I’ll start this off by saying that I have no problem with adaptations which make changes to the source material, and maybe the show will end up being its own thing, and will be good in its own way.
For me, the appeal of the book is a protagonist who is so good-natured/charming that he is able to overcome political and social divisions and befriend a wide variety of people. The Count is so easy to get along with that again and again, people who are ideologically opposed to his very existence can’t help but loving him. Thus, the Count befriends a wide array of people: an ardent communist politician, a seamstress, a Russian chef, the French maître d’hotel, an actress, an orchestra conductor, a prince, a former Red Army colonel, a senior official in the soviet secret police, and an American. The book is an escapist fantasy that emphasises friendship and human connection over politics.
**The Count in the Show:**
The Count in the show is equally charming, but not quite as benevolent. In the show, the Count resents his friend Mishka for being a Bolshevik, goes on angry rants against the communist government, loses his temper and shouts at waiters, and frequently implies that various people (including the actress Anna Urbanova) are socially inferior to him. Worst of all, in the show it is revealed that the Count refused to let his sister marry Mishka – because Mishka wasn’t an aristocrat and was thus beneath them. These plots have been added to the show – but I fear they undermine the message of the novel for the sake of cheap drama.
**The Count in the Book:**
In the book, the Count is never argumentative, doesn’t judge people based on their social status, doesn’t seem to have any strong political convictions, and essentially just views the ongoing Russian revolution as a bit of an inconvenience. The Count struggles to adjust, but no matter what happens to him is always polite, always calm, and always makes the best of a bad situation. Whenever people accuse the Count of being classist or arrogant, their accusations are always shown to be ridiculous – they are only ever projecting their own insecurities onto him.
**What I Dislike About the Show:**
In the show, the Count IS genuinely classist. The Count in the show is a dinosaur, struggling to overcome his prejudices and raging against the new world. This leads to heated arguments with Mishka, Anna Urbanova, and Nina – heated arguments which never occur in the original book. In the show, the Count is also much less even-tempered. In one scene, he yells angrily at Nina for espousing communist ideology. He later has a fit of rage in which he starts smashing plates. He is miles away from the calm, good-natured protagonist of the novel.
The novel is much more interested in friendship, human relationships, and whimsical adventures than socio-political commentary. The Count uses optimism and friendliness to get through a very difficult time. The changes in the show make the Count a more realistic, flawed character, and introduce much more conflict, but personally I think that it takes away from the zaniness and optimism that made the book so appealing.
For me, the book was about how friendliness and optimism can overcome social barriers and make unpleasant circumstances more bearable. That’s why I loved it.
by AdministrativeHoodie