Saturday, January 2, 2021

Two Enjoyable TV Mini Series on HBO and Netflix


 Last month, I finished watching two entertaining miniseries on Netflix, The Queen's Gambit and the Undoing. The Queen's Gambit is about a young female orphaned chess prodigy breaking the glass ceiling on the male dominated world of International chess. 

The Undoing is a high budget thriller about a pediatric oncologist suffering from Narcissistic Personality Disorder (NPD) which reminds me of our current Lame-Duck President Donald Trump.  

The Queen's Gambit is a 2020 American coming-of-age period drama streaming television miniseries based on Walter Tevis's 1983 novel of the same name. It was created for Netflix by Scott Frank and Allan Scott, and written and directed by the former. Beginning mid-1950s and proceeding into the 1960s, the story is about an orphaned chess prodigy on her rise to becoming the world's greatest chess player while struggling with emotional problems and drug and alcohol dependency.

The Queen's Gambit was released on October 23, 2020. After four weeks of viewing it became Netflix's most-watched scripted miniseries. It has received critical acclaim for Anya Taylor-Joy's performance as Beth Harmon as well as for the cinematography and production values. It has also received a positive response from the chess community and is credited with spurring a resurgence of public interest in the game.

Audience viewership

On October 28, 2020, the series became the most watched series of the day on Netflix. On November 23, 2020, it was announced that the series had been watched by 62 million households since its release (according to the way Netflix itself reports viewership), becoming "Netflix's biggest scripted limited series to date."Of this, Scott Frank stated "I am both delighted and dazed by the response" while several outlets characterized it as an "unlikely success". The series topped the Nielsen's U.S. streaming rankings for the weeks of October 26 to November 1, 2020, and November 2 to November 8, 2020.

On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, The Queen's Gambit received an approval rating of 100% based on 74 reviews, with an average rating of 8.06/10. The website's critics consensus reads, "Its moves aren't always perfect, but between Anya Taylor-Joy's magnetic performance, incredibly realized period details, and emotionally intelligent writing, The Queen's Gambit is an absolute win." Metacritic gave the series a weighted average score of 79 out of 100 based on 28 reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews".

In a column where she argues "So many lives would be different if we’d had 'The Queen’s Gambit' 50 years ago," culture critic Mary McNamara said, "I loved 'The Queen’s Gambit' so much, I watched the final episode three times."

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The Undoing


The Undoing is a beautifully shot mystery that benefits greatly from Nicole Kidman and Hugh Grant's performances - if only its story was as strong as its star power.

76%

TOMATOMETER

Critic Ratings: 89

68%

Audience Score


Audience reviews
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It is not easy dreaming up a new plot for a who‑dunnit‑thriller but this episodic suspense movie crept up on me incrementally. So much so before I could start my second carton of popcorn I was not only on the edge of my seat but so glued to the screen I’d forgotten how ...

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BUNNY REVIEWED‑ The Undoing ✨ (An HBO Miniseries) When the early reviews of this show by the so called "professional critics" hit the internet 4‑5 weeks back, for someone like me who's just watched the trailer of it and kinda liked it, wondered, what's exactly could it ...

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Meanwhile, here are two trailers for the #1 show on Netflix this week!
 


It is muckomentary/satire film guaranteed to make you smile!!

 

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