'The Queen's Gambit' Scores As Netflix Most-Watched Scripted Limited Series To Date (variety.com) 69
"The Queen's Gambit," a Netflix exclusive about an orphan chess prodigy, set the record as the most-watched scripted limited series to date on the streaming platform -- with 62 million member accounts tuning in to the show in the first 28 days, according to the company. Variety reports: There's a caveat, though: The way Netflix reports viewing is based on the number of viewers who have watched at least two minutes of a piece of content, which is very different from how the TV industry measures audience. And the streamer cherry-picks which originals it decides to tout with the proprietary metric. Netflix boasted about the success of "The Queen's Gambit," saying that the show made the Top 10 in 92 countries and ranked No. 1 in 63 countries, including the U.K., Argentina, Israel and South Africa.
"The Queen's Gambit" premiered Oct. 23 on Netflix worldwide. The seven-episode limited series stars Anya Taylor-Joy alongside Marielle Heller, Thomas Brodie-Sangster, Moses Ingram, Harry Melling and Bill Camp. For now, "The Witcher" Season 1 remains Netflix's biggest original series overall in the first 28-day window with 76 million households choosing the title, at least based on the two-minute minimum viewing methodology (which the company introduced in the fourth quarter of 2019). Meanwhile, docu-series "Tiger King" was sampled by 64 million member accounts in the first month of its release, per Netflix.
"The Queen's Gambit" premiered Oct. 23 on Netflix worldwide. The seven-episode limited series stars Anya Taylor-Joy alongside Marielle Heller, Thomas Brodie-Sangster, Moses Ingram, Harry Melling and Bill Camp. For now, "The Witcher" Season 1 remains Netflix's biggest original series overall in the first 28-day window with 76 million households choosing the title, at least based on the two-minute minimum viewing methodology (which the company introduced in the fourth quarter of 2019). Meanwhile, docu-series "Tiger King" was sampled by 64 million member accounts in the first month of its release, per Netflix.
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Re:Netflix says they are following industry conven (Score:5, Informative)
While Netflix continues to be the dominant force in streaming services, it was recently revealed how it calculates its views, which was a bit controversial. If a user watches at least two minutes of a movie, TV show, or original series, it counts as a view. The company has revealed exactly why they decided on that as their viewing metric.
https://www.gamespot.com/artic... [gamespot.com]
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The reasoning seems to be to track intentional views. In that sense, I guess 2min does make sense. Given that Netflix is not ad-supported or pay-per-view, intentional views seems as relevant for them as any other. It would be good if they also published full episode views as well.
Here is the text for anyone too lazy to click the link above:
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"Given that we now have titles with widely varying lengths--from short episodes (e.g. Special at around 15 minutes) to long films (e.g. The Highwaymen at 132 minutes),
Re: Netflix says they are following industry conve (Score:3)
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Browser IMDb extensions to the rescue (Score:2)
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How many people watch Netflix on a browser anymore?
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You know, I've been known to invoke the five-second rule if I'm really hungry; but two minutes? That's just disgusting.
Plus there's no way my dogs wouldn't have gotten to it by then.
Re:I watched about a half hour. (Score:4, Informative)
And they have her playing games much like Kasparov's who was known to be quite disparaging towards women in chess.
That's probably because Bruce Pandolfini and Garry Kasparov were the chess consultants on the series.
Slow Start (Score:5, Interesting)
It does start out slow. The fist episode in particular. It picks up towards the end of the second episode. It's *really* well written. It's based on a novel by Walter Tevis, who wrote a few novels that got turned into good movies (The Hustler, The Man Who Fell To Earth.)
Re:Slow Start (Score:5, Funny)
It does start out slow. The fist episode in particular.
Wasn't interested before, but now I am intrigued.
Re:Slow Start (Score:5, Funny)
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Synopsis (Score:2)
Most of the psychosis with none of the antisemitism!
Ironically (Score:2)
There is little punching in episode one :)
Re:I watched about a half hour. (Score:5, Insightful)
Its not a chess show. So if you watched it for that, you're going to be disappointed. Which is something you should have realized- millions of people aren't going to watch a chess show, they wouldn't have sunk that much effort into producing one.
