting the same treatment from Benny that she had dealt out to Harry previously.

Beth's biological father rejected her twice, her loony mother tried to kill her and her adoptive father wanted nothing to do with her either. She was dealing with a lot of rejection and abandonment issues that made her feel unloved and unwanted. She called herself stupid and a piece of trash when she was angry with herself.

So in the last episode when she went back to the Orphanage with Jolene and saw Mr Shaibel's little shrine to her she concluded that he had loved her all along and that's why she burst into tears. Because she hadn't known and now it was too late to do anything about it.

[–] Ranb (7164) 3 years ago

The novel has Beth planning on playing her way to the top of the chess world by the time she is 21.

This would be good material for a second season.

[–] [deleted] 3 years ago

Huh... isn't that like... exactly what happens in the series?

[–] Ranb (7164) 3 years ago

Not even close. Beth was invited to a tournament to play some top ranked guys. It seemed to be a single elimination event, but I'm not sure. She did not play anyone more than once though.

Being the world champion is much more involved. In the novel it stated that; " In two years she could be playing Borgov for the World Championship. She had to qualify first by winning the candidates match, but she could win it. A neutral place would be chosen, and she would meet Borgov, head to head, for a twenty-four-game match. She would be twenty-one then." 24 games, not just one, against the current champion. That was back in the 1960's though.

This link says there is a 12 game match. https://chess.stackexchange.com/questions/16871/how-do-i-become-chess-world-champion Link to the handbook. https://handbook.fide.com/

The book made it clear she was a tournament champ, not the world champ.

I know little about chess, I looked this up on the internet.

[–] [deleted] 3 years ago

So in the series Beth travels a lot in the US but also in Mexico, France and Russia, where she wins against grandmaster and world champion, Vasily Borgov when she's 20 years old.

And you tell me it's not even close? Come on, man. What they planned in the end of your book... they wrote it and executed it in the series. It seems like you didn't even watch it.

And what's with the pasting of chess tournament rules? Do you think the story absolutely has to be "real life accurate"? Beth Harmon never even existed. Everything about it is fictional.

And don't tell me that you expected the series to be exactly like the book. Everyone knows that adaptations are almost never faithful to the original work. At best they take many shortcuts as it surely was the case here.

[–] Ranb (7164) 3 years ago

When I said "not even close", I meant that the Moscow invitational tournament she played in was not even close to what is required to be world champion. I posted the chess rules to show that a simple tournament as shown in the series and book does not make one a world champion. The book talks about this a bit.

What they showed in the series was very close to the book ending. In fact this show adhered to the source material much better than nearly anything else I've watched. I enjoyed watching this series more than anything else I've seen on TV.

[–] [deleted] 3 years ago

Thanks for these precisions on what you meant.

Yes, it really was a great series. Tell me. In your opinion... would reading the book, after watching the series, bring enough novelty/enjoyment ?

[–] Ranb (7164) 3 years ago

Yes, I did not finish the book until after I watched the TV series. The book gives more of Beth's inner thoughts.

The series is nicer in that it gives Belter, Townes, Mike and Matt much more of a presence than they had in the book.

Edited to add; Yes, Beltik is the name in the book and the series.

[–] [deleted] 3 years ago

You probably meant Beltik (Harry Beltik, in the series.. maybe they changed the name though). The book is shorter than what I expected ! So it makes sense that the author didn't really go in depth with them. It should still make an interesting read. Thanks.

[–] MovieManCin2 (26342) 3 years ago

No....just no.

It's perfect as is. They should NOT mess it up by doing a season two!

😎