MP

danglars is a greedy capitalist who values money more than people, and sees everything he wants as his birthright. not only does he jump on the chance to get dantes out of the way, he also treats his wife and daughter like props in order to line his pockets, and steals from the charity he runs. anything for a few extra bucks.

fernand feels entitled to mercedes' affection (and implicitly her body) and gets rid of dantes so he can have what's "rightfully his", taking advantage of mercedes' grief and loneliness after the fact to trap her in a marriage he knows she doesn't want. when they have a son, it gradually becomes clear he only sees that son as an extension of himself - the second albert stops being the perfect, dutiful son, the second he says "no, what you did is wrong and i won't stand for it", he calls him a coward and a disappointment. he sells a woman and her child into slavery and it literally never occurs to him to be ashamed because to him, they weren't real people, at least not people worth mourning. fernand is fundamentally a moral coward; he'll backstab anyone to get what he wants, but folds immediately when faced with the consequences of his actions.

villefort probably displays the most redeeming qualities; we see he loves his children, and unlike the other two, he's eventually able to see what a bastard he is. but he chooses to do something he knows is wrong for the sake of advancing his career, and rather than own up to it, he doubles down for over twenty years, becoming a harsh and calculating judge where he once promised to value mercy and compassion. one of the most fascinating lines in the novel is when villefort admits to another character that he's so merciless to the criminals in his courtroom because seeing other criminals - criminals he thinks of as being "worse" than he is - assures him that, at the very least, he's not the worst humanity has to offer. and while he does love his kids, he fails as a father when he refuses to see how abusive his wife is to his daughter, and his inactive role in his children's upbringing lets his wife wreak havoc on several people's lives. so much could've been avoided if villefort had bothered to notice anything going on with valentine.

The scene of Danglar watching Edmund put the letter in his pocket is so funny. He’s just standing there 3 feet from him and like lurking.

Stop making out. Why do they always make these two makeout all the time. You know there’s other ways to show they love each other?? Also it’s the 1800s???

Why is he (Danglars) writing with his right hand??

YESSS!!!! Call him out Noitier!!! Love the dynamic here. Love this old man

Spider? (When he climbs the wall to look out the window)

“Please sir please” Oliver Twist sounding line

Mercedes is so FUCKING gorgeous.

I prefer the book version for how he met the smugglers and all that. Also is Ali using French Sign Language (LSF)? Ali in the book is Nubian though so maybe some other sign language?

There are so many flashbacks which like cool but also I just watched that…

I’m so happy they included the scene where he looks at his own arrest records.

I don’t like that he told caderoussee his identity. But it does a good job of explaining how the count gets to know all this information about his conspirators.

I love Franz. I love his glasses. I love his little hair do. I love his outfit. He’s so cute and adorable.

I’m not even completely mad that they cut out Bertuccio. The midwife character is being combined with the sister, but I don’t completely hate it. It adds a woman into the movie that has a more substantial role and a woman of color too which is great to see for a movie set in 1800s France. Although I did like how the two revenge storylines intersected and how their revenge differed. It does make more sense for her to know all these details that I wasn’t quite sure why Bertuccio knew them. I guess he did stalk Villefort for a while.

THEY HAVE THE GARDNER CHAPTER INCLUDED!!! But the count poisons him?? I prefer the bribe. Also where is his garden?

Euguinie is so gay in this. Love her boyish outfit.

Vampa definitely hates the count.

“He’s answering them as we speak” crashing out immediately

Hmmm interesting change of making Vampa not only the fake aristocrat but to make the aristocrat a descendant of Cardinal Sparta and not a Calvacanti. I think it helps unite the story in good strong way. Curious how this goes on.

Love how Euguine masculinities her outfits whenever she can. Absolute icon.

Why is Luigi Vampa so gay. What is going on with his shirt/vest thing???

My poor baby Franz. That confession reading broke my heart for him. Also that confession took FOREVER to dictate I just know it.

What do you mean it doesn’t take a bunch of people dying for Villefort to think someone in his house is poisoning people??? At least he investigates it further (after he sends her to prison though)

I also just now noticed the horse scene never happened. It is kind of a confusing scene that would be hard to make but it is a fun scene that is talked a lot about in the book.

I’m going to kill Fernand. How dare he harm a single hair on Mercedes’s head!

I’m crying at their conversation. And then he pulled out his watch from her!!!

I wish they had kept Haydee going to court of her own volition.

I love the gay man/lesbian solidarity happening in this episode. Run off to Rome my beautiful ladies. Sing in the Opera and kiss your girlfriend!!!

Madame de Villefort’s bird earrings are so cute and I think they are crows which is so perfect.

Mercedes is always looking perfect.

RUN AWAY AND BE HAPPY IN ROME WITH YOUR LOVER!! I love how featured this couple is featured. It’s so worth having less of my favorite other couple (valentine and Max)

How poetic. Another man taken away from an engagement party

Edward is not as much of a brat as he is in the book.

