We just watched episode 3. Yikes.

I really like it. The stairs are their own character in that series!

Sorry to see the OP was removed but wanted to respond.

We watched episodes 1 and 2 this weekend-- even before finishing A Gentleman in Moscow. The quality of b&w photography in the trailer drew us in! Neither of us have seen The Talented Mr Ripley so we are coming in blind to the story.

Really wowed by how well it is done-- the cinematography for sure but also the acting, story and dialog. I gotta say the creepy factor has us both on edge. It's not going to be a series we can binge watch but wow-- such an experience.

We were very disciplined, no more that one episode per night. Until we watched 7 and then I just needed to see 8. We liked it a lot! Not without imperfections, but so far above the average fare. I only read reviews when I'm done. NPR seemed to love it too, NYT liked it too but also had some good points.

Not content to leave it at that, I read a Vanity Fair piece about the 1999 movie w Matt Damon and Gwyneth Paltrow. So last night we watched that on Amazon Prime. It was a bit different, not least because it was 2hr.19 and not a miniseries.

I think this now concludes our Ripley studies; I do not plan to read the book!

PS My comment (above) about the stairs (all the way back in episode 3) was prescient. Find the staircase could be a drinking game with Ripley.

so which did you prefer? The miniseries or the movie?

I intentionally avoided the movie ... it just never hit SO's radar.

We preferred the series. I think a slow pace and b/w better suit the subject. However, I will allow that I think one is always biased to like the first iteration of a work? Also, there were some differences in plot that I thought made more sense in the movie than they did in the miniseries.

I’m looking forward to watching the series, but I have seen the movie at least three times, and I think it’s fantastic; really excellent. Two thumbs up! (Feeling sad about Philip Seymour Hoffman now, just thinking about his stellar performance.)

Bookwoman, I was surprised at some fairly substantive differences in plot.

Well, maybe we need to revisit Ripley. I said in the first thread how we watched two episodes and quite I think partway through the third, because we felt no interest in the characters, there was nothing interesting about them. The stairs, yes! Perhaps we were colored by the movie, which we still enjoy watching from time to time.

If John Malkovich makes an appearance, that might coax me back to the series.

mtn, yes indeed. And there are a number of characters who appear in the film who aren't in the series...but they weren't in the book, either, so in that sense the series is truer to the book, even if the overall 'feel' is quite different (and I think the movie captures that feeling better).

Perhaps we were colored by the movie, which we still enjoy watching from time to time.

I do think that whatever you first see can seem "right" and any departures in a new adaptation feel "wrong." Though both take liberties vis a vis the novel at their source.