Problem at Sea

It may not be one of the most mysterious or intriguing Poirot's but it's well done and a very faithful adaptation of the Christie story. Pretty good.

Halfway through this episode, I was prepared to give it an 8/10 for the location shooting and witty dialogue alone. On the one hand, the shots of the sunset and the harbor (with Greece substituting for Alexandria) actually rivaled the shots in the previous episode (see my review of "Triangle at Rhodes"). And on the other hand, the writers not only borrowed some of Christie's best lines from the original story, but added some good ones of their own; when Hastings, in Egypt, is posing for a photo in safari costume on a cardboard camel, and the photographer asks him to look brave, Hastings gives it his best effort, and Poirot, looking on, says, "No, Hastings, now you merely look constipated." But I changed the review to a 9/10 with the surprisingly poignant ending, highlighted by the acting of Ann Firbush. Considering that for most of the previous hour, the passengers on the Mediterranean cruise didn't seem awfully broken up by the murder of a very unpleasant woman, I was impressed by how the revelation of the murderer caused things to take such a serious turn.

When a woman is murdered on a ship cruising around Egypt, the captain asks Hercule Poirot - who happens to be on board, along with Captain Hastings - to investigate the matter.

This episode boasts the usual high production values, but the mystery itself is transparent. It all relies on a single gimmick, and I was able to call it as soon as it was happening on the screen. Since I'm far from an expert at solving murder mysteries, I imagine that most viewers will solve this one prematurely, too. That leaves us in the position of being AHEAD of Poirot - a position as infrequent as it is undesirable. At least the actual revelation is done in an interestingly offbeat way. (**1/2)

Poirot needs to STOP going on vacation. Think about it...in "Death on the Nile", "Murder on the Orient Express", "Triangle at Rhodes" AND "Problem at Sea", Poirot is on vacation...and someone is murdered! The only detective I can think of with a similar track record is Jessica Fletcher...and I have no idea why others don't go running in fear when he goes on one of his trips!

"Problem at Sea" finds Poirot on a small cruise ship headed to various North African ports. Of the guest aboard, one is particularly annoying and loathesome...so you KNOW she will soon die. Following this, Poirot figures out who did it...though the number of reasonable choices rests at one. This, combined with telegraphing who will die make this a weak one. Worth seeing, of course, but no great mystery here.

As to be expected in this series, the photography and production values (the bazaar scenes are especially interesting) are excellent. The setting on a cruise ship voyaging around Egypt is also pleasing to watch. Unfortunately, most of the characters excepting Poirot and Hastings are either boring, annoying or unlikeable. The two "silly" girls are annoying, the suburban couple and henpecked husband are boring, and the very disagreeable and arrogant murder victim is unlikeable (which is as it should be in a mystery). The suspects include native hawkers of doodads but every suspect seems to have an iron clad alibi. As another reviewer has said, it's pretty easy to figure out who the culprit is but Poirot's method of publicly identifying this person was clever and interesting. Aside from the bazaar shopping scene, my favorite bit in the show was an older woman singing a music hall number about the army as entertainment for passengers and Hastings' annoyance with the number. While this is a lesser entry in the series it was still worthwhile and fun to watch.