Chess, Suspension Of Disbelief, And Dollhouse

The positioning of chess pieces on the set of a TV show or movie is a good litmus test for how seriously the producers of an imaginary world take the reality they’re creating. I was very disappointed to see Dollhouse fail this test in last night’s episode, especially since the show is normally so good.

Look at the lower-right square on the board (from Topher’s point of view). It’s dark. That’s wrong. The lower-right square, from each player’s point of view, is always the lighter color.

The funny thing is, that if you don’t know this rule, you still have a 50/50 chance of getting it right, in theory. But in practice, I’ve never seen it done right by someone who didn’t know what they were doing. There must be something about the pattern that makes people want to set up boards the wrong way. And when you enter the home of someone who has a chessboard out just to make themselves look smart, this is how you can tell.  (Challenge them to a game and watch them squirm.)

It also looks like the white pawn in the foreground is actually black. Since the game seems to have not yet begun, this is nonsensical.

No doubt, most people watching the show are not serious chess players. And yet, it matters, because it’s sloppy, and this is a show that, in many respects, is about getting details right. Topher surely is a serious chess player. Seeing the board set up the wrong way in his own office would probably drive him nuts. He himself is the architect of other fictional personalities (this recursion was intelligently discussed on The Daily Kos), and he would be horrified if one of them set up a chess board the wrong way, if that went against character.

All that said, the season just ended, the future of the show is in flux, so for the record: Fox, don’t cancel it.

In other news, this last episode (S01E12) saw a couple of my predictions about the story arc come true, at least in part.