Belgian Chess History

The wire is one of the most critically acclaimed television series in history, charting at number six in IMDB’s top list at the time of writing. If we leave out documentaries — or, equivalently, David Attenborough series — it is even number four. It is about drug dealing in Baltimore as seen form both sides of the law. In the third episode of the first season, there is quite a famous scene where the lieutenant of some local drug cartel catches some of his crew huddled around a chess board. It is such a famous scene that one can find several people’s takes on it online, with detailed breakdowns of the symbolism involved and the way it reflects the culture of the impoverished urban youth of the USA.

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By a bit of an accident, I recently stumbled upon the existence of a franchise with three different TV-series, two made-for-TV movies, a series of comic books, and three computer games — the most recent one for Windows 95. Yet I had never heard of it before. Also it’s kind of shit. In 2009, IGN named the original series the 77th best animated TV-show of all time, but how something as bland and lifeless as this gets in a list like that while the Tintin animated series doesn’t is a mystery for the ages and it is probably why God has averted his gaze from the eternal disappointment that is the human race. But perhaps I should tell you what Jonny Quest¹ is about. I’s about a boy, his father — who is a greatly sough-after professor — their bodyguard, an Indian orphan named Hadji, and their dog Bandit. Together, they live through all sorts of silly adventures.

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