First of all, this is not streaming in America. It's only in Europe. So you'll need a way to access one of the Euro streaming services to subscribe.

Second, I have not seen any of the older miniseries or TV shows. But by and large this has been fairly faithful to the source material. I've already posted many of the changes in previous posts, but I will round them all up here:

1. Caderousse is no longer a wife killing, thieving cad. Rather he works for Dantes as a spy gathering information. Inspector Boville (hired by Villefort) is onto this and starts following him around until he is murdered by Villefort's son (Named Gaston in this), who was essentially set up for entrapment by the Count.

2. Benedetto (Gaston) has a very small role. He is not set up to be the pretend prince, but rather is found on the streets as a pickpocket and put in a position to quickly steal some cash and run. The Prince part is played by Luigi Vampa who is wooing Eugenie Danglars. There is no Father/Son farce, just Vampa.

3. The Max/Valentine love triangle is introduced, but is very underdone. Valentine is played by the worst actress of all time. She is arrested for poisoning Mdme Saint Meran to allow her brother/father to receive the inheritance without any protest from her or her father.

4. The fall of Fernando Mondego is pretty accurate, but Haydee's relationship with the Count is very brief and non-romantic. She leaves town as soon as Morcerf is disgraced. He kills himself in the same way as the book.

5. Lots of other smaller scenes changed or missing.

6. Bertuccio changed to a midwife who discovers and raises Benedetto. No Bertuccio in the show.

7. Ali is no longer a Nubian but a mute smuggler friend of Jacopo.

8. Baptistin is non-existent.

9. Emmanuel Herbault (husband of Julie Morrel) is non-existent.

10. Countess G is never introduced.

Overall this is fun to watch and interesting, but my biggest gripe is that the actor who plays the Count has no charm or air of mystery, and that's what is really missing. I think of the scenes where he is Sinbad or Abbe Busoni or Lord Wilmore or Monsieur Zaccone. None of those scenes are included. Whereas the new film focused heavily on this, the miniseries cuts it out completely. These scenes added a tremendous layer of mystique to him. But even as the Count in Paris, he is very cold, hateful, sarcastic. It's very frustrating. Even to his servants Jacopo, Caderousse, and others, he's not very kind at all. He's pure hate and revenge. The Haydee thing is also very disappointing because she was such an important part of his character in the novel. She was what kept him grounded and soft. They cut that out completely.

Sometimes it feels like we're rushing from scene to scene to pack in as much of the story as possible instead of taking time to really enjoy it. 8 episodes just isn't enough to tell the full story the way they are trying to tell it without letting it breathe a little. Thus, none of the scenes are very impactful because the time isn't taken to set them up properly.