The Count Of Monte Cristo - Review

Review has spoilers, please be aware!

First off, and I'm not going to hide but I LOVED this series with Sam Clafin in the title role.

The Count Of Monte Cristo (or TCOMC from here on in), is yet another remake of the perennially favourite story by Alexander Dumas, and I have to say I loved loved loved it, even the change in some of the characters and events (see Caderousee and Haydée - although in both cases it was a good change, I think), it was fab.

I also loved the costume and sets - French second Empire set dramas, and dramas set - think all that gilt and flouncyness of the clothes, but it all worked so well, there was enough

I loved the pan-European casting and all played it amazingly from the most excellent Jeremy Irons as the Abbé Faria, to Sam Clafin in the title role, to Michele Riondino as Jacopo, Jason Barnett as Carderousee - just to name a few of the cast, but all were cast well for their roles and acted their socks off.

I also admire that the main characters played their younger selves too - it's a difficult production call, do you get a different actor to play younger for one or two scenes (or even episodes) and then change out? As the earlier part of the story only really takes one or so episodes, they went with the same actors, and although you know that the main characters aren't the ages they're meant to be (in there early to mid 20s, and maybe late teens for Mercedes) it's not by no means a problem to suspend your disbelief especially with the quality of the acting being shown.

The script and the cast enabled you to feel and empathise with Edmund's desire for revenge with also making the malcontents human, and for you to leave feeling a bit of sympathy with them too, at times. It also brought you on a journey from completely rooting for Edmund, and then from the mid-episodes onwards, maybe feeling that he's losing control of his rage of wanting to punish those that hurt him, but also showing his kindness in helping the children of his enemies balances and then turns that again to us questioning Edmund and this path of revenge maybe isn't so noble, when Edmund's trap of revenge for Villfort leads to a horrendous unforseen consequence. It's all very well played, plotted and structured..

The series is so watchable, I got sucked in wanting to watch the next show by the second episode, and I ended up binge watching all the eight episodes in a weekend, even with it being such a well loved and known story.

s tempered the pain of the d

So, it's a great series if you're able to catch it. Yes, it does change the storyline and chararcters but it's not too disastrous at all. The only slight disappointment to all this, though, was the ending - although beautifully filmed, photographed, and yes, a tad elegiac for the main characters too, there was a really hard cut after the final line, and it left me feeling a bit of a loss - I would have loved to see a long panning shot of the coast, with Mercedes and Edmund standing on that cliff with the crashing waves, either looking at each other or the prison, although cliche, it may have fitted well for a sumptuous and well funded production of a second Empire set book, as well as a nice payoff for watching an 8 hour sereis, rather than a two hour film; the ending given - a cut out right after the final lines - was too harsh and made me feel as though there might be another episode - and it was reminiscent for me of the end of the original French movie La Femme Nikita (although that was maybe too inspired by TCOMC ) where it ends with a hard cut, and it just felt maybe, too modern a directorial choice for a historical sumptuous series.

That being said, all in all it was an aces production and series, so please make sure to you can try to watch it if you can.

Review - King & Conqueror

So as I write historical drama, I also watch a lot of it too (surpirse!) - and I've been meaning to write a few reivews for shows that I've seen for a long time, but just now starting. I hope you enjoy them and hope that you are able to watch them yourselves too and maybe comment back after, and let me know what your thoughts are as well!

Also this review contains spoilers - if you love English history then you may already know the outcome but this review will delve into particular points about the series itself, so be warned!

It's out now in the UK.

About/Premise: It's about William (the Bastard) of Normandy and Harold of Wessex and the rush to claim the English throne when Edward (later known as Edward the Confessor) eventually dies, but we see the build up to 1066 and all that and then of course the battle.

What's to love: Juliet Stevenson and Eddie Marsan having a ball as Lady Emma of Normandy and Edward the Confessor respectively; Clare Holman as Gytha bringing her anchoring to the role as the Godwin matriarch, it's a smallish role at first but it expands as the series goes on and provides a hub for the whirl of the warring brothers and as things spin from Harold's fateful decision; the strong Clémence Poésy, in fact, the series has tried to do it's best to make the female characters strong and more important agents of the facilitation of the action and of course the historical record goes on to show that Matilda (of Normandy and Queen of England) was regent of Normandy many times in William's absence, so it's good to see the women not just as the incidentals but as the powerful women in the game too - also see Lady Emma, Queen Gunhild, Edith not the swan neck and Gytha; the costuming is fab, as well as the interior sets.

What's to like:

As it's a collaboration between BBC and CBS, there's been a good deal of money spent on it, so the production values are really good, you don't have the feel that things are going to fall down, the costuming/ sets are really great; and great actors of course. Of course there's a bit of CGI going on, it isn't too painful and fairly decent but it's nice to see the construction of Westminster in London, you get to see some nice working castles in Normandy, and of course the acting all round is more than above good.