Chess was just a MacGuffin. It could have been any other competitive activity. The story was a coming of age story about a prodigy with a significant amount of trauma in her life and her overcoming it. And it was a pretty well written and acted series. But go into it expecting that, not expecting chess analysis.
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Selling yet another I-was-picked-on-because-of-my-brain nerd coming-of-age stories is kind of like selling the Hallmark Channel at this point. Really doesn't matter how good the acting or writing is when the storyline expectation levels off at painfully predictable.
I'm curious, did you watch it? I can't recall her being picked on at all really, adults liked her, the chess people liked her, orphanage people liked her. Frankly I was expecting people to not like her at some point. Even the people who lost were nice.
I suppose if you wanted to count the 5 minute montage of the other girls at the school being mean, but that was a really small part, and didn't really seem like it was because she was smart.
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This exactly. I was about her internal trauma, rooted in a single shocking event, not how mean people were to her.
It is basically a parable about PTSD.
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Maybe, but that's not what Queen's Gambit was about.
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I watched about a half hour. Not that interesting to me. And I watch chess videos here and there on youtube, so while I'm not a very good player I appreciate the game on some level.
Curious what other people see here that I don't.
What were you expecting? A chess tutorial?
It's a (fictional) story about the life of a girl who's a chess prodigy.
FWIW: I'm half way through and really enjoying it. I try not to judge programs/movies based on their premise, at the end of the day any subject can be interesting if it's well written/executed.
Re:I watched about a half hour. (Score:5, Insightful)
Curious what other people see here that I don't.
Further development of the story and characters that occur after your attention span maxed out?
Could be because of the ending (Score:2)
No spoilers but IMHO, it could be.
Because people are fond of chess... (Score:2)
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To be honest, its probably just because its a good old fashion excellent series. As a chess casual I enjoyed the shit out of watching the games and knowing what half of the moves are, and actually getting insights on why some of the ones I dont work, The actual drama is solid, the actress was amazing (my god, those eyes), they did everything rigtht. I'm not much of a drama watcher but I enjoyed the shit out of this one.
This thing deserves its praise.
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It's quite good actually, but yeah, be wary of the 100%'s
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RT is rotten to the core, yes.
Even before it started selling its ratings the "percentage" system never worked, something only has to score 6/10 to get a 100% rating (so long as all the reviewers give it a 6/10).
Much more important is the difference between the audience rating and the reviewer's rating.
In the case of the Queen's Gambit the scores are currently 100%/96% so it's a fairly safe bet that it's worth watching.
Never herad of it. (Score:1, Offtopic)
Currently watching Simon Peg's "Truth Seekers" which has been quite good and is loaded with subtle and not so subtle cultural references.
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Currently watching Simon Peg's "Truth Seekers" which has been quite good and is loaded with subtle and not so subtle cultural references.
Never heard of it. But, I'll post this anyway as a way to get attention.
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Currently watching Simon Peg's "Truth Seekers" which has been quite good and is loaded with subtle and not so subtle cultural references.
Never heard of it. But, I'll post this anyway as a way to get attention.
Just for balance I'll chime in and say I can't stand Simon Pegg. I literally have no idea why he's famous for anything.
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Or maybe just a recommendation of something to watch as everyone is still trapped inside. It's sad how fucking far /. has fallen.
7 and counting... * (Score:5, Interesting)
It's just like sports stats: how many attributes can we string together so that the DB query comes up with "most/best/biggest/longest/unique".
* "most watched", "scripted", "limited", "series", "to date" (this one's pushing things, but only a little), Netflix (implied by "streaming platform"), and the "caveat".
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You make it sound worse than it is.
Most watched - the metric under consideration.
Scripted - As opposed to documentaries, standup comedy, or reality TV shows (I'm sure there are others as well which fall into a "series" definition).
Limited Series - I.e. not some bought re-run of Friends.
Streaming Platform - Yeah no shit.
It sounds bad but the reality is people use this language because if they said "the most popular series on netflix" you just absolutely know some moron will come out "but more people watched
It's a decent series (Score:3)
Anya Taylor-Joy has quirkiness down pat.
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She's only a 6 or 7 at best and doesn't get undressed, so... (shrug)
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I have to disagree. Her beauty is unconventional, not standard starlet looks, and her expressions and mannerisms (I've seen her so far in New Mutants, Emma and this) are unusual. I think she's gorgeous in the same way as Aubrey Plaza, but for slightly different reasons.
