Agatha Christie's Poirot

One of the best ever!

My favorite show! David is by far the best Poirot.

My god! -Hastings, every episode

It's the definitive Poirot, but upon rewatch I have mixed feelings.

The show begins very strongly, but the later seasons have wild swings in quality. I attribute it to several causes: they tried to adapt every story and run out of genuinely good stories; the scriptwriters of later seasons are hit or miss (Mark Gatiss… enough said, wasn't even the worst); and the directors also started filming in a very "modern" style crime drama, while closely basing it on fundamentally ridiculous murder mysteries.

I do believe that humour, subtlety and a bit of self-awareness is what elevates Poirot. Stripping those out and playing everything straight didn't do it good, in the end. It stages visual/emotional high moments, but it gradually becomes fake instead of theatrical.

Watching this from the beginning as I had only seen bits and pieces over the years as a kid back in the 90s. This is phenomenally well done, with care and thought put into every scene, location, wardrobe, and so on. Just brilliant really, I hope this holds up all the way through season 13.

Edit: 1 year and 4 months later. Finally decided to end the series. The last 8 or so episodes took my time because I honestly didnt want it to end. Brilliant and poignant series with for the most part great episodes after episodes, with a couple duds throughout.

I have reached the point where i am getting close to the end of Agatha Christie's Hercule Poirot, and i am getting the feeling that i don't really want to continue, because i don't want the show to end.

I've felt that feeling growing for years now, as i've watched the incredible journey of Hercule Poirot.

Poirot is a Belgian detective created by Agatha Christie in the early 1900s, and so his cases are set around that time as well, mostly in the UK. Seeing and feeling this era of history is a unique experience, because the times are so different to ours. The people, attitudes and atmosphere are different, and Poirot is mostly involved in wealthy people's affairs, so we see often the lavish houses and mansions, the attitudes of rich people for good or bad, and the many reasons for why murder still occur even in this atmosphere of great wealth and supposed superior moral attitudes and upbringing. We see that's all rubbish, and how no matter who you are or where you come from, we're all still human with human flaws.

Agatha Christie is the most published author in history, and the most legendary crime author in history. Along with the popularity, she actually made many high quality mysteries in her crime stories, almost all of which involving murder, and involving a famous detective she created; Hercule Poirot or Miss Marple. These two detectives are among the three fictional detectives most famous in history, along with Sherlock Holmes.

This show's episodes are all adapted from her stories, many of which are good and many which are only okay. A lot of the episodes have a generic kind of atmosphere like what i described earlier with the upper class setting most of the stories take place in, and that even extends a bit to the characters (there's only so much you can do with such characters in such a setting and in such times) but Christie still manages to make many interesting characters throughout her stories. And of course the detective is also consistently interesting; as a person and his style of investigating. Even though Poirot's personal development is rare, it's appreciated when it happens or we see more of his backstory. What you're here for though are the constant standalone cases, and that's what you must be interested in; anything else is extra. There is some character development and callbacks, but you mostly have to be content with the standalone nature of each story.

Christie also manages to make the many whodunnit's interesting. It's not so much that we follow along with the clues, but more that we keep suspecting various people, until at the end the jigsaw pieces finally fall into place, and we get the reveal, which is often good. She was a truly talented author.

The show itself features a fantastically consistent and measured performance by David Suchet, as we see him in the role of Poirot for a very long time for many years. His acting is perfect for the role, and we buy this character completely as Poirot. As the seasons go on, it becomes even sweeter to keep seeing him and how his performance becomes more nuanced with grace, age, wisdom, experience, and the changes of his friends.

I love this show. Poirot is one of my favorite detectives.

For a long time, watching the many criminal mysteries Hercule Poirot solves is invigorating. The many interesting mysteries, simple or complex motives, and intelligent criminals and schemes. I think most of the episodes are film length, or they are later on. You'll meet the charming secondary characters that occasionally accompany Poirot, but that becomes less often as the show goes on, as it spans decades.

But because the show spans decades, and Hercules grows older and we see less of the supporting characters, is that the journey starts to become a bit reflective and bittersweet. We meet so many good people, catch so many bad guys, yet Hercule always leaves alone, or becomes alone, in his journey of life. He enjoys the solitary journey, and likes his friends, but as the show goes on it becomes a bit bittersweet as we see the cycle of his journey continue. I think part of him could have accepted a more traditional family life if there was the right person, but Hercule is very unique and different from other people, especially back in those times in the late 1800s and early 1900s which the show spans. So really, he could never have been that kind of traditional family life person. Hercule was dedicated to his work, helping people and catching bad guys, and he loved the intellectual exercise of solving these mysteries. He's a satisfied man in his journey of life, he's ordered like that, and he enjoys the good life with the money and fame he's accumulated. But i think sometimes he feels a bit lonely and bittersweet on his journey in life, the cycles of him helping people and solving mysteries. He couldn't even stay retired, he had to get out in the world, travel and help people. He's a great man, always polite, kind and generous, and gave of himself to the world in order to help it. He's reserved yet considerate, and he cares very much for people and trying to help the world with his skills.

It is a special show when you want to keep watching yet don't want to because it's going to end soon. Agatha Christie's Hercule Poirot is a special crime detective show, and i will forever remember it as one of my favorites, and hope it keeps enduring with it's quality mysteries and the great and celebrated detective; Hercule Poirot.

There is impossible to envision anyone else than David Suchet as Poirot after seeing this show and especially after following him in the role for 25 years. He did it all: the novels, short stories and took everything from the written form and made it into his character. Excellent costumes, atmosphere and the title sequence from the first seasons was so good it is sad they dropped it for the films later. Every episode (especially in the later seasons) is a mini-film on it's own. The relationship between Poirot and his three friends, Hastings, Miss Lemon and Chief Inspector Japp is fun to behold. Some obvious changes from the stories where even the killer is different will anger the purists but I felt not that bad about it actually. I'm not a fan of the Adriane Oliver character that is introduced in some of the last films though as she is annoying and so full of herself (even if she is meant to be a self-parody of Agatha Christie). Still, this is the classic crime series that any other crime show has to be compared to. Absolutely fantastic.