A Gentleman in Moscow

This is a well-written and well-acted series. It's nice when a show or movie does not have to depend on special effects and action to be good.

As others have mentioned, I just have trouble believing some of the casting. It's bad enough that most of the actors have English accents. Having more Russian actors, or at least actors that look and sound Russian would have been preferable.

The most unbelievable aspect of the casting is the number of actors of African descent. I have a hard time believing there were that many (if any) people of African origin in Moscow at that time, and I'm sure none that would hold a position like Minister of Culture. Very unbelievable. I know when I visited Russia (including Moscow) around the year 2000, the only African people I saw were young, male African exchange students going to a university, and I saw less in all my travels around Russian than I see in one episode of this TV series.

Whoever came up with such a brilliant idea as casting black/brown or clearly "Mediterranean" people as ethnic Russians deserves the order of the Soviet Union's labor champion.

For someone who saw the USSR as it was before its fall, this series is some kind of black comedy. And it's a shame - because there is potential in the script and execution.

Unfortunately, such good material fell victim to contemporary politics which perfectly resembles the communist Soviet madness. It's a bit like irony made a big circle and kicked the creators in their bare buttocks.

There is also a lack of "Russian soul", in both positive and negative sense. You can feel that this is a Western vision of the East created without "physical" knowledge of the issue "Russia is a state of mind" - this is a saying that requires a deeper understanding to properly convey it.

I loved this series, especially Ewan McGregor is as excellent as always & so was the actor who played his captor. The set was magnificent!!!

My only complaint for a beautifully written and Art Directed series is the utterly ridiculous and insensitive "diversity " casting. What an insult to all Russians that their culture is trivialised by casting people of all different ethnicities in roles that are historically completely incorrect. Millions died in this revolution and each culture deserves the respect by movies and TV to not smother it in silly PC characters. Would they remake ROOTS with an Asian cast? No, because that would be an insult to that culture. It's also so distracting as you cannot suspend your disbelief when the clang of the casting smothers every scene.

I am a huge fan of the novel, A Gentlman in Moscow and Amor Towles other novels. It is an instant classic. I have been waiting for a year or more for the television series but I am reserving judgement until I can see all the episodes. To write a review before based on a couple of episodes is ridiculous. The book is a work of art and reads like a fable. It is not intended to be a history of the Russian revolution. It is about the triumph of the human spirit against authoritarianism, ignited by the spirit of a unique young girl. It is charming, profound and beautifully written.

The author is on record saying he is very happy with the adaptation so I am eagerly waiting to see it in its entirety before passing judgement. Any video adaptation of a book has to leave out a lot of nuance and rarely works well. To me the book is inevitably better as it can accommodate much more detail but, given the author's enthusiasm, I am optimistic and await the full series with great anticipation.

I loved the book A Gentleman in Moscow so much that I read it as slowly as possible so I could savor every beautifully written page. I was was looking forward to the show and liking it well enough until the second episode when diverse Bolshevik and Russian characters started appearing which is completely historically inaccurate. It's frankly ludicrous and does such a disservice to the book I love so much, because otherwise the set, costumes, hair, etc are appropriate. The casting is distracting and makes it hard to enjoy the show. Why not cast ethnic Russians and stay true to the book?

This show also isn't going to age well given the historical inaccuracies. Disappointed.