Agatha Christie’s Poirot Series 13
Available on Blu-ray (3-Disc) and DVD (5-Disc) 462 minutes.
Released by Acorn Media on November 4th, 2014. SRP $59.99 (Blu-ray) $59.99
(DVD)
Subtitles: English SDH 16:9 DTS-HD 2.0 HD: 1080p
When I first started doing reviews
for studios on this site, the very first review I ever did was for Agatha Christie’s Poirot Series 6. I had watched a few of the episodes
before from the old A&E releases but it was kind of hard to know what was
released and in which order they were supposed to be watched. I would
occasionally grab a few discs from the library to watch them but that was it. When
I had a chance to review Series 6 of Agatha
Christie’s Poirot, I was immediately intrigued because the series was
getting a re-release from Acorn Media. What was happening was that all the
previously released volumes were going to get a new release but this time not
only would we get these in the UK broadcast order but they would go back to the
original film elements and give us a Blu-ray release too. I very recently
gushed about another release that had a lot
of HD care given to it.
I can’t help but to think of when I
was writing my first review as I am now about to write the final review for my
favorite Belgium detective Hercule Poirot. Series 13 is the final series of
this amazing program that began in 1989. I like to talk about definitive
versions of a character and David Suchet playing Poirot is easily to me the
most definitive. Over the course of 25 years, we got to get to know this detective
and actually see how television has changed over this period of time yet Poirot
himself always stayed the same. I have written a lot about the final series of
this program, mainly over on my column on DVDTalk, Brit-streaming, but I still
have much to say.
I am always curious how TV series end
their run. I have said elsewhere that the greatest achievement a series can
attain is being able to end its run on its own terms. When a series can have a
final episode, it is a great achievement. I am not a big film buff. This may
not come as a shock to anyone but most of the stuff I watch is British
television. It is amazing that I can watch something like Agatha Christie’s Poirot which is virtually a feature film in every
episode. Agatha Christie’s Poirot has
given us a tradition of amazing locale plus some very wonderful recreations of
England if not Europe of the time.
The final run take up 5 episodes. I
feel like for a few series that Agatha
Christie’s Poirot had lost its way a little but the last few series have
been phenomenally enjoyable to me. This series has been very strong with some
great stories and some beautiful locations.
The favorite of this set of
episodes for me is The Labours of Hercules.
Don’t let the title fool you. As it happens, this is the last episode of Agatha Christie’s Poirot that I had
seen. I opted to watch Curtain: Poirot’s
Last Case first since I was really curious how closely it followed the
novelization. The Labours of Hercules
is visually stunning. This point alone made it so enjoyable to watch. It takes
Poirot to the Swiss Alps where there is murder. It tangentially is linked to
something that Poirot did 3 months earlier which ended in disaster. He did not
travel to the Alps to continue this investigation but he was called into action
and it was too irresistible for him to pass up. What is very interesting is
with this being the last new episode of Agatha
Christie’s Poirot that I had seen, I actually guessed the murderer quite
early on which shows I have passed the Agatha Christie School of Mystery just
in time as the series ended.
As it happens, my least favorite
episode in this set is the final episode Curtain:
Poirot’s Last Case. The novel is an oddity which makes the episode an
oddity. As I have written in other places, Curtain: Poirot’s Last Case was
published in 1975 but was written in the 1940s. This was originally written
during World War II. 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.
In this final episode, Poirot
himself is aged and riddled with arthritis. He is wheel chaired bound but there
is more going on than he is saying. His oldest friend Captain Hasting visits
him and as it happens, they are at Styles Manor House which is where they
solved their first murder together. Such happy memories! The final episode is
very stark with the color of all scenes slightly muted. It is actually very sad
but a fitting end to a wonderful series. That being said, I much remember him
in other episodes where he is more like his old self such as the The Big Four.
The
Big Four is quite the powerhouse episode. The story is about a group of
people who have enough power and influence that they have influence over
everything. This is on the edge of England entering World War II. Of course
nothing is as it seems. This is such a fascinating episode and looks beautiful.
The best part, for me, is that we see the original characters together again
one last time. Most of the episode focuses on Poirot and Japp which is such a
treat to watch. We also see the return of Captain Hastings and Miss Lemon. This
is the last time that they are all together in Agatha Christie’s Poirot. As cool as it is to see them, it is just
one more reminder that we are nearing the end of the series.
