THEn the occasion of the fiftieth anniversary of the death of Agatha Christieis available from today on Netflix The Seven Quadrants by Agatha Christieminiseries based on the 1929 novel of the same name (among the least known of his production). The result is formally impeccable, visually elegant but completely lacking in suspense and beneficial touches of British humour. A curiously counter-current choice compared to television classics like the Poirot by David Suchet or the most recent stagings such as Why didn’t they ask Evans? directed by Hugh Laurie. They think about saving the 3 episodes from many (too many) yawns Helena Bonham Carter and Martin Freeman. But they are not enough.
The Seven Quadrants by Agatha Christie: Netflix TV series, plot episodes streaming from January 15th
Ronda (Spain), 1920. A mysterious man finds himself in the center of a deserted arena, waiting in vain for someone who will not arrive. In its place, a runaway bull materializes. Lincolnshire (Great Britain) 1925. In a splendid home of Chimneys, in the English countryside, owned by Lady Caterham (Helena Bonham Carter) and his daughter Lady Brent (Mia McKenna-Bruce), nicknamed Bundles, a masquerade party is taking place.
The Cootes organized itrich and arrogant industrialists from the north, who rented the estate for 3 days. The aim is to start business collaborations with some important members of the English government. Lady Caterham is not thrilled about having so many strangers in her noble house. After the death of her husband and then her eldest son, who fell during the First World War, financial problems forced her to find new ways to maintain their properties.
The evening proved to be very pleasantfull of music and young people dancing. For the young Bundle it is even more special because the charming Gerry Wade is also present (Corey Mylchreest), his late brother’s comrade in arms as well as his love interest. Gerry is at the party not for fun but to entertain the temperamental Mrs Coote, so that her boss, Lomax (Alex Macqueen) can talk business with her wealthy husband.
Mia McKenna-Bruce (Bundle) and Corey Mylchreest (Gerry) in “The Seven Quadrants of Agatha Christie” (Netflix)
From crime to mystery
The boy invites Bundle to dinner the next dayanticipating that he will have to ask her something very important for the future of both of them. She is happy: she is certain that he will propose marriage to her and can’t wait to say yes to him. Between glasses of champagne and wild dancing, Bundle meets Ronnie (Nabhaan Rizwan) and Bill (Hughie O’Donnell), brother’s former schoolmates deceased.
The two work in the same department as Gerry. Knowing his inability to never wake up before noon, they decided to play an innocent prank on him, hiding 8 alarm clocks in his room. A joke that, the next morning, turns into tragedy by pure chance. the dials of the clocks chime in unison but fail to make their friend punctual. Gerry lies, lifeless, in bed.
The Seven Quadrants by Agatha Christie: review of the TV series
The new miniseries mystery genre, directed by the British Chris Sweeney (The tourist) it brings with it all the traditional apparatus of an investigative mystery a la Agatha Christie. The glittering splendor of the gowns and stately homes of 1930s England, assassinations galore, plots with government spies, an amateur detective who manages to solve the case before and better than Scotland Yard. Themes that have made the fortune of the novels, of which the series has only taken the surface of its literary complexity.
From the first sequences, it is so clear who the victim will be that it even becomes annoying to see how it will end. The director had the undoubted merit of avoiding that suffocating claustrophobic aspect of imminent dangerso fashionable in derivative works such as Murder in Venice by Kenneth Branagh. Instead, he granted his protagonists touches of lightness and the right sense of adventure. It’s a shame that everything was packaged as a sort of crime franchise. The male personalities all seem to be made in series, between fmade satins and banalities even in the most dramatic moments.
The same thrill of simplification is felt in the actions of the faded protagonist. With non-existent elements, Bundle becomes convinced that there is a real enigma behind Gerry’s death. Everyone finds her fascinatingbrilliant and acute, so much so that she repeatedly asks for his hand. These qualities are highlighted, however, not through merit but through pure subtraction: because those around her are real and incurable fools.
Mia McKenna-Bruce and Helena Bonham Carter in “The Seven Quadrants of Agatha Christie” (Netflix)
The cast
The general atmosphere of boredom, peppered with banal dialogues, inevitably influences the albeit excellent cast of British actors and surroundings. The presence of Martin Freeman (as Superintendent Battle) and Helena Bonham Carter I am inviting promises that they fail to keep. No flash of eccentricity, no increase in suspense to the entire plot. The fault lies in the evident lack of harmony with the young Mia McKenna-Bruce. The interpreter of of How to sex he doesn’t find a way to make his Bundle interesting and, inevitably, makes his colleagues’ performances gray and out of focus.
The same fate befalls otherslike the excellent Edward Bluemel (Persuasion). His character, Jimmy Thesiger, is the key piece in solving the case. Yet, his every action seems forced to make Bundle better than everyone else.
Martin Freeman and Alex Macqueen in “The Seven Quadrants of Agatha Christie” (Netflix)
How it ends (no spoilers), novel differences, meaning of the 7 quadrants
Everyone believes that poor Gerry committed suicide due to the enormous stress load caused by work. Bundle is convinced that there is much more. He discovers a letter in which the late Gerry spoke of a mysterious group called the seven quadrants, the young woman begins to investigate and learns that the name refers both to an ambiguous locality in a working-class neighborhood of London, is a secret organization.
One of those who could work for crime or for the good of humanity. Giving her a hand is Jimmy Thesiger (Bluemel), another friend of the late brother and Superintendent Battle (Freeman). The truth will be, to say the least, shocking for her. Although the Netflix miniseries sticks to the original plot of the novelfocuses more on Bundle’s character. It thus downplays the importance of friends and Battle which, between the pages of paper, decisively help the girl solve the case. A choice that, unfortunately, bore very few bitter fruits.