EPMD57

If you want to write a love story then you better have your protagonists be at least somewhat likable. The Adam character was impossible for me to like. Who could like a bitter, depressing, jerky drunk driver? If you can get 20 minutes into this movie without hating him then you probably weren't paying attention. When he starts interacting with the other lead, he doesn't get much better. And to quote her, "He isn't even that good looking..." so I wonder why she bothers with him. From everything we saw, she should hate him.

The mother in the opening scene was also a tough watch. I can't believe a director saw that and decided it was acceptable.

There might be a decent story somewhere in this movie, but it is impossible to look past the obvious. Every actor in this movie is working hard to speak English. The accents sound charming, but every line is delivered in an unnatural, stilted manner. Acting in a foreign language is very difficult, and it shows here.

On top of the language issues, the characters themselves are cartoon-ish. Every character trait is played to the extreme. Nothing is subtle. The old man keeps grabbing his rifle, ready to shoot anything. When two characters are interested in each other, they act so obviously that the viewer gets second-hand embarrassment from it. When characters are supposed to be drunk, they stumble around worse than newborn animals.

The setting is lovely, but you need more than a nice backdrop to make a movie work.

David Howell is a genius player and a key part of this show, but I much prefer him in the role of proper chess analyst during actual chess broadcasts. This reality show version of chess is too corny and too ignorant of what is actually happening on the board. They want to focus on narratives rather than chess.

If you are a chess player then you are unlikely to enjoy this. You don't really get to follow the games since the show only wants to give you superficial talking points. Howell does his best to simplify his expert analysis, but I don't know any chess fans who want anything reduced to beginner commentary.

I gave up before the end of the first episode. If someone wants chess competition, check live broadcats of chess games. If someone wants dramatized chess then watch Queen's Gambit. Even documentaries of past chess world championships are much better choices than this show.

Howell deserves better.