I had heard a lot of good things about this show, but prior to seeing it through Rose Scholars, I hadn’t got the chance to give it a try. My only prior knowledge of the show’s premise was a female chess prodigy main character, and the first episode alone really piqued my interest and surpassed my expectations. This episode was a great opener to Beth’s character, showcasing her childhood hardships and leading up to how she sought to escape from these troubles through chess. It was interesting to see how her growing dependency on the pills given to her at her orphanage combined with her growing fascination with chess both hindered and helped her leave the orphanage. She became caught in a cycle of wanting to improve at chess, using the pills to help her visualize the chessboard, and then gaining a reliance on both as a means of escapism. The cinematography of the episode as well was very interesting, and the climax of the episode with her collapsing from taking too many pills helped signify to the audience just how unsustainable this coping mechanism was and revealed a hidden impulsive nature to her seemingly serious character.