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replace her with an ugly actress and see if the show is as successful...
Maybe in the long run, but I guess it would be a much slower growth. I only noticed the show in the overview because how gorgeous the lead actress was. It wasn't important to the story, but it sure caught the eye a bit faster than usual. Of course the period hair and dresses also helped ;)
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And she also plays very well.
True, but you only notice that after you have started watching the show :)
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This is true. I also think they played it right, showing her as an adult for a few scenes before going back to the orphanage days.
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I confess, I had just seen New Mutants, which she totally dominated, and I wanted to see her in ... well ... anything else. So we started watching this show.
So, yeah, it was Anya that got me into it, but I'm liking the story too.
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You need to clarify a little if you want to get your point across...
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I knew the Marvel Cinematic Universe was big, but damn I swear I've never heard of these guys...
It was very good (Score:3)
I watched the whole thing two episodes a night.
It was very good. Most TV is utter shite and this was not. As was said previously, it starts slow in the first episode, then gets going. The stuff in the school gets tied back in the plot later on.
It helps that I'm like chess and so I know my queen's gambit declined from my fried liver attack which adds some depth to the chess games that they actually show the moves for.
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In the school basement if I remember right.
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I liked the show overall, and I have recommended it to several acquaintances and relatives. I am usually ready to drop a show if it's too gay, too racially 'inclusive', too anti-white, too anti-male, or too politically leftist. Anything with Trannies is instant death (these are Not my only criteria for watchable entertainment, btw). I find most current-day mass media to be toxic garage, especially streaming content.
This show was decent in all regards. Good acting, Good writing, good characters, good music, good costuming, good settings, good casting, good MC arc.
Good settings and good costuming? Cool, I hope the lighting was as good. I mean, we're talking about the story of a chess prodigy here. The gaffer must be fucking legendary for those stage setups. And I sure as hell hope they got Michal Bay for those insane action scenes.
Come to think of it, perhaps we don't have to wonder why the definition of Netflix viewer was prematurely ejaculated at 2 minutes...
Arthouse style, atypical for Netflix (Score:3)
It does feel like an arthouse movie to me, quite different from most other Netflix shows which tend to look and feel much more generic than this.
Also. you don’t need to be interested in chess to appreciate it.
Limited Series = Good (Score:3)
The format of a limited series works for me. I get relative assurances that I'm going to get a full story, completed character arcs, etc.; and that I am not going to be subjected to cliffhangers that may or may not get resolved if the actors decide to sign-on, Netflix decides to cancel, etc. (ex The Dark Crystal AoR).
The Queen's Gambit series was well-executed, I enjoyed it more than I thought I would. The period pieces were immersive, and Taylor-Joy did a very good job (giant expressive eyes, she can move chess pieces with her mind, sort of like a cute girl version of baby yoda). As mentioned earlier in this thread, chess itself was incidental, it could have been just about anything that is high-pressure competitive endeavor. It was nice to see something intellectual get used though, as opposed to yet another "sports prodigy overcomes adversity" movie of the week. Chess worked well in the story since the competition could happen in solitude (playing the games mentally) with very little resources (growing up in a orphanage). It was also a more plausible field to deal with and overcome male chauvinism than other attempts I've seen.
I hope the series really did as well as claimed, and that we'll see more of this sort of thing as opposed to more watered-down Michael Bay-esque action movies, science fiction that previously would have gone to SyFy (back when they had original science fiction) and non-scary horror films.
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We watched the last episode last night. The opinion was that there is no way that Netflix will allow such a successful series to conclude. They will milk this thing for all its worth, with more seasons, spinoffs, merch, franchising, sponsorships. We'll probably see a Mandalorian guest appearance, Spock, James Bond, Buzz Lightyear and Aldrin.
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I can see it now... They'll recast it with a bunch of C-lister's in a sequel called "King Me!", where her adorable daughter picks up checkers and teaches the boys at school that girls are smart too!
Surprise (Score:2)
The most surprising thing about queen's gambit is the combination of:
* Not complete crap, in fact very well done.
* Appeals to the masses.
Usually, those are mutually exclusive. Scott Frank is apparently a genius.