Nerdy Squirrel Reviews by Pasckie Pascua

“Peaky Blinders.” (Netflix) British period crime drama. Six Seasons. Set in Birmingham, England, the series follows the exploits of the Shelby crime family in the direct aftermath of the First World War. The fictional family is loosely based on a real urban youth gang of the same name, who were active in the city from the 1890s to the early 20th century.        Cillian Murphy is the kind of a slight and pale dude who can be really scary, depends on a role. As Tommy Shelby, he is scary-cool; the kind of easy wickedness that’d convince a victim to sing and dance "Never Gonna Give You Up" before he gets the bullet. I mean, not even the guest-presence of the always-superb Tom Hardy, as Jewish gang boss Alfie Solomons, could out-scary Tommy. Yes, Paul Anderson as eldest bro Arthur channels textbook-anger and another guest Adrien Brody as mafioso don Luca Changretta also gives us “scary,” but nope. Perhaps the only character that sort of shudders Tommy a bit is Aunt Polly Gray (the

TV SERIES. “The Queen’s Gambit.” Netflix. Limited Series. A coming-of-age period drama based on Walter Tevis's 1983 novel of the same name. Mr Tevis, who died in 1984, is also the author of three novels that were adapted into major and successful films: “The Hustler,” “The Color of Money,” and “The Man Who Fell to Earth.”        First month that “…Gambit” streamed on Netflix, I wasn’t very interested, not because I didn’t dig those other Tevis materials. Actually, I love those books and movies! It’s just that, despite being a huge fan of chess, I reckoned the series would be boring. What are they gonna do? Sit all through 45 mins to 1 hour of an episode? Besides, I wasn’t so moved by Anya Taylor-Joy’s character in “Peaky Blinders” though I voraciously ate that series. Uh huh.        Anyhow, finally I watched “The Queen’s Gambit.” And oh yes! I love it! Not just Ms Taylor-Joy’s grip of the central subject Beth Harmon, but also the overall production values, especially the cinematogr