'The Count of Monte Cristo' Can't Locate "The Treasure"
He takes his time about it, but Edmond finally assumes his new identity this week.
The third episode of The Count of Monte Cristo is theoretically meant to be this series's big moment of transition. After suffering for over a decade in a horrific island prison, Edmond Dantèsis free. He's got a literal treasure map. He can finally (maybe?) shave! Yet, there's a strange lack of urgency in this hour, which takes an awfully long time to set Edmond on his infamous revenge quest.
Despite looking like a homeless person and being actively chased by soldiers, Edmond – displaying zero situational awareness or planning skills — immediately heads back to Marseilles, where he learns that not only is his father dead and his girlfriend married to one of the men who actively ruined his life, but he himself is also believed to be dead. He's got a gravestone and everything.
(This is, I believe, what my very Southern grandmother would have referred to as "a big dose.")
Edmond truly is a man who just stays losing. But, not to worry, at least he makes a new friend! His rescue of Jacopo (Michele Riondino) from a phalanx of armed Marseilles soldiers requires some suspension of disbelief: A man who's been starving in prison for a decade decks a guard with a single punch, the pair race off to hide in an alley that's about six inches from the most obvious path the police would have searched, the newly rescued Jacopo's decision to not only latch onto a complete stranger but take him along on his boat.
Riondino is a stupidly charming performer, and his Jacopo offers a sort of warm sunshine counterpoint to Edmond's relentless dourness. Sure, this episode takes its sweet time letting Edmond find the treasure that the entire premise of this series hinges on him locating. But after two drawn-out trips to the (abandoned and laughably tiny) island of Monte Cristo, Edmond is rich and thoroughly pissed off.
This, by the way, is the moment that The Count of Monte Cristo should completely transform. We've seen Edmond freed; he's been given a chance to start over, and he's even been introduced to a kind family who seem completely nonplussed by his criminal status and would probably offer him a new home. That he rejects all of this for the path of revenge should be a profound thing. It should be a powerful thing. Unfortunately, thus far, it's been neither.
As Edmond reinvents himself, the show in which he stars should theoretically do the same — we should be fully leaning into a rage-fueled montage of all the ways the new count is leveling himself up. There should be an obvious darker edge. Instead, everything feels almost embarrassingly flat.
Yes, yes, we see Edmond take a bath, tidy up his facial hair, and upgrade his wardrobe. He even goes to confession to tell a priest about the litany of crimes he already doesn't feel bad that he's planning to commit. But there's almost no edge to any of it, and Edmond comes off as completely unthreatening. It's like watching a math nerd pretending that he's somehow going to shove the quarterback into a high school locker.
Those of you who have seen the second film in The Hunger Games franchise probably remember Sam Claflin from his turn as Finnick Odair, and are well aware that he's quite a charming and capable actor. Which makes the fact that this show seems to be deeply uninterested in allowing him to be either of those things doubly irritating.
Edmond isn't particularly believable as a baller schemer, and though his confrontation with Caderousse (Jason Barnett) is satisfying in the sense that it's always good to see weak people confronted with their personal failings, the idea that he's any real physical threat feels fairly laughable.
(We've seen this man throw a punch, and it was not great!)
At any rate, Caderousses's kindnesses to Edmond's dead father seemingly save his life, and he's basically press-ganged into working for the new Count of Monte Cristo by spying for him in Paris, where both Dangers and Fernard (who is married to Mercedes) now live.
Thanks to some dogged research and the application of copious amounts of cash, Edmond finally knows the truth about the men who ruined his life, and everything they each gained from it. He even has a pair of minions ready to do his bidding to bring them both down.
Now, can we get to the fun part, maybe?
The Count of Monte Cristo continues with new episodes airing and streaming on local PBS stations and the PBS app on Sundays at 10 p.m. ET through mid-May 2026. All episodes are available to binge on PBS Passport for members and on the PBS Masterpiece Prime Video Channel.
