Cinematic feast, especially if you enjoy period dramas. This mini series also brings a good helping of side stories to add a bit of variety to proceedings, and keeps the chess to introductory level. I particularly enjoyed the Cold War themes, the stereotypical Soviet attitudes, and the recurring cast, as if they were conscious of closing all threads properly.

CONS: unfortunately commits the cardinal sin of being preachy, and that too of flawed dogmas. Not only does it show everything going swimmingly despite poor decisions by the protagonist, it also repeats vapid generalizations through the prism of her mothers voice. I've taken off 2 stars for these.