Endgame

I am hard core chess fan and reasonably strong player and I always wished our game gets media attention and recognition it deserves. Here comes Endgame. The show is not really about game of chess, but rather about Chess grandmaster who applies his analytical skills to solve crimes. The brilliance of the show, is the way they display this thinking process. Arkady, the grandmaster imagines potential suspects as pieces on the chess boards, he actually talks to them to question and analyze their motives.

Shawn Doyle who is playing the main role- I absolutely love this guy.

From a chess fan standpoint, I greatly appreciate the fact that show producers went to a great length to reproduce quality chess content, in those occurrences where chess has actually being used. It references Donald Byrne - Bobby Fischer game of the century as an example. It warmed my heart to see real position from Kings Indian defense to be played in one of the episodes and fashionable chess equipment (like Chronos and Saitek Competion chess clocks). Compare this to some other shows where chess board placement is typically wrong. Guys- remember, white square on the right side of player with white pieces.

For someone who was born Russia, it is obvious the show was made for Western audience and full of Russian stereotypes. Arkady drinks vodka right from the bottle, talks about Putin wanting to kill him, often says "na zdorov'ja" (instead of na zdorov'ie), dances "gapak", etc. Still all those Russian shortcomings simply add charm to this show.

I hear the news that for some reason that is simply beyond my understanding there maybe no second season. That will be very sad. The story of the main hero has just been briefly touched upon and all the fans are anxious to find out more about him. I really hope that network gives the show another chance.

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.

I have to admit beforehand that after being so disappointed with recent detective shows that I was reluctant to give Endgame a go. However, upon prompting by a house mate, I decided to give it a watch. I was a little confused at first, expecting it to be more serious than it was. Once past the first few minutes, I found that the comedy elements were a perfect fit. The acting and direction did justice to the amazing work of an awesome scriptwriting team. I hope to see this series continued past the first season, though there seems to be a trend of late wherein intelligent shows are canceled. Fingers crossed the viewers take a liking to this series.