The Queen's Gambit, Big Sky and Soulmates

     My Top Three This Week 

Greetings to all my semi-constant readers. We are closing in on Christmas and Thanksgiving is next week. There are some very good options out there now and I will be watching the new season of His Dark Materials myself and I am catching up on a great series The Leftovers I wanted to finish. But here are a few really good things you should be watching.

1) The Queen's Gambit a Netflix Original is something you should be watching right now!! I cannot say enough good things about this miniseries. I love when I am immersed in a world I know nothing about. This time it is the world of chess. A young Beth is orphaned at the age of nine and placed in  an orphanage where she becomes addicted to two things- librium and chess. Since this was the early 50s the girls were managed with medication and Beth discovers the orphanage handyman Mr Shaibel playing chess with himself in the basement, She becomes intrigued and starts playing with him every day , learning quickly. He discovers that she has a unique gift and soon enough she is playing tournaments and winning . She is adopted at fifteen and soon becomes very attached to her new mother who later becomes her biggest supporter, pulling her out of school and registering her to play all across the United States. The better Beth, becomes, it also becomes apparent that she is paying a price. There are so many good actors in this , it would be hard to name them all but Marielle Heller is superb as Beth's adoptive mother. Isla Johnson who plays a young Beth is uncanny and Anya-Taylor Joy is heartbreaking as the grown up Beth. The set design, wardrobe and cinematography is without question one of the best I have seen lately.

2) Big Sky on ABC is a new series from David E. Kelley ( Big Little Lies, The Undoing) and it starts off with a level of intensity that will have you immediately hooked. One of the first series set in the Covid world- we don't know yet if it is just starting or the middle of it. A young detective (Ryan Phillippe  in the middle of a separation, gets involved in the disappearance of two girls on their way from Colorado to Montana who happen to be visiting his son. Without giving any spoilers we are introduced to some unsettling characters right from start. This is episode one and it ended with a bang. Literally. Some great actors -Brian Geraghty, John Carroll Lynch, Valerie Mahaffey, Brooke Smith and Katheryn Winnick all have great acting pedigrees and that Montana sky is its own character. This is on my must watch list.

3) Soulmates on AMC+ is an anthology series with a theme. From the co writer of Stranger Things and Black Mirror- this is set in a world just fifteen years from now. A world where there is a test that can determine your soulmate. These stories reveal the cost of finding a soulmate and whether that is the true love connection we are all looking for and what happens when your soulmate is married, a different gender or suddenly is deceased. Heartbreaking, disturbing and often thought provoking. Some very good actors -Charlie Heaton, Malin Ackerman and Bill Skarsgård . Some stories are better than others and all very dark. I liked it.

Bonus: Friendsgiving available for rental is a perfect frothy comedy antidote to all the drama. It has a great cast - Malin Ackerman, Kat Dennings, Aisha Tyler, Jane Seymour, Ryan Hansen are just part of the funny cast. A group of close friends gather for a dysfunctional Thanksgiving dinner and bring along some odd guests (Christine Taylor). Nothing groundbreaking but a fun watch.