|
A Farewell to Hercule Poirot
Poirot-Curtains
by Greg Bakun
After
over a month to try and figure out what to write to say farewell
to Hercule Poirot, I have finally managed to pull myself
together and look at the very final episode of Agatha
Christie's Poirot. Poirot is a timeless character but to
me, it will always be definitively played by David Suchet. Here
is my review of his final episode.
Streaming News
Once again, Agatha
Christie's Poirot is available on AcornTV with the
final series being an exclusive. What is also fun is to
check out a special Q&A with David Suchet about the
entire series which is also an exclusive to the
service.
October 6th, Acorn TV features the
U.S. Premiere of ANZAC Girls, the new hit Australian
six-part miniseries based on the true and largely unknown stories
of five brave nurses during World War I. AcornTV will debut a new
episode every Monday
through Nov. 10th.
After a hugely
successful decade on television, the series finale and the
previous 22 feature-length mysteries of Agatha Christie's
Marple starring
Julia McKenzie are
now available to watch any time on AcornTV, the premier
British TV streaming service. In
Endless Night,
Miss Marple meets a
handsome chauffeur who purchases a house with a curse on it for
his new bride, but fairy tales do not always have happy
endings.
Series leaving AcornTV on 10/5/14:
The Last Detective:
Starring Peter Davison (Highly Recommended)
Doctor Zhivago
New Shows
New Shows Added October 6th:
Anzac Girls
Amnesia
Time Team: Series 5
The Science of Measurement: 3 episode
documentary
Beat Girl: 2013 Drama. 5 episodes
Inspector Morris: Series 5-8. 18 episodes.
Lovejoy: Series 4 13 episodes
Brit-Streaming
Spotlight
Curtain: Poirot's Last Case
I know I am not the
only person who gets emotional when a TV series I like comes to an
end. We have gown to care about the characters and sometimes just
seeing them is enough to make me happy. It becomes even
harder when the series has been around for a long time; sometimes
it’s hard to say goodbye. This is the case with the very last
episode of Agatha Christie’s Poirot.
I know I have been talking about this for a long time but this is
a really big deal. This iteration of Agatha Christie’s Poirot
has been around for 25 years. It hasn’t been 25 solid years of
episodes. The series had 13 seasons spread out over 25 years.
There was a sizeable chunk of time between Series 6 and 7 where no
new episodes were made. There were even rumors a few years ago
that David Suchet, Poirot himself, was thinking of retiring from
the role before all the stories had been adapted for television. I
think this was only a rumor. Yet, how does one say goodbye to a
character that we have been watching for years?
I think the greatest achievement a TV series can have is being
allowed to have a final episode. Final episodes of TV series take
the form of many things. It ties up loose ends or sometimes
marries off a characters. For Agatha Christie’s Poirot, Curtain:
Poirot’s Last Case really does become the final adventure
for Poirot and it is a fitting, if not sad, ending for the series.
There are some things we do not know about this story, even by the
time the episode ends. The episode takes place at Styles which is
where Hastings and Poirot re-aquintaited themselves in the first
Poirot novel The Mysterious Affair at Styles. I love how
last episodes tie in with established continuity of the series.
This is only the second time we have seen Hastings in many years.
It’s the first time we have seen him since The Big Four
but the question is how many years have passed between The Big
Four and Curtain: Poirot’s Last Case?
Poirot is aged and his
health is rapidly deteriorating. The once vibrant Belgium
detective is now wheel-chair bound and is suffering from advanced
arthritis. Poirot actually calls in Hastings to help him. Poirot
himself cannot get around anymore to investigate. He needs
Hastings to be his eyes and ears; Hasting needs to be the
investigator. What is Hastings investigating?
There is a murderer at Styles yet no one has been murdered, at
least from what can be obvious. This person who is the murderer is
someone Poirot has been tracking for some time. Styles is now a
guest hotel but it is also a dark and mysterious place especially
at night. There are many things hiding in the shadows. As far as
Poirot himself, the man is now extremely short tempered and
difficult. His voice is weak yet his brain is still sharp. He is
not the man that we have watched for the past 25 years. It is an
extreme departure from what we have seen of the detective, but a
series that has been around for so long deserves to do this to its
character.