Good that it sways you one way or the other for the main characters, and makes you questions which faction you want to back for the crown - first setting up you want the Godwins to claim power then making you root for the Normans and then back again, and then back and then back...and that it also makes all the characters involved have with lots of shades of grey and gain your sympathy at times.

What's to get annoyed with:

It's already been said by a couple of historians I follow, and I agree but they are all so dirty! Yep, it was a filthy age BUT nobles and people, even if they did not fully body wash all the time in baths, cleaned/washed their faces and hands on the regular, but here the characters were so grubby it honestly made me feel like a mother wanting to tell the actors to wash their faces all the time - and that really pulled me out of the drama.

Timeline / History changing - look I get it! I wrote a play were I changed the timeline to make stuff fit! Plus they've had to truncate all that history into only 8 episodes, but some of it, I feel was wrong, I mean, if you're doing a history thing why kill off Judith (i know, I know you want to give Tostig a reason to hate his brother and align with Hararda) and you made him at first a kind kid so you need a reason for him to turn against Harold BUT you're if trying to align with history and stuff why kill her? she goes on to be Countess in Bavaria, and you've tried to already make the history not so changed but this choice? It seems a little bit wrong - I mean, why not have made her a more Lady Macbeth kinda character (especailly as you killed off Lady Emma who had LM's tendencies) instead of killing her off and she's related to Baldwin - another strong female character and you could have shown her and Tostig maybe wanting to develop their own power together and break from both their families?? Also the reasons that upset Tostig that Harold didn't come to Northumbria don't really make much sense, I mean, even if Harold were in London and not Normandy, it's at least a week's ride to London and back then there wouldn't have been much Harold could go anyway? Also, don't they have midwives in Northumbria? This was, for a me, a little bit not great.

The history has the Godwins and the Norman's are all tangled up pre-1066, in fact the whole upper echelons of the time were, but also understand that to tell one narrative clearly you have to dispense with to much complication...but it would have been nice to have a longer lead up, although I understand there's only a certain amount of money available...

Edith (Harold's first wife in the Danish way - don't you know!) - had the nickname of Swan neck, because she had a long neck - again, understand about casting choices, but no long swan neck.

Hair - now, it's not what you think, lol, but it's the men's hair. I mean, the ladies have had the courage to go grey (especially Lady Emma and Gytha) but the all the men seem to have hairdyed up, especially Harold's father Earl Godwin and Baldwin, Count of Flanders. William's hair looks perfectly shiney at the age of being meant to be in his mid to late 40s (as well, to be fair as James Norton; but it could be that both of these actors haven"t yet started the silver turn )..just not 100 percent sure they would have had 'Just for Men' then -although if you're a historian and dying hair in the 11th Century was a thing, please correct me!); also it's been pointed out that the ladies would have been wimpled and their hair would have been covered but even if this was a tad bit annoying, I have to say I liked the Anglo-Saxon hair styles on them and their hair being shown.

Harold's moustache and the Norman's hair style - this interpretation of Harold, although dirty of face, didn't have the iconic mustache that he is seen with on the Bayeaux tapestry which is a shame - indeed only Swyen has a moustache (abeit with a beard comb) and Harold's dad have one so, a shame but at least the Angelo-Saxons hairsuite style was sorta of represented The Norman's hair - the iconic hair cut which also featured in the Bayeux tapestry does not happen; only William seems to have the anything nearing the iconic cut, although it's more a kinda mop-topish cut and at times you want to give it a good ruffle. Maybe the producers didn't fancy having to ask the extras to get hair cuts, and I suppose a lot of the extras that played Norman soliders would double up as other extras in other scenes as English or Vikings, and having a distintive Norman haircut would be problematic to work around/with, but still, it would have been good to have a least a few and at least William with the pugnacious, proto-type punk, iconic and agressive Norman hairstyle.

Ages of the characters - ...I get that you may want actors for certain roles, and also understand that sometimes that roles demand actors with more experience / heft, and also that an actor would fit the role in essence rather than this is what history is / plus that's the script and you need to find actors to then fill that role, or you want to work with a certain actor and it sorta fits or that's just the choice you're going for, even if it's written as a certain age, but, most of the ladies were under or over their ages of the characters; so just a couple of examples - Queen Gunhild renamed here in the series from Edith (she was the renamed historical Gytha Godwinson renamed Edith when married to Edward the Confessor - Gunhild was the name of another of the Godwin children but not the one married to Edward the Confesser - still with me rigth?!) was probably around the right age gap between her and Edward the Confessor - 20 years or so - but the Queen would have been in her 40s at the time of 1066, rather than in her twenties; also Matilda would have been in her early 30s and probably would have had most of her children by then rather than just having her first....also the men, Edward the Confessor would have been in his 60s (not sure what age Eddie Marsden was supposed to be playing as his hair was dyed but assume he was playing seemingly mid-40s?); Harold was about right for his age but his elder brother Sweyn seems to be in his mid-fifties, although died in reality around his 30s, Tostig is in his late teens / early twenties here but around his late 30s in reality in 1066.

