Critic Reviews

The series has captured the look and feel of the abbey and its inhabitants very well, and it has a lot of dialogue that’s taken directly from the novel. But never fear, it also does the novel one better by adding a bunch of stuff. Like an Arya Stark character. And a love story.

Turturro, who is credited not only as an executive producer but one of the miniseries’ four writers, gives one of the most restrained performances of his career. His cleric is soft-spoken, always watchful of every detail in a room. His efforts seem to give other performers license to overact.

Where the adaptation follows the original text, it does so generally well, finding the salient points in pages of discussions. The sensational interpolations — the "Game of Thrones" stuff — are less successful, though I am sure they will please a substantial portion of the crowd. And while Turturro's performance is a model of intelligent equanimity, other actors — including Emerson as the abbey's abbot, Stefano Fresi as the Caliban-Quasimodo figure Salvatore, and Fabrizio Bentivoglio as Remigio, a monk with a dark past — push their parts to the edge of the parapet and sometimes over. The more intense the action, the more risible the series becomes.

Turturro is in many ways the best thing about the show, diving into the material's complexity and bringing a steadying screen presence to what, in short order, becomes a real mess.