The Labours of Hercules

Hercule Poirot is depressed: he set a trap for ruthless killer and master-thief Marrascaud and the woman who was wearing the jewels as bait is now dead. Furthermore, Marrascaud escaped with the jewels and a priceless painting. A romantic errand sees him in Switzerland, at a hotel high in the Alps. Coincidentally, the local police are staking out the hotel, as they expect Marrascaud to be arriving there. His interest piqued, and eager to catch the criminal who has eluded him, Poirot joins in the attempt to unmask Marrascaud. One of the guests is Countess Rossakoff, an old friend of Poirot's whom he hasn't seen in many years. Moreover, his affection for her seems to exceed that of friendship.

Quite intriguing, dark and edgy. Being set in the Swiss Alps, some great scenery too. Also a rarity in that there is a hint of romance in the air for Poirot, so there is a nice emotional angle to the story.

Not perfect. The reasons why Poirot is in Switzerland in the first place are quite clumsy, and then the fact that Marrascaud just happens to be in exactly the same place as Poirot is just too coincidental. In addition, the identity of Marrascaud is not that difficult to figure out.

Quite an unusual Poirot this one – for better and worse. While normally the mysteries in the series would have one or maybe two core crimes (usually separated by time and/or space) that would come together to be connected in a neat and satisfying finale, here we get almost a series of crimes and mysteries which are only connected by being all in the same physical space of a very odd hotel in the Alps. Where normally the series would build with small, perhaps unnoticed clues, here we have so many crimes that even the priest of the many-faced god comments "is there anyone here who is not a criminal?" In some ways I found this film to be a little disappointing in terms of what I was used to the series doing (particularly since it is the penultimate episode), but at the same time it is hard to deny that the liveliness of it all is not in itself engaging and entertaining.

It has thrills, it has intrigue, it has drama, it has tragedy, and it has comedy; okay the construct is perhaps not what I have come to expect, but it works in the rather unusual way it sets out to do. As a mystery it is perhaps less satisfying because it is so event- driven that it doesn't really have time to lay down a lot of clues so much as throw them at you while setting up or closing out an entirely different mystery. I guess for some this change in style will be too much, but for me I quite enjoyed it; although I liked the patient elegance of Dead Man's Folly, I have not been a massive fan of the season thus far, so, while not perfect, at very least the amount of events and sheer energy here did make it engaging – it really didn't leave a choice.

The design of the film is also quite something. Some have commented on the absurdity of this hotel really being situated in the Alps, but for me it is part of the appeal – the absurdity of the place, the people, and the whole film, all works in the favor of the rather overblown and busy delivery. It looks beautiful as a film – while the back projection of Elephants Can Remember was poor, here the Alps look both fake but yet also great, again all part of this almost other-worldly place that Poirot finds himself. This feeling is in all the regards and frankly helped me buy into the coincidences and contrivances across the narrative. The cast buy into this too. In the lead Suchet is fantastic, showing that he can work with all the elements of the series whether it be the darker side of his character or his comic timing; he really gets a bite of everything and does it very well. The support cast are uniformly colorful, from Callow, O'Shaughnessy, Brady, Katz, Tomlinson and others. Personally I greatly enjoyed Lindsay– such a great comedic performance throughout. Wlaschiha stood out in his performance, although I found it endlessly distracting that his voice and delivery was so similar to his character in Season 5 of Game of Thrones.

It is an unusual Poirot, and it does lack the qualities that one usually looks to the series for, but it is full of events and has a great mix of absurdity, comedy, drama, and thrills, which all work remarkably well together while the performances and the design do connect with this approach, and make it work.

Poirot is on the tale of an infamous thief Marrascaud, following the elusive criminal to The Alps.

Breathtakingly beautiful locations, the locations look sublime, the scenes in the Hotel are a visual feast, so wonderfully elaborate. The camera work only adds to the appeal, the episode is definitely a visual triumph.