Hardrada / the Vikings - yep this gets a whole section. Just, just...it was painful. Not sure if it was a production choice, the script, the director or a combination of all but that first scene when the messenger from England turns up to Norway, it was so, I nearly nearly laughed, it was just so so nearly too much...cutting off the messenger's head and throwing the head to Hardrada...the wearing of dark furs and dark everything - I mean, I had a moment where I thought, and it seemed that this introduction to the Norwegians wouldn't have been out of the realms of, if they had an exploding volcano in the background with Hardrada standing in front of it and laughing mancially with a bloodlied mouth eating a elk straight from carcass he had just killed with his bare hands. They did tone him down a bit in the following episodes but but it was just full of nearly nearly full on parody - espeically when he's at Stamford Bridge and standing in his tent in front of a blazing fire that a shoots more flames then it really would, plus the beheading and sticking heads on a multi-spike...t was super annoying as it seemed they weren't playing this production for laughs or trying to be over the top with things, or maybe they were but, yeah, it was bad.

Game of Thrones - (yep, I said it unfortunatley) it was starting to turn into Game of Thrones with the scenes between the Dukes of Normady and Brittany...with the Duke of Brittany giving his best Baron Greyjoy and having had Alain of Brittany (his son) his hand chopped off and in chains and sitting in a corner near his him, guarded by soliders....it just reeked of having the Duke of Brittany being protrayed as a Baron Greyjoy with his sea fleet....Also why was the Duke of Brittany in a camp all the time, sitting in a tent with his son next to him? Was it just to be near his sea fleet (the largest as was reiterated numerous times)? Why? Was he planning an invasion of someplace, or just wanted to be near his ships? The way he was also depicted, I half expected him to start eating raw fish too, he was shown as being slimy and wet, as though being Duke of Brittany meant that he was turning into a bit of a mer-man, it was all a bit weird, and as I said, seemed that the writers/directors/producers were strolling into GoT terriorty. Also the way the Duke of Brittany died, death via toothpick, it was just too much of a convience and a bit silly (although bloody), and also very handy that his son was sitting by his side to take over and give William what he wanted (the sea fleet)

The main conflict - just felt the reasons that the two went to war - Harold and William - there was so much ambiguity in the central reason, history is vague on it, and there is so much scope to make it really interwoven and why Harold claimed the crown, as well as William of course, just think it could have been so much more interesting and full of more incident - such as did Harold decide to give his promise because he wanted to escape Normandy, and he even make a promise anyway? It could all have been a lie on William's part to maybe? But then writing historical drama is so difficult and there are choices to be made, and you need to streamline the story, plus add the historical background.....

I could go on, but I think it's time to stop tapping on this. Loved that they helped to create this immersive world, loved that they focused on this time period, loved that they showed that behind the scences women have always been involved in desicion making at the highest levels and weren't just there doing their emboriday and having kids all the time, and had good skills and intelligence, as well as being involved in the king-making....loved the look (apart from the grubby faces).....but with the other things above and also the sometimes weakness in the script, at times letting it down - such as using the term Majesty, which wasn't used until Henry VIII some five hundred years later - and the script swaying a bit from being 'normal' everyday speak between the characters to more formal declarations and stiff speech (as it were), and along with the above points made it all a bit uneven, so I'll give it a good 6.5 out of ten. However, please watch it! there aren't too many shows produced about this transitional time in English history. I hope it also helps you to encourage you to find out all history behind it! It's really intertweined and makes you wonder what really happened, for William to become the Conquerer in England and if that was a good thing, or not...

Kindness

kindness - a simple word. I think about it a lot. I try to be kind as much as I can. I know I fail, and then I try again.

kindness does not mean "nice" I think or being a pushover or a doormat, although at times, I have negated myself for others because they needed that in that moment...but ultimatly that hasn't be kind to myself....kindness is what, I think we remember. kindness can be telling someone something difficullt - but not done with harshness or hate, or malice but with love in the hopes of helping that other - and it could be wrong of course...it can be leaving a bowl of water out for the bees, wasps and ants in the garden....a hug....or allowing some space.

but we must be kind, we long for it, seek it - are remembered for it at the end and after - not what we owned, not what we looked liked but our kindness, how our love showed in kindness not only towards ourselves, but others; that's what's kept in our hearts. Kindness is the soft touch, the cup of tea in silence, the giving of resliant and courage, love, love and kindness, as the Buddishts say, loving-kindness that's what we seek, take in and give. That's what we see in intentions how ever right or wrong or misconstrued. Loving-kindness we have to have that not only for ourselves, but for all. To be remembered, to be loved, to warm and be warmed. Not how much you own, not how much you earn, not how famous, or unknown. But maybe not that. If we have and try to show loving-kindness, we will never be unknown.