New Canadian series Endgame, in which a former World Chess Champion uses his analytical mind to, yes, solve crimes, doesn't seem quite so goofy.Still, though: a chess player turned gumshoe? It's hard not to approach Endgame without a dollop of skepticism.
The good news is that the series does not dwell on the chess bit. Once the pilot establishes that Arkady Balagan (Big Love's Shawn Doyle) is a master of the game -he does that old chess trick where he walks down a line of people studying boards and beats them all, while maintaining an air of dismissiveness about the whole scene -it dispenses with the rooks and pawns other than as part of the set design. This is a positive sign, because a show in which the protagonist actually explains chess strategies while catching bad guys would have been too much to bear.
The good news is that the series does not dwell on the chess bit. Once the pilot establishes that Arkady Balagan (Big Love's Shawn Doyle) is a master of the game -he does that old chess trick where he walks down a line of people studying boards and beats them all, while maintaining an air of dismissiveness about the whole scene -it dispenses with the rooks and pawns other than as part of the set design. This is a positive sign, because a show in which the protagonist actually explains chess strategies while catching bad guys would have been too much to bear.
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