Things that annoyed me:

The accents. Just cast French and Germans and use subtitles.
The set. Very stagey.
The fact that Marie is barefooted at the end, walking over glass, shrapnel, etc. Really?
The cartoonish villains. Yes, Nazis are monsters. But couldn’t they be portrayed with a little more subtlety?

I will say that I really liked the actress who played Marie. I thought she did an excellent job and was beautiful.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Really enjoyed it. Hugh Laurie was so perfect for the role.

He was fine…but why hire him to play a French guy named Etienne???

Why didn’t they just cast French actors?

Because people will watch actors they know and might skip watching a random French actor they don't know.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I love the book and hated the first episode. Will not be watching further. Too many bad French accents, and I disliked the choice of undoing the linear storytelling of the novel. The plot elements at the book’s pinnacle were literally shown in the first episode! Hard pass.

Same. I read and loved the book, and barely got through the first episode. In addition to what the PP said, it drove me nuts that these french characters were speaking with English accents. Like... why???? If Mark Ruffalo is going to put on an accent for this, why not a french one?

+100
Mark Ruffalo annoys me anyway - the faux English accent made him even more distracting. Why didn’t they just cast French actors for the French characters and use subtitles? The German actors could have spoken German as well. It would have made it so much more authentic.

Anonymous wrote:The main actor (Marie?) is blind in real life? That would be surprising to me because she doesn’t come across that way.

She is.

The main actor (Marie?) is blind in real life? That would be surprising to me because she doesn’t come across that way.

It was terrible.

Anonymous wrote:I love the book and hated the first episode. Will not be watching further. Too many bad French accents, and I disliked the choice of undoing the linear storytelling of the novel. The plot elements at the book’s pinnacle were literally shown in the first episode! Hard pass.

its SO bad. Poorly acted. They made the story seem ridiculous somehow. Turned it into a love story. I just hated it. And the book was glorious.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I love the book and hated the first episode. Will not be watching further. Too many bad French accents, and I disliked the choice of undoing the linear storytelling of the novel. The plot elements at the book’s pinnacle were literally shown in the first episode! Hard pass.

Same. I read and loved the book, and barely got through the first episode. In addition to what the PP said, it drove me nuts that these french characters were speaking with English accents. Like... why???? If Mark Ruffalo is going to put on an accent for this, why not a french one?

I’ve been married to a Parisian for 20+ years. Many French people speak with a slight British accent when they speak English because their English teachers were British. They don’t all speak in some stereotypical French accent. This is more common than you think, but probably not why in this series they speak with British accents.

Anonymous wrote:I read the book a couple years ago so I am planning to watch!

Don’t bother. The book is much, much better.

Anonymous wrote:Really enjoyed it. Hugh Laurie was so perfect for the role.

He was fine…but why hire him to play a French guy named Etienne???

Why didn’t they just cast French actors?

Really enjoyed it. Hugh Laurie was so perfect for the role.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I love the book and hated the first episode. Will not be watching further. Too many bad French accents, and I disliked the choice of undoing the linear storytelling of the novel. The plot elements at the book’s pinnacle were literally shown in the first episode! Hard pass.

Same. I read and loved the book, and barely got through the first episode. In addition to what the PP said, it drove me nuts that these french characters were speaking with English accents. Like... why???? If Mark Ruffalo is going to put on an accent for this, why not a french one?

They seemed to be trying to do RP - received pronunciation. I found Mark Ruffalo's accent quite distractingly off. I'm not sure why the director thought they should speak RP.

Anonymous wrote:I love the book and hated the first episode. Will not be watching further. Too many bad French accents, and I disliked the choice of undoing the linear storytelling of the novel. The plot elements at the book’s pinnacle were literally shown in the first episode! Hard pass.

Same. I read and loved the book, and barely got through the first episode. In addition to what the PP said, it drove me nuts that these french characters were speaking with English accents. Like... why???? If Mark Ruffalo is going to put on an accent for this, why not a french one?

Anonymous wrote:Wait, do I have to pay for Netflix again just to watch this? I loved this book so much. So much.
I need those of you that also loved the book to tell me if it's worth the Netflix subscription to watch the series.

It’s not.

I love the book and hated the first episode. Will not be watching further. Too many bad French accents, and I disliked the choice of undoing the linear storytelling of the novel. The plot elements at the book’s pinnacle were literally shown in the first episode! Hard pass.