Acorn Media's tenth volume of Poirot episodes brings us three more episodes, featuring David Suchet in the title role as the eccentric Belgian private detective. Rather oddly, considering that this is Set 10, these episodes are taken from the show's first season (1989). At any rate, fans of Poirot will be pleased to see their collections filling out, even if the sets come out in a peculiar order.

The three stories presented here are all based on short stories by Agatha Christie: "Murder in the Mews" is taken from a 1937 collection, and "The Adventure of Johnnie Waverly" and "Four and Twenty Blackbirds" from a 1950 collection. In all three cases, we get the familiar set of supporting characters: Captain Hastings, Miss Lemon, and Inspector Japp. While Christie didn't make such consistent use of these characters in her original stories, their recurrence in the television adaptations is a very nice addition to the series.

"Murder in the Mews" is an excellent Poirot tale, probably the best of the the three. Here, Poirot is called in to help Japp investigate a suspicious-looking suicide. The story starts with a bang (quite literally) and keeps up a nice pace throughout the episode. There are enough clues for the viewer to make some theories about "whodunit," but the actual resolution of the mystery offers a nicely surprising, yet completely plausible, explanation of events. The humorous sub-plot involving the laundry is handled well, adding some genuine laughs while never getting out of line.

In "The Adventure of Johnnie Waverly," Poirot is hired by a concerned father who has been receiving strange kidnapping threats about his young son. It's an interesting change of pace, for here Poirot is investigating a crime that is about to be committed, rather than one that's already been done. All in all, it's a well-handled story with some nice twists to it. Astute viewers will possibly guess some parts of the ending, but I suspect that there will be some surprises in store no matter how clever you are.

The final episode in the set, "Four and Twenty Blackbirds," isn't bad but it's certainly the weakest of the three. Here, Poirot is led to follow up on the apparently accidental death of an elderly artist when a few details don't seem to add up the way they should. There's simply not as much of a solid storyline here, so the episode feels a bit light-weight, and I found the ending to be telegraphed somewhat in advance. Still, it's not a bad piece, and it's worth watching.

The DVD

Video

The three episodes are presented in their original television aspect ratio of 1.33:1. The image quality is nothing to write home about, but it's a notch above what we got in some of the other Collector's Sets that feature early-season episodes. The picture is soft, with some grain and noise apparent in the image, especially in outdoor scenes, but overall it's reasonably pleasing to the eye. Colors look natural, if not particularly bright, and contrast is handled adequately.

Audio

The Dolby 2.0 soundtrack does its job in a satisfactory manner, with the dialogue coming across as clear and easy to understand. The theme music is nicely balanced with the rest of the track.

Extras

There's not much here: just text biographies of Agatha Christie and David Suchet, cast filmographies, and some information on Agatha Christie.

Final thoughts

The three Poirot episodes presented here are entertaining mysteries; the Poirot series always seems to work better in the 50-minute format than in the longer feature-film length pieces. Fans of the series will, of course, want to add Collector's Set 10 to their collection. Since this set actually contains three episodes from the show's first season, it's also a great disc to pick up if you haven't seen the show before but you're interested in giving it a try. Recommended.