If you grew up in North America, you probably already heard of this famous story... perhaps you were forced to read it in high school which to me, completely ruins reading for kids but whatever, that was a long time ago. I was somewhat familiar with the Alexandre Dumas novel, but never read it. I think I intentionally avoided it because I have had such bad experiences with other classic novels in the past.
This one was featured prominently on my Plex offerings and it was the standard 60 minute episodes, only 2 of which existed at the time, so I decided to fire it up.
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Now this might be one of those things that ends up passing you by if you don't get out there and look for it because it isn't from Netflix (thank God), Amazon, or AppleTV. Instead is was produced by Mediawan, which is a much smaller outfit based out of France that has only existed since 2015. I was a little concerned when the opening credits started rolling in French language because while I will watch some things that have subtitles, there is something about the French language that i just find annoying. No offense to any French people out there but that is just the way I feel.
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The film takes place in old timey France for the most part, so get ready for a bunch of old timey talking that thankfully takes place in English, which of course doesn't make sense since they are meant to be in France.
Some may be concerned that this will be a talk-heavy production and that was a fear of mine but the very first scene in the very first episode will put your minds at ease as far as that is concerned.
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The boating scene at the very beginning looks like something out of a multi-million dollar project from a major studio and they didn't spare any expense. It looks truly real and absolute wonderful. After an episode through I can say that the rest of the production value seems to be equally top notch as well.
The story follows Edmond Dantès, a man who is unjustly imprisoned by a group of people, two in particular, that feel as though Edmond has taken something from them that they really want and with him "out of the way" they will get all that they want in life. It is tragic but effective. There is a bit of history that is built into the story surrounding Napoleon as well, but I am not sure how true any of that is. I'll look it up once the series really gets rolling.
All in all though, this series looks so engaging to that I had to force myself to turn it off at a certain hour because I was fearful it would interfere with my sleep. This has the makings of being one of the greats if they can manage to not DEI this one into obscurity. So far they haven't.
Should I watch it?
This film is so "hidden" at the moment that simply finding an English language trailer for it was difficult to accomplish. Perhaps it isn't actually ready for the world to see and I am just getting some sort of insider look via my group of friends that scour the internet for the latest and greatest.
I was extremely entertained by everything that this show has to offer so far. The acting, pacing, dialogue and music have all been exactly perfect. I can find no fault with this show and can only hope they continue down the path of excellence that they have already established thus far.
At the moment this is not legally available on ANY major streaming service in North America but it is likely being sold off to the highest bidder as we speak. For now it is available on RTS 1 (Switzerland), SVT Play (Sweden), France Télévisions and RAI Italy, although dates for the last two releases have not yet been established
It does look good d will be on the list for watching between Christmas and New Year. I enjoy historical films and have forgotten this story even though I watched the original version decades ago.