i watched season 2 of russian doll, it had its moments but was largely disappointing. tried to do this pseudo-dark thing but it just felt way too plotty and convoluted, and the alan stuff was even more of a bland aside (for an already bland character). without the tightly wound small-scale premise of s1, the self-satisfied hipster writing and lame kooky side-characters were more grating as well. i'm surprised i seem to be in the minority on this, i'm 50/50 about continuing with any future season.
also finally got on the queen's gambit. my concern was that no amount of chess would be able to elevate a mediocre period drama, but it turns out that no amount of mediocre drama (it's not so bad in fairness, fairly understated) can drag down a killer chess prodigy story. having grown up for over 30 years watching godawful representation after godawful representation of chess in tv and movies (there's an atrocious example in s2 of russian doll, incidentally), it's incredibly refreshing to see a show actually fucking taking it seriously, and impressive that they managed to frame actual chess games in a way that's exciting for people who know nothing about chess.
there's still a few missteps and eyerolls here and there, but also many flickers of recognition from my own chess upbringing--i've enjoyed a lot of little accurate details that i assume most people would miss. i love that she behaves exactly like all the annoying fucking kids i've played against, playing too quickly and aggressively, constantly staring at you, getting up and wandering around between moves, all of that shit is totally accurate and also makes me want her to lose lol (thankfully i usually stomp the dumbfuck kids i play against). anyway, seeing a chess show blow up with the normies was even more surreal than when GoT normiefied epic fantasy; maybe now i can impress girls with my modest chess exploits?
i'm gonna try to finish that this weekend, as well as watch the new norm special of course. i'm back on my tv shit and want to catch up with the last couple years. in terms of newish shows, currently on my watchlist are severance, yellowjackets, the midnight mass, the north water, invincible, ted lasso, s2 of the terror. any other high priority recs?
