The Count of Monte Cristo

One of the truer adaptations I've had a chance to watch. While it kept my attention due to familiarity with the source material, it was not without disappointments. The minor changes to character arcs or plot points are forgivable (Vampa, Valentine, the "midwife"). I can even forgive the rather considerable changes to Caderousse's character... I was undeniably impressed that a small detail such as the velvet purse made it into the screenplay.

A couple more positives: the sets, locations, and costumes were stunning. You truly felt transported to an era of silken extravagance. These painted a very sharp contrast against the barrenness and rocky depths of the Chateau d'If and the island of Monte Cristo.

However, what it lacked was reasonable human emotion from almost every actor. I find it hard to believe that such a talented cast struggled to muster realistic reactions in some of the situations they found themselves. (Hermine was likely the most emotive.) At key moments, when you'd expect ANY emotion but bland acceptance, the opportunities were completely avoided. For instance, while Edmond was being transported to the Chateau d'If, and all the way to his cell, he went without hesitation or resistance: what innocent person would willingly be transported to a notorious hellhole if they knew they were innocent? By contrast, in the book, he found out where he was going, made a break for it and had to be forcibly restrained at gunpoint. The "cold and calculating" Count shone through no problem, but the moments of despair, and of humanity and empathy that could have drawn the audience in were sorely lacking. His character's moments of redemption from the book (such as revealing himself to Maximilien) were sadly not part of the final release which was a huge disappointment.

I found the soundtrack distracting at times and at the same time, found myself wishing it could have added more emphasis to whatever scene it supported.

Similarly, while the locations were stunning, I was disappointed in the cinematography. Overall, I found it sterile and static. Some well thought out continuous shots might served well to draw the viewer into the action directly.

In summary, worth watching, but don't get your hopes up too high with the acting or expecting characters that grow in depth over time.

This series is outstanding in every respect. Certainly, one of the best adaptations of Dumas' book that I have seen in my 61 years. The fact that it's an 8-part miniseries gives the production time to properly flesh out the characters and various plot strands.

Sam Claflin leads a top-notch cast (special mention for Michele Riondino, as Jacopo, and Blake Ritson, who is wonderfully evil in everything!), and the script is excellent.

Some wonderful locations and beautiful cinematography, along with excellent original music, by Volker. Bertelmann) complete what is an epic production.

I only hope it goes on to be seen by a wide audience, as it truly deserves to be seen!

I can honestly say, that I didn't miss a second of this fantastic version of the classic tale. The cast, the direction, the locations... all of it is perfect. Nothing less. I binged it all through christmas day and now I don't know what to watch next! It's that kind of adaptation. It's that good. It's worth a second watch, and thats what I will do. Watch it again :-) If you have the chance to stream it where you live, make yourself a good cup of coffe, sit back and enjoy the story of revenge, greed, ambitions, love, hate and all that lies in between. I really recommend that you do, and remember to enjoy the caracter of Dantes/ the Count. He is so brilliantly portraied as a man with complete control of his face and his emotions.

This is one of the greatest of revenge tales. Even Lew Wallace borrowed from "The Count of Monte Cristo" when he wrote "Ben-Hur" around 40 years after "Monte Cristo" was first published.

A few reviewers on here take issue with how this veers off from the book and don't give it a high rating for that reason. Every adaptation of "Monte Cristo" veers off from the book. That has to happen because the multi-faceted revenge story is complex and wasn't meant to be watched, just read. This veers off in ways that enhance the theme of this story.

This series is a great watch. We couldn't stop. We wanted to know what he was going to do next. And because there was so much irony, many scenes were surprisingly funny as Dantes' victims fell into his web.

Sam Claflin was detached, pained, clever, single-minded and charismatic, credibly portraying everything that Dantes needed to be to pull off his revenge.

I have seen less than 50 percent of Bille August work and never liked any of his movies, actually most of it made me wanna puke and think he is totally overrated. Mediocre movies that I feel are so poorly made but this one is just amazing.

Maybe it is because this Story is just so amazing, that his talent finally come to show. But this is the best version of the The count of Monte Christo I have ever seen.

Great acting, great flow in the story, cinematic experience was superb felt like a historical experience and the audio was amazing.

Our family, old and young, was glued to the screen for two days.

The only minus was the pretentious birth name of his daughter who had a minor role in the movie which she did, ok. So we withdraw the tenth star.