Captain Hastings is very different too. Obviously he is older but
is he is mourning the sudden death of his wife. This was actually
a very sad concept for me. I have always adored Captain Hastings
portrayed by Hugh Fraser. He is a naïve gentleman. Very innocent
but a character that is from a bygone era that doesn’t exist
anymore. The fact that real life caught up to Captain Hastings
with the death of his wife brings a real bit of formality to this
episode. This cemented the fact, to me, that this was the end of
the series. It’s not like we saw his wife in the series but
knowing how happy Hastings was to be married and to suddenly lose
her was a major tragedy to him.
Hastings might be the one that has the worse time of just about
anyone in the episode. He is back at Styles to see his old friend
Poirot who is utterly awful to him. Poirot ruthlessly abuses
Hastings verbally. Hastings has always been a bit thick but
his heart was always in the right place. That is actually hard to
watch. Hastings went to see Poirot but another reason for visiting
Styles is to see his youngest daughter Judith who is there
assisting Dr. John Franklin. Judith is Hastings favorite but he is
finding that she is not very happy with him and over the course of
the episode he sees that she is making life choices that Hastings
simply does not agree with for his daughter. Because of what is
happening around him and how his life has changed, we see a
weathered and older Hastings that is kind of sad to see. It is not
the same character we see at the beginning of the series all those
years ago.
The type of villain Poirot is after in this story is like one that
he has not run into before in his journeys. This is a killer that
is not killing people in the traditional sense and that is what
makes this story very interesting. The problem is that no matter
how cool this premise is, the execution of how this killer is
realized and the killer’s motives are actually pretty weak for
this story.
There is an idea that Poirot needs to take care of this person to
save lives but how it actually comes about and how the killer acts
is completely unbelievable to me. There is a lot of coincidence
for the killer to be able to get to his victims. How Poirot works
it out is great but the reason and the method the killer uses is
completely unbelievable. The good news is that this episode is
very faithful to the original novel but this is one instance that
I wish some of this would have been bolstered a little more to
give the killer stronger motives and means to inflict the
punishment on the victims.
Curtain: Poirot’s Last Case was published in 1975 but was
written in the 1940s. This was originally written during World War
II. It is probably really hard for many of us, mainly us Yankees,
to understand that Agatha Christie as well as manly who lived in
the UK feared for their lives during the war. There was a constant
fear of invasion or just death. Christie wanted to have a proper
end for her Belgium detective and wrote this novel and had it
locked away until she felt the time was right for the novel to be
published or possibly until after her death. Agatha Christie died
in 1976 though she gave her permission for the novel to be
published in 1975. Her final novel she wrote of Poirot was Elephants
Can Remember in 1972. The novel for Curtain: Poirot’s
Last Case itself is a bit of a curiosity since it was
written in the 1940s and before it was published there were many
more Poirot novels, this story makes no reference to them because
they weren’t written yet.
As with the other episodes of the final series, this is
exclusively available on Acorn
TV. This is the only way to see this amazing series
conclude. Of course this is one of many series available on the
service to watch. I have been on AcornTV multiple times just
to watch these final episodes again and again.
I actually started to write this article about a month ago; it is
really overdue. The problem was for me to put into words the end
of this series. I literally grew up with Agatha Christie’s
Poirot. When it started in 1989, I was 14 years old. I was
not a fan of these type of series. It seemed the location and
settings from the 1930s made it seem out of date. This series was
still going strong when my personal tastes in television changed
and I started to really enjoy this series. Once I started to get
back into it, I went out of my way to track down every episode and
watch it. Now, as we come to the end of the series, I am feeling
rather melancholy over the fact the little Belgium detective who
uses his little grey cells to solve cases is at an end. Then, I
remembered, I can watch them whenever I want thanks to the Blu-ray
sets and it being available on Acorn
TV. That makes it easier.
Coming Soon
Next
time I want to watch something that has been on my list of
programs to watch for some time. I will take a look at The
Field of Blood. It stars Jayd Johnson, David Morrisey
and some guy who is now some doctor on TV...oh yeah, Peter
Capaldi. This series looks great and I am really looking
forward to it.
Like what you see? Hate it? Have questions of comments? Send us
an e-mail and tell us what you think!
Archives
|
|