The ABC Murders: Season 1

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Mixed or average reviews based on 10 Critic Reviews

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Mixed or average reviews based on 17 Ratings

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4.9

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4.9	User Score Mixed or average reviews based on 17 Ratings

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Season Details & Credits

Prime Video | Season Premiere Date: December 26, 2018

Summary: Set in 1933, an older Hercule Poirot (John Malkovich) receives letters threatening murder but the new Inspector (Rupert Grint) dismisses the Belgian detective's help in this latest three-part BBC adaptation of Agatha Christie's novel.

Genre(s): Drama, Movie/Mini-Series, Suspense

Season 1 Episodes

No episode information is currently available for this season

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Critic Reviews

Chris Nashawaty

Jan 28, 2019

The '30s period details are lavishly spot-on and Malkovich, with his graying goatee and thick-as-bearnaise accent, gives the character a haunted, beady-eyed intensity. It may be a bit leisurely paced for some, but armchair whodunit junkies will enjoy this workout for their "little gray Cells." [1/8 Feb 2019, p.85]

The Daily Beast Nick Schager

Feb 1, 2019

Thanks to this engaging--and slyly timely--adaptation of Christie’s 1936 novel, it ably earns first-runner-up status. ... Poirot’s arrogance, of course, remains. Yet in Malkovich’s skillful hands, the detective is a more detached and interior genius, destabilized by his shaky professional standing and, also, by the long-ago catastrophe that made him who he is today. Read full review

John Anderson

Jan 31, 2019

An elaborately fleshed-out Poirot history is the most audacious aspect of this “ABC Murders,” which, as the original dictates, abounds in red herrings and overly broad supporting characters. ... No one will ever call Mr. Malkovich a minimalist, but he does strip away the customary flamboyance, thus making Poirot new. Read full review

Mark A. Perigard

Jan 28, 2019

Malkovich’s detective lacks his spirit. ... This detective is subdued, almost meek. He is an imposter. Read full review

Mike Hale

Feb 1, 2019

The ABC Murders is Phelps’s most thorough teardown yet, and this time she’s so suffocatingly revisionist that what’s left isn’t really Christie at all. The insistence on making everything grimmer and grosser is almost comically complete. ... Phelps is so focused on her combination of chic malaise and sensationalism that she doesn’t give the actors anything human to play, or anything witty to play with. Read full review

Collider Allison Keene

Jan 31, 2019

Too many liberties were taken with its structure to make it work as well as it should, and the dark, dull tone is a disappointment. Read full review

Sophie Gilbert

Feb 4, 2019

While everyone else is hamming it up playing monstrous psychopaths on an operatic scale, Malkovich wafts glumly from scene to scene, his facial expressions rarely more animated than someone trying to do long division in his head. ... It’s difficult to imagine what Phelps is trying to achieve by making her series so viscerally icky, and so intent on stirring things--and people--up. Read full review

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User Reviews

imthenoob

Feb 19, 2019

At first, I genuinely hated it but it definitely grew on me as time went on. I still feel that it was way too overly sexualized and that Grint was criminally underused but I also appreciated the new take on Poirot. And Malkovich's performance grew on me as time went on. So much so that IAt first, I genuinely hated it but it definitely grew on me as time went on. I still feel that it was way too overly sexualized and that Grint was criminally underused but I also appreciated the new take on Poirot. And Malkovich's performance grew on me as time went on. So much so that I wouldn't mind seeing more of him as Poirot.… Expand

0 of 0 users found this helpful00

LeoCatz

Feb 4, 2019

This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. If you have no familiarity with this story or the Agatha Christie characters associated with it, you may enjoy it as a stand alone tale. For those who have a history with the Poirot series, enjoyment requires suspending association with other stories in the collection.

Every translation from book to screen - and every remake - takes liberties. But, unless Netflix has decided to simply eschew the legions of Agatha Christie's readers in favor of those who've never encountered the best selling novelist of all time, then with The ABC Murders they've overreached.

It's one thing to modify some bits of a story line or present a characterization of an elder Poirot that is arguably out of sync with the Poirot throughout the series. {spoiler alert} But seriously, to directly state no one in Belgium could vouch for his existence prior to WWII and that Japp retired from Scotland Yard out of favor, due to his association with Poirot - that requires anyone familiar with the other novels to suspend any notion of continuity to the other stories.

I rank it 5 as a stand alone movie - for those with no previous familiarity with the story or the characters. If you're a fan of Christie and/or Poirot and are hoping to see an enhanced or expanded movie version of this familiar novel, it's already been done better and certainly with greater continuity. From that perspective I'd rank it 3.… Expand

0 of 1 users found this helpful01

OlivierPiel

Feb 3, 2019

Read the Slant Magazine critique. The short TV serie has a beautiful photography, totally ruined by clichéd characters, ludicrous plot exposition and background and a very average Malkovitch performance (his French still sucks!).

1 of 7 users found this helpful16

Zumadancer

Feb 19, 2019

A blasphemy and abomination for any true fan of Hercule Poirot. Kenneth Branagh was awful in 'Murder on the Orient Express' but Malkovitch's performance here is a new low. He turned the delightful, and flamboyant Poirot into a dour, off-putting loner. How did Agatha Christe's estate allow this?

1 of 1 users found this helpful10

Seasons & Episodes

58

Series Overview
Season 1

58
- Season 1 Overview
  Air Date: December 26, 2018
- No episode information is currently available for this season