Endgame

I absolutely LOVE Endgame. The cast is phenomenal, the story is original, and it is one of the most intelligent shows today on ANY network- Canadian or otherwise! Shawn Doyle as Arkady Balagan is AMAZING and a true credit to Canadian talent! While his chess master may first come across as arrogant and ego-centric, Doyle has the ability to play Balagan with such depth and complexity that you cannot help but be astounded by his genius and saddened by his pain. Balagan can see beyond the obvious and notice the nuances of any problem he encounters, except the one case he has yet to solve- that of his murdered fiancée. I was first drawn to the series as a longtime fan of Patrick Gallagher (True Blood, Glee, Men of a Certain Age), but now I cannot wait to watch it every week to see all of these incredible actors portray this touching and brilliant story.

what I usually do is only watch the first 20 min of a new show and this let's me know if it is something I will enjoy to watch, and I can tell you that with-in the first 10 min I new that this was going to be a very entertaining show to watch. I keeps you under suspense the entire time, and it is very well written, and the acting is fantastic... very sad to hear that it has been cancelled, what a shame especially when there was finally something to watch that was worth watching... The story lines are very interesting and it is very difficult to tell what the out come will be. Most of the shows on TV now are so very predictable and bravo to the writers that pulled this one off and did a fantastic job doing it, and the production value is great as well.

Looking at crimes from the point-of-view of a chess game and the players as chess pieces is fascinating. The chemistry of this ensemble cast led by damaged Russian Ex-pat Chess-master (played by Shawn Doyle) is a testament to the phrase "friends are the family you choose". Albeit a dysfunctional one, but then what family isn't a little bit? I was curious to see where the storyline was headed. I really would have liked to see the back story of the character of Sam (played by Torrance Coombs). Where does he go when he's not assisting Arkady solving mysteries in trade for chess matches? It's really nice to see a Vancouver, BC based show actually play as Vancouver, BC. Sadly it looks like we'll only see one season. A shame as the show was just hitting its stride.

When I first so a commercial for this show I thought it looked like an interesting idea. Definitely worth checking out. But I wasn't expecting to enjoy it as much as I did. The first episode was great and had some good performances. My favourite would obviously be the main character Arkady Balagan played by Shawn Doyle. He was funny and entertaining, but at the same time seemed pretty serious. Katharine Isabelle as Danni was something I looked forward too after hearing she was in the show, and like always I wasn't disappointed. The last notable was Brendan Fletcher as Merritt Singer, even though it was only one episode he was in and not the main cast, he still was entertaining to watch. The story itself although simple and basic had a small guessing games too it, and the way that Arkady solved the crime was humorous and creative. After the first episode I'm anticipating watching the next. Especially can't wait to find out Arkady's back story.

Among all the "crime" shows out there, i enjoy this one the most. Intelligent TV is usually an oxymoron, but not in this case! I love the way Balagan doesn't have to resort to anything physical,but uses his intelligence to solve crimes. And the use of chess moves to work out the sequence of events is genius on the part of the writers! It is well acted and I especially like that the show is set in Vancouver, and you know it's set in Vancouver; not in some anonymous American city!

I really hope the network gives this a second season to gain more viewers. I have friends as far away as Isreal who really love this show.