Endgame

Last weekend was spent (when I wasn’t wearing out my feet keeping up with Em) online watching TV shows on Hulu.com. Catching up with old shows I haven’t seen in a while and discovering new shows. One show I discovered is called Endgame.

According to The Chess Website:

The chess end game is where tactical thinking dominates. You can have an overwhelming advantage but lose the game because of poor end game tactics. You can also be down material, with all hope lost, and come back and win with great end game tactics.

The main character is Arkady Balagan [Shawn Doyle] a Russian chess master residing at the Huxley Hotel in Vancover. His fiancée was murdered in a drive by shooting which he witnessed, this has traumatized him to the point where he cannot leave the hotel. Unfortunately since he cannot leave he has run up quite a bill with the Hotel and they are threatening to throw him out. He starts solving mysteries, with his above average intelligence and rather unique view of things he sees things the police and others don’t.

Since he can’t leave the hotel he needs people to do legwork for him, and this leads to an interesting cast of characters. First there’s Sam Besht [Torrance Coombs], a grad student who trades games with Balagan for his help, Danni is the pretty bartender who likes him and feels grateful to him (the first mystery involved someone she cared about), Pippa [Melanie Papalia], the sister of Balagan’s murdered sister, who helps him hoping he will return the favor and help solve her sister’s murder (something he apparently can’t face and therefore can’t help her with) and Alcina ALbeniz [Carmine Aguirre] the maid assigned to his room who thinks Balagan is ‘a child’ and (I guess) feels sorry for him or thinks he is helping people and so is willing to help him when she can, “Mr. Balagan I have a job.” He also sometimes gets the very reluctant help of the head of hotel security, Hugo Lum [Patrick Gallagher] a former homicide detective.

He pictures scenes in his head, he interviews people in his hotel room or by phone, he talks to little people on his chess board. He solves the mysteries and manages to squeak by with the hotel manager in regards to his bill. It is a very charming show.