I don't often watch an entire season of something and enjoy every single episode of it, especially not when the story involved is mostly a case of a bunch of talking and an introduction of a lot of different characters, many of whom have names that are quite difficult to remember. This one really captivated me though and I think it is fantastic for anyone that is searching for a series that is really good.
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I nearly turned this one off when in the first episode the opening credits went onto the screen and everything was in French. This is not because I am opposed to foreign films, it is because I studied French in high school and absolutely hated that class and now the spoken French language annoys the hell out of me. No offense to any French speakers, you did nothing wrong!
This show, as you would expect is based on the famous book that many of us were required to read in school and if you were like me you hated this one less than a lot of the others that you were forced to read like Shakespeare. So if you read the book and remember it well you already know a lot of what is going to happen. Purists who loved the book might get a bit irritated by this because they do change a lot inside the story and also add some things because the book wasn't really long enough nor did it contain enough material for 8 hours of a series. I didn't mind and actually liked the changes. They didn't exclude very much of the source material, they just tweaked it a bit.
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When I saw that Sam Clafin was going to take on the main role, I was thinking "Peaky Blinders to this? How is that going to work?" Well, Sam proved a lot to me with his performance in this because he absolutely nails it and I have even more respect for the guy now.
I'm not going to bother with telling too much of the story here but it is a story of love, ambition, and a man who is falsely locked away in a prison where he is sent to die only to have him break out many years after it has been reported to his loved ones that he died in prison. With good information he got on the inside he manages to come into a ton of money and assumes the role of the Count of Monte Cristo and then sets about getting his revenge on those responsible for putting him in prison in the first place. He is methodical, patient, exactly, and nearly merciless in his response. It takes tons of planning in order to lure everyone into his trap and the way that he goes about it is just wonderful.
That isn't necessarily what makes this a great series though. What makes this a fantastic series is that this was clearly a labor of love for the makers of it because they spared no expense and the sets, the costumes, the choice of actors, everything about the production is just spot on. There is very little in the way of filler outside of episode 5 and I will admit that I turned that one off early. To be fair I was quite sleepy and it just wasn't engaging me as much as the others did.
There is almost zero French spoken in this film although at least for the feed that I was watching the intro credits and some of the words that pop up on screen are written in French. it's ok though, you don't miss massive parts of the plot or anything because of this.
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If you need a bit more incentive, how about a legendary actor that doesn't really take on many roles? Well that is exactly what you get with Jeremy Irons in the role of Abbe, that you may remember well if you were one of the millions of teenagers that reluctantly opened this relatively short novel in the 80's and 90's.
One thing about basing a mini-series on a book is that unless the studio is known for being greedy bastards, you already know that they are going to wrap things up in one season. Before I started watching this I made sure that they didn't try to stretch this out in a Hobbit sort of way to attempt to milk the audience as much as possible. It gets to the point and then gets it done then wraps it up and bids you adieu, which to me, is just perfect.
Should I watch it?
I think absolutely that you should. This will be an amazing thing for people that are both familiar and unfamiliar with the book. I think it actually could be a bit better for people that don't know the story and everything that happens ends up being a surprise. But for those of us that already know how it turns out it is really nice to see it on screen (again) anyway. I relished every moment of this (other than a bit of episode 5) and I believe that almost anyone else will as well!
As far as I can tell the only LEGAL way of watching this at the moment is on RAI TV in Italy, RTS in Switzerland, France Télévisions in France, or SVT Play in Sweden. There are other ways of course, but you'll have to figure that out on your own