How do you depict genius? Better, and lesser, efforts than the seven-part Netflix miniseries “The Queen’s Gambit” have tried and failed at the task. Based on a 1983 novel by Walter Tevis, “Queen’s” stars Anya Taylor-Joy (“The Witch”) as Beth Harmon, a troubled woman trying to break into the male-dominated world of chess grandmasters.
It begins in a stylish Paris hotel in the late 1960s, when a clearly hungover Harmon is awakened to learn that she’s late for a crucial game. We flash back to her tragic youth when her mother’s sudden death (either accidental or self-inflicted) lands her in a Kentucky orphanage.
The hour-long pilot stars Isla Johnston as the young Harmon, a serious and taciturn 9-year-old who stumbles upon a gruff janitor (Bill Camp) playing chess by himself, and becomes obsessed with the game. This happens at roughly the same time she develops a fondness for the tranquilizers casually dispensed to the orphans. “Gambit” conflates these two events and appears to imply (via special effects) that her cognitive leaps are drug-fueled. Depicting genius is never easy.
Somewhere in the belabored first hour, we learn (via a flashback within a flashback) that Beth’s mother was an unrecognized math genius whose beautiful mind was scrambled by mental illness.
Some may enjoy the series’ languid pace, but I suspect it owes more to the demands of “peak TV” than good storytelling. Harmon’s tale might lend itself better to the nice two-hour narrative that old-fashioned movies used to provide.
— “American Masters” (9 p.m., PBS, TV-G, check local listings) profiles conductor and musical director Michael Tilson Thomas. Eager to cross musical boundaries, Thomas has collaborated as an orchestra conductor with Metallica and, some decades back, the Mahavishnu Orchestra. Thomas received a Kennedy Center Honor in 2019.
— There are so many reasons to resent the ridiculously long holiday season buildup. For starters, it’s the time of year when Lifetime movies turn “nice.” A figure skater and a former hockey star collaborate to thwart an evil politician’s plan to close the local rink in the 2020 holiday romance “Christmas on Ice” (8 p.m., Lifetime, TV-PG). Halloween is still eight days away.
— Hulu begins streaming the 2020 period horror movie “Bad Hair,” in which the extensions and weaves of 1980s black salon culture become the stuff of nightmares.
— Streaming on Apple TV+, “Bruce Springsteen’s Letter to You” documents the production of a new album with the E Street Band.
TONIGHT’S OTHER HIGHLIGHTS
— The L.A. Dodgers and Tampa Bay Rays meet in Game Three of the World Series (8 p.m., Fox).
— A hot gold market provides new incentives on the season 11 premiere of “Gold Rush” (8 p.m., Discovery).
— Nature itself turns on the residents of a picturesque California town in Alfred Hitchcock’s 1963 thriller “The Birds” (8 p.m., BBC America, TV-PG).
— “20/20” (9 p.m., ABC) questions the veracity of a single jailhouse informant whose testimony was used in 35 prosecutions.
— Frank thinks twice about an officer’s termination on “Blue Bloods” (10 p.m., CBS, r, TV-14).
— A single mother’s (Laura Linney) brittle grasp on life begins to unravel after the return of her vagabond brother (Mark Ruffalo) in the 2000 drama “You Can Count on Me” (10 p.m., TMC).
CULT CHOICE
With movie theaters largely shuttered, TCM unspools two classic films featuring pivotal scenes of terrified moviegoers. A young Steve McQueen stars in the 1958 shocker “The Blob” (9:30 p.m., TV-PG), in which a gooey creature from outer space oozes into a bijou. Ballyhoo master William Castle had actual movie seats wired with buzzers for his 1959 grade-Z thriller “The Tingler” (11:15 p.m., TV-PG), starring Vincent Price.
SERIES NOTES
Julie Chen Moonves hosts “Big Brother” (8 p.m., CBS, TV-PG) … “American Ninja Warrior” (8 p.m., NBC, r, TV-PG) … Brief encounters on “Shark Tank” (8 p.m., ABC, TV-14) … Dean Cain hosts “Masters of Illusion” (8 p.m. CW, TV-PG), followed by a repeat episode (8:30 p.m.).
Finding the rough edges at the Smoothie King on “Undercover Boss” (9 p.m., CBS, TV-PG) … Two helpings of “World’s Funniest Animals” (9 p.m. and 9:30 p.m., CW, TV-PG), the second episode a repeat … “Dateline” (10 p.m., NBC, TV-PG).
LATE NIGHT
“The Late Show With Stephen Colbert” (11:35 p.m., CBS) presents a campaign coverage special … Jimmy Fallon welcomes Chelsea Handler, Sen. Bernie Sanders and the War on Drugs on “The Tonight Show” (11:35 p.m., NBC) … “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” (11:35 p.m., ABC) is a repeat.
Alicia Vikander, Maya Erskine and Anna Konkle visit “Late Night With Seth Meyers” (12:35 a.m., NBC, r) … Jeremy Strong and SuperM appear on “The Late Late Show With James Corden” (12:35 a.m., CBS).