The last two stories of the set are
good (after all, they all are good) but not as strong. They also have one
character that is not a favorite of mine but kept showing up in the novels. Ariadne
Oliver. She is in Elephants Can Remember
and Dead Man’s Folly. Don’t get me
wrong, these episodes are good but I am not a fan of Ariadne’s character or is
it how she is played by Zoe Wanamaker? Though, I will admit that she has slowly
been growing on me over the past few series. Plus, it could be worse, Ariadne
was played by Jean Stapleton in the Peter Ustinov Poirot films!
Elephants
Can Remember is a good episode where Poirot does not have time to take part
in a line of inquiry that Ariadne needs to pursue in conjunction to a murder of
her goddaughter’s parents many years ago. It’s an unsolved mystery that she
wants solved! It is only when Poirot finds a link between what she is doing and
his case does he become interested. Although Ariadne is no Poirot, she does a
decent job of gathering clues based on her investigation. Then again, she
should since Ariadne was a mystery novelist just like Agatha Christie. The
episode features Iain Glen who is the star of another series released by Acorn
Media Jack Taylor but many will
recognize him from Game of Thrones.
Dead
Man’s Folly features Ariadne getting invited to devise a “murder hunt” for
a fete at a country home. Ariadne has a feeling that someone is going to be
murdered at this event and she sends for Poirot to come down to help her. Does
a murder happen? Well, it is an Agatha Christie mystery! I was thrilled to see
that this episode features Sean Pertwee who had a major role in Cadfael and is currently Alfred in Gotham. He is also the son of Jon
Pertwee. The episode also features Sinead Cusack and Martin Jarvis.
Something that really struck me
about these stories, with perhaps the exception of Curtain: Poirot’s Last Case, is that these stories are
multi-layered and complex. I wasn’t the biggest fan of the episodes that took
place between Series 7-9 as they all seemed 1 dimensional but these episodes
are complex. One part of the plot or some characters seem to go away or blend
into the background and suddenly they come back at the end of an episode in a
big way. It’s easy to forget about them. These are really sharp, well made
episodes. This is a really strong way for a series to go out. I have watched
these final episodes many times now and these are still very entertaining.
These episodes look great. Unlike
the episodes I reviewed for Series 6 a few years ago, these were made in HD and
presented that way. It is very nice to have the entire collection of Agatha Christie’s Poirot on Blu-ray.
This is a series that benefits from it especially when seeing all of the
amazing locations.
Extras:
There are a couple of extras on
this set. There is a photo gallery and there is 19 min interview with David
Suchet. This interview is pretty good and David really comes off as a generous
and nice person. I enjoyed listening to him talk about how well he knew Poirot
and everything he did to prepare himself to take on the role. It is very
fascinating. The problem with this is that the feature is not put together very
well. Each question in the interview is a title card with way too much black
between the card and footage of Suchet and comes off as a bit amateur which is
too bad as that is not how Acorn normally do things.
I feel that this set is missing an
extra that has showed up on the Agatha
Christie’s Poirot Complete Cases Collection. There is a documentary on the
set titled Being Poirot. This aired
on ITV just as the final episode of the series aired. I thought this was a
shoe-in to be on the Series 13 set because a.) it is a nice documentary for
fans of the series that have been loyally buying these sets and b.) there seems
to be some kind of precedence as the documentary David Suchet on the Orient Express was included on the Series 12
set. There is also plenty of room for the documentary as this is a 3-disc set. Instead
this is reserved as an exclusive on the Complete Cases Collection. I am not a
fan of this decision and I think it is too bad it is being omitted. Maybe someday a disc of this will be
available for the fans who did not but the Complete Cases Collection to have
for their own.
Packaging:
The one thing that has stayed
consistent with the run of Agatha
Christie’s Poirot releases is that they have smart covers and pleasant
looking packaging. Of course it’s the contents on the inside that is most
important but I love the “whole package” which is why even the covers are
important to me.
Blu-ray Breakdown:
Disc 1: Elephants Can Remember, The Big Four
Disc 2: Dead Man’s Folly, The Labours of Hercules
Disc 3: Curtain: Poirot’s Last Case, Interview
with David Suchet
For further reading, I go into greater detail of two of
these episodes on my column on DVDTalk:
Curtain: Poirot’s Last Case
It is difficult to say farewell. The whole time watching
Series 13, I knew that the series was coming to an end. Agatha Christie’s Poirot has been an amazing series made memorable
by David Suchet playing that wonderful little Belgium detective. Bon! Even with
the issues I have with the extras, I still consider this set highly recommended.
Next week: Love
is like a butterfly. Some of my earliest memories of watching British comedy on
PBS is this little gem called Butterflies.
It’s amazing how much of this comedy’s subject matter went over my head when I
was a child!
Have a great week!
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