Le Comte de Monte-Cristo

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.

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.

Based in UK desparate to watch and lucky enough to watch on STV.

A beautiful mini series based on Alexander dumas novel. Stunning locations, architecture, music, art and most of all superb acting and directing.

Sam Claflin as Edmund/the count was absolutely hypnotic. Close up camera work on his eyes showed the pain, anger and loss of the character. Episode with Abe Faria (Jeremy Iron) was enthralling don't know where time went.

Actors playing Danglars, Vampa, Caderousse and Jacapo gave humour which I enjoyed too!

The villains of the piece played magnificently too.

A show not to be missed. I'm on my 3rd time round😁

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'm extremely happy with how this series was made. Not only have they found a way to make it realistic, but they've also found a way to make the story so precise that it could have easily happened in reality. One of the few adaptations I can say is wonderful. The cast and locations are breathtaking in their authenticity.

I appreciate the fact that they changed the story just enough to make it more feasible, as compared to random. The issue with the original was always there were too many things that had to align just right for it to work. That's not the case with this series, they made it very believable.

!0/10 well done, truly fantastic work.