A beautifully acted episode, Orla Brady is an enchanting individual, she comes up with the goods in the role of the Countess Rossakoff. It is no surprise that Tom Wlaschiha is in such high demand, he is brilliant. Fiona O'Shaughnessy also stands out, the final scene is very touching.

It's a very good episode, rather then an excellent one, the story itself almost feels a little disjointed and tenuous, but there are enough good elements to make it pretty good overall. The ending is slightly drawn out, but the revelation is brilliant.

Of the 13th and final season, it was The Labours of Hercules where there was a feeling of it going either way, mainly with the idea of condensing several stories into one. If well-written there was potential of success, but I will be honest in being prepared for disappointment. This episode is not terrible(in fact none of the Poirot adaptations are, even the very disappointing ones), there are things it does do right, but it was the weakest and less coherent of the 13th season and a contender for the most underwhelming adaptation since Taken at the Flood. Several things are done very well. It is a very well shot adaptation, with sumptuous period costumes and scenery, the Swiss mountains were beautiful and a good backdrop for a detective mystery. The music is haunting and melancholic, which matches beautifully with the atmosphere that the adaptation evokes. And the atmosphere is very rich here, there are elements of suspense and real menace but it is tinged with a real sadness, mainly because we as a viewer are about to say goodbye to such a great series both in the shorter episodes and feature-length ones. The acting is mostly solid apart from some dodgy accents, in support the standouts were Orla Brady(wonderfully mysterious as the Countess), Eleanor Tomlinson and Simon Callow(who seems to be gleefully enjoying himself). Best of all is David Suchet, as to expect he is exceptional as Poirot, dapper, intelligent and with a twinkle in the eye yet there is also a genuine anguish that is most moving.

A couple of aspects are mixed, the script has evidence of very thoughtful and quite charming writing as well as setting up the beginning very well, at other times it could have been tighter and more developed. The direction from Andy Wilson shows skill, accommodation of the actors and time for us to take in the atmosphere and surroundings, but again it could have been tighter and not as turgid as it did have a tendency to become.

The story has a well-set-up opening scene with some nicely played scenes and great atmosphere, but because it contains elements of several stories some of the storytelling and structure becomes jumbled. In particular the last thirty minutes, which had a lot going on but not quite enough explanation and detail, in the end it felt convoluted, at times incomplete and rushed through. The pacing was not always on the mark either, the final solution could have been slowed down but instead of completely absorbing, despite a fair bit going on, the adaptation felt turgid(mostly very uncharacteristic for a Poirot adaptation, especially from after the opening sequence to half an hour through which was in all honesty not easy to get into, the worst of the dodgy accents were here too). With the exception of Poirot and to a lesser extent the Countess, the characters are rather stock, they serve a point to the story but they are not developed enough to let us care or wholly believe in them, and while the production values are fine on the whole the lighting is too murky in places.

In all, not a terrible adaptation, it looks good, has great atmosphere and it's generally well-acted particularly from Suchet, but underwhelming, with more development and less of a turgid jumble with less of a sense of cramming in too much it would have been better. I also couldn't help feeling that an adaptation of The Labours of Hercules would have fared better as each and every story forming it being an hour-long episode each from about 15-20 years earlier. By all means they did their best here and it was a good try but it doesn't quite work, especially disappointing as it is the penultimate episode and after Elephants Can Remember- which is actually better than its source material) and Dead Man's Folly, also from the 13th season, being so excellent(Big Four was let down by the final twenty five minutes but was quite good up to there). 6/10 Bethany Cox

This episode combines several separate stories into one. It is well-executed, but if you have read the novel before having viewed this, you will find it difficult to watch, at first.

The Countess, who first appeared in The Double Clue, was around Poirot's age, at the time, and so was the actress who portrayed this character. However, we discover that the Countess must have found the fountain of youth during the 20 years since she and Poirot last saw each other, as the actress in this episode was born in the early 60s--20 years younger than the first one. All that freedom from a life of crime, I imagine, has restored her youth.