Edward L.

The story traces a familiar arc beginning with a little girl in a car accident who finds herself in a not-quite-Dickensian American school for orphaned females. The little girl in question becomes a chess prodigy by downing tranquilizers and hallucinating in her bed. Later on this vacuous redhead attends high school, is victimized by Mean Girls and has loveless sex while climbing the international chess ladder, aided by copious doses of booze and tranquilizers. The formula requires a setback, and it's a doozy. The formula also requires sobriety, redemption and triumph, and guess what happens? Solid acting and costumes propel this perpetually told tale above its streaming peers, and at only seven short episodes it's time not wasted. You might even consider finally learning how to play chess. The mood will pass. You'll never be as cool as Beth Harmon.