TV Show Reviews
Review of "The
ABC Murders"
2/24/18 by
Suzanne
airs now on Amazon Prime
I really wanted to like this because I love all
of the British mystery shows on PBS, like
"Grantchester," "Sherlock" and all of the Miss
Marple and Hercules Poirot mysteries.. However, it
seems that there's a reason this one isn't on PBS or
BBC America. For one thing, it stars American actor
John Malkovich as Hercules Poirot, which is very
odd. Although Poirot is Belgian, he's usually played
by some European. For another, this show is not a
mystery. I was shocked to find this. It's more of a
character study and about the duel between the aging
Poirot and the murderer, Cust (Eamon Farren), who's
killing people in towns starting with A through Z
and taunting Poirot with typed letters.
I'm not saying it's terrible, but it's just a
very weird show. It is intriguing, though, and
keeps your interest. Malkovich and the other actors
do a great job. The only other problem is that it's
very slow. They make a lot of changes between the
original stories and this version. Watch it if
you're a real fan of these type of shows, and you
have a lot of patience.
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MORE INFORMATION:
From Amazon:
1933. Hercule Poirot, older and greyer, receives
letters threatening murder. The sender signs themselves
only as "A.B.C." When he takes the letters to the police
looking for help, Hercule finds all his old friends have
moved on. But soon there is a murder and the once-great
detective must take matters into his own hands.
The year is 1933 and a killer stalks Britain, known only
as A.B.C. They strike in a methodical pattern and leave a
copy of the ABC railway guide at the scene of each of
murder. As Poirot (John Malkovich) attempts to investigate
he is thwarted on every front; by a police force that no
longer trusts him, a public that no longer adores him, and
an enemy determined to outsmart him. If Poirot is to match
his most cunning nemesis everything about him will be called
into question; his authority, his integrity, his past, his
identity.
In her fourth Agatha Christie adaptation in conjunction
with Agatha Christie Limited and Mammoth Screen,
Bafta-nominated writer Sarah Phelps continues to explore the
20th century through the work of Britain’s greatest crime
writer. This time it is the 1930s; a divided country where
suspicion and hatred are on the rise, and the gap between
wealth and poverty is great and growing greater.
In the midst of this we find Hercule Poirot and his
little grey cells. Poirot has aged and the world has changed
quickly around him. England, tolerant, welcoming England,
squeezed by Depression, by the dark news from Germany, isn’t
as tolerant and welcoming. The jubilation of winning the
Great War has evaporated, now all there is, is a mess.
Someone has to take the blame and sympathy for Displaced
People has run out. As the British Union of Fascists gains
ground, inveighing against ‘aliens’, Poirot feels even more
like the outsider that he is. Even worse, he has been swept
aside by the new brooms in the police and forgotten by the
Bright Young Things whose dinner parties he entertained. But
somebody has not forgotten him.
The A.B.C. killer travels the length and breadth of
Britain to taunt Poirot. The ominous rumble of the train
tracks connects every sinew of the country, every corner of
opulence and poverty bound together. As Poirot tracks the
killer across a riven, tense England, the case peels back
the layers of the persona he’s created to survive in a
foreign land, surrounded by strangers where the only person
who seems to truly understand him, is the deranged,
uncontrolled killer.
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