Does PBS ‘Count of Monte Cristo’ Make Big Book Changes?

There are boatloads of onscreen adaptations of The Count of Monte Cristo. The latest version of Alexandre Dumas’ literary classic is a limited series starring Sam Claflin and Jeremy Irons, and it just debuted in the United States through PBS Masterpiece, right after the series premiere of The Forsytes, another Masterpiece adaptation of a literary classic. How does this new adaptation compare to its source material? Warning: Spoilers for The Count of Monte Cristo series premiere ahead.

The Count of Monte Cristo is an eight-episode limited series directed by two-time Palme d’Or and Oscar-winner Bille August. Claflin stars as Edmond Dantès, a young sailor who was falsely accused of treason and is imprisoned without trial in the Château d’If, a grim island fortress off Marseille, France. After 15 years of captivity, he finally escapes and discovers treasure, making him one of the richest men in the world. Under the identity of the Count of Monte Cristo, he plans to take revenge on those who wrongly accused him.

Irons plays Abbé Faria, Edmond’s cellmate in the Château d’If. The Gilded Age‘s Blake Ritson and Harry Taurasi play the villainous Danglars and Fernand Mondego, respectively, the men who frame Edmond, with Mikkel Boe Følsgaard as Gerard Villefort, the prosecutor who helps put Edmond in prison to save his career. Ana Girardot is Mercédès, Edmond’s fiancée, and Karla-Simone Spence is the orphaned Haydée.

The series first debuted in Europe and is now airing on Sundays on PBS as part of Masterpiece (the whole season is already available to stream through PBS Passport). When it comes to the first episode, PBS’s adaptation stays pretty loyal to the book. It’s a faithful adaptation that focuses its efforts on shooting on location in France, Malta, and Italy, making for a beautiful viewing experience. It’s also largely character-driven, spending ample time revealing the emotions motivating each character’s actions.

The Count of Monte Cristo‘s first episode shows Edmond’s return from his seafaring voyage, during which he was promoted to captain by the ship’s dying leader. He’s promoted instead of Ritson’s Danglars, who had a more senior position on the ship. Edmond, however, had been sailing for this company for most of his life and was a respected and loyal employee. Danglars had a shorter history with the company, but that mattered little to him.

His jealousy prompted the scheme to frame Edmond as a treasonous Bonapartist. Fernand, who coveted his cousin, Mercédès, helped Danglars write the anonymous letter accusing Edmond of treason so that he could separate his cousin from her lover for his own gain.

Edmond did carry a damning letter in support of Napoleon, but he was not privy to the letter’s contents and was delivering it to Villefort’s father in Paris in ignorance. Danglars and Fernand painted him out to be a spy, and the junior Villefort went along with it to protect his own interests. Caderousse (Jason Barnett) caught the men in the act of creating the letter and tried to stop them, but he didn’t do enough. When Edmond was arrested at his engagement party in front of his friends and family, Caderousse threatened to reveal the truth of what Danglars and Fernand had done to the authorities, but he backed down quickly when they threatened to kill him.

Villefort knows that Edmond isn’t a spy, based on his interrogation in the precinct. The fact that his father was the letter’s intended recipient prompted him to paint Edmond out as a Bonaparte spy. Edmond was immediately imprisoned in the Château d’If because political prisoners had no rights to a fair trial. The episode ended with Villefort warning his father of the letter in Paris and Edmond looking out the window of his jail cell, confused and scared. On the other side of the water, Mercédès looked out at the Château d’If in fear that Edmond might never come back.

The Count of Monte Cristo, Sundays, 10/9c, PBS