Villefort is the only one to never find out who the count really is. The count shows him the tiniest bit of mercy in not revealing himself and opening up more guilt and pain when he just lost his wife and son. He is the only one of the conspirators who I feel bad for. He ruined an innocent man’s life, but at least it was a stranger and not someone he knew personally. He lost his friends, his job, his sanity, his wife, his son, his MIL, his father, and nearly his daughter.

What was the point of having Ali in this show??? He doesn’t do anything???

The series spends so much time doing flashbacks to scenes that happened in the episode or the previous episode. It's so unnecessary and at a certain point ridiculous.

I still don't like how they did the Villefort plotline. I watched it this time with my friend who suggested that they may have cut it to give equal screentime to the conspirators. I could see that and it would also explain why they included more minor parts of the book such as the telegraph tampering and the lesbians (which I love that those were included but also, I love Villefort's drama).

Why did they make Villefort's son's name Gaston???

I'm more confused by the midwife plotline. Like the timeline doesn't make much sense. Baby is born, midwife adopts it, midwife starts telling people what Villefort did (soon after baby is born), midwife is put into insane asylum (assuming fairly quickly). BUT somehow she also raised the baby?? While being in the asylum??

I don't like how they had Haydee go to court because the count told her to. She seems not really set on revenge or justice in this adaptation. She's much more passive which is crazy cause she doesn't do much other than the court scene and that one conversation with Albert in the book. I am glad that her and the count don't end up together. I'm so glad we were spared of that odd icky dynamic.

Sam Claflin is great. He plays an attractive yet unnerving man so well.

Valentine being imprisoned

I wish they went more into the count's disguises.

Caderousse just feels like a completely different character. In the book he's flawed cause on one hand he's greedy as a neighbor and is doing what he can to get money from Edmond and his father and also is cowardly and doesn't tell anyone the truth about conspiracy, but on the other hand he isn't malicious and does have a fondness for Edmond. He also suffers for his crimes by never rising to the station that the conspirators do and instead falls into poverty, crime, and later death. Now, movie Caderousse is different. He is a good man through and through. He is threatened by Fernand and Danglars which is why he doesn't say anything and spends the rest of the series helping the Count of Monte Cristo. He asks at the end if he is forgiven which seems odd given that he's committed only one crime against Edmond, one which could be reasonably forgiven.

I like the change of Luigi Vampa playing more of a role. It is fun to watch him be so flamboyant.

I still think the book ending for Danglars would've been fine. Yes there's some thematic stuff with him being locked up for "15 years for a crime he actually committed" but I think the extortion/starving punishment was #1 more creative and #2 also thematic. We also would've gotten to see more of Luigi Vampa in his smuggler character. That could've created some fun exchanges where Danglars recognizes him as the man who almost married his daughter.

Last thoughts on my second watch: This is basically just like peaky blinders

The count of Monte-Cristo

The plot:

The ages of the characters in The Count of Monte Cristo, in 1838, from oldest to youngest.

Major characters bolded, minor characters in italics. Characters who died before 1838 are marked † and the age is what they would have been if still living.

Historical figures are included only if the text mentions their age (and with fair warning that, in every such case, the text fails to match the historical record).

Abbé Faria † (80ish)

Ali Pasha † (76)

M. Noirtier (73–78)

Duc de Blacas (73–75)

Madame de Saint-Méran (66 or 73)

Barrois (60)

Israel Bertuccio † (58–63)

M. Morrel † (58)

The telegraph operator at Montlhéry (55)

Bartolomeo Cavalcanti (52)

Gérard de Villefort (49–50)

Danglars (48–50)

Gaspard Caderousse (48–50)

Giovanni Bertuccio (45–50)

Fernand Mondego (44–45)

Edmond Dantès (41–42)

Hermine Danglars (39–40)

Mercédès (39)

Emmanuel Herbault (32–33)

Maximilien Morrel (30–31)

Raoul de Château-Renaud (30)

Franz d’Epinay (25)

Héloïse de Villefort (25)

Julie Herbault (25)

Peppino (24–26)

Luigi Vampa (22)

Teresa (21)

Haydée (21)

Albert de Morcerf (21)

Benedetto (20)

Valentine de Villefort (19)

Eugénie Danglars (17)

Edouard de Villefort (7–8)

No age given (listed in order of first mention):

Captain Leclère †

Louis Dantès †

Monsieur de Saint-Méran

Renée de Villefort †

General d’Epinay †

M. de Boville

Jacopo

Madeleine Caderousse †

Coclès

Penelon

Ali

Beauchamp

Lucien Debray

Baptistin

Louise d’Armilly

Assunta †

The jeweller †

“I am alone in the world.”

“Then you shall love me. If you are young, I shall be your friend; if you are old, your son. I shall love you as I loved my father.”

Edmond Dantès to Abbé Faria (The Count of Monte Cristo, Chapter XV)