Les petits meurtres d'Agatha Christie

Am a lover of detective mysteries and Agatha Christie has been one of my favourite authors for such a long time now, since the age of 11 from reading 'And Then There Were None' and watching the David Suchet adaptation of 'Sad Cypress'. Love her twisty mysteries, rich characterisation, meticulous atmosphere, her intelligent use of prose and ingenious final solutions. Her work has mostly been adapted well, the obvious examples being the best of the Joan Hickson Miss Marple and David Suchet Poirot adaptations.

'Les Petits Meutres D'Agatha Christie' is a French series that adapted loosely Christie's work and is essentially Agatha Christie with a French light comedy twist and a "spoonful of French flair. Following on from the very enjoyable 'Petits Meurtres En Famille', 'Les Petits Meurtres D'Agatha Christie' is a very fascinating and charming series and fresh light-hearted entertainment with intriguing stories. Anybody expecting straight up faithful adaptations may need to watch with caution, as they are loose adaptations and only use her stories as a basic framework, but there is an awful lot to like on its own merits and so it shouldn't be dismissed.

The pacing could have been more consistent perhaps, most of the time it's perfect but there are moments where it could have been tighter and others where it could have slowed down.

Likewise with some of the more comedic elements, sometimes in need of a calming down and more subtlety. The chemistry between Avril and Laurence, and there are more episodes with them than with Larosiere and Campion, didn't seem to gel or settle straight away.

However, all the episodes of 'Les Petits Meurtres D'Agatha Christie' look lovely, especially the lavish period detail and scenery to take your breath away. The vibrant but never over-saturated or garish colours, that could be quite atmospheric, and stylish photography complement beautifully. The music matches the light-hearted and at times very atmospheric tone very well. On the most part, the writing is endearing and does entertain and intrigue. As said, some of it needed to calm down but didn't feel much staleness here. Yet the comedic approach doesn't get in the way of telling a good mystery, and enough of the mysteries are clever and very sophisticated without being over-complicated or far-fetched. Any brutality, and there is actually more of the gruesome factor here than in any of Christie's work, not being overused, abused and gratuitous.

Mostly like the characterisation, with some interesting supporting characters and a well matched and fascinating pairing in Larosiere and Lampion, that settled far quicker than that between Avril and Laurence, who aren't quite as interesting but grew on me. Larosiere is the richer character but Lampion the more endearing and rootable one. The direction is competent throughout and cannot fault the acting, Antoine Dulery and Marius Colucci being the standouts.

On the whole, definitely well worth watching. 7/10 Bethany Cox

I watched a few episodes with Superintendent Larosière and the young Inspector Lampion, set in the Thirties , and some other episodes featuring Commissaire Swan Laurence and reporter AliceAvril in the Fifties. All of them bring a fresh approach to Agata Christie's stories, a touch of comedy and a glance at the society of the time, but let me say that the earlier episodes are far more intriguing than the later ones. My rating for this series would have been a 8 or even 9 for the Larosière and Lampion duo, but a 6 for Laurence and Avril. This series definitely makes a case for having per-season ratings for TV shows on IMDb.

I guess this series was made following the success of "Petits meurtres en famille", which is, the best movie version of Hercule Poirot's Christmas I've ever seen. To lead the investigation, instead of Hercule Poirot or Miss Marple, we have here Commissaire Jean Larosière (Antoine Duléry - who I think looks like Robert De Niro) and his subordinate Inspector Lampion (Marius Colucci), who shows a homosexual tendency. In Petits meurtres en famille, Larosière - Lampion remind me of funny detective couple in Les 4 as, where the subordinate shows high respect to his idiot superior; but in this series, Commissaire Larosière is not that stupid anymore and he really does his share in solving the cases. The relation between the 2 is like father - son and each cannot live without the other.

British series based on Agatha Christie books are too faithful and we can see how the characters come alive like how they have been written. This French version is more free in the adaptation and therefore more interesting to watch.

Agatha Christies Criminal Games is a total delight despite the fact any relation to reality is purely coincidental. How many Police Inspectors have a beautiful, huge private office with a private secretary who bears a passing resemblance to Marilyn Monroe? None in the many other TV series I've seen. (Sorry, I don't know any Police Inspectors personally.)

Basically, this French series adapts Agatha Christies mysteries to fit three characters wholly made up for the series. Thus Piorot, Marple, et. Al. Are replaced by Inspector Swan Laurence (Samuel Labarthe), a rather somber, often insufferable, caricature of a 1950s male chauvinist. If he was the only major character there is no way I would have called the series delightful. Luckily there are two major female characters who give the show its sparkle. First off, Blandine Bellavoir as Alice Avril, a newspaper advice columnist turned reporter, who manages to insinuate herself into every case Laurence is investigating, sometimes by accident, sometimes on purpose. If that challenges reality so does her frequent barging into his office at all times a day, seemingly having free reign at Police Headquarters, something even in France would seem out of bounds to a reporter. But, make no mistake, those scenes and her and Laurence's frequent bickering help make the series endearing. Certainly Ms. Bellavoir performance as Alice Avril is the highlight of the show. Then there's Elodie Frenck as Laurence's secretary, also a caricature, in her case, that of a dumb blonde. Her role got bigger as the series progressed and soon she too became endearing. Both actresses deserve accolades for lifting the series above the norm.

The mysteries are nicely adapted to fit these characters. Though light-hearted, and at times almost a semi-comedy, be warned some of the murder scenes can be gruesome. If you, like me, love mysteries, this series can be addictive.

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The other reviews say it all. I am a longtime Christie fan and love these humorous, clever, modern adaptations. Yes, some artistic liberties have been taken, but all the better to set it apart from other versions. See this link for the complete list of episodes. You'll see that Set 1 only includes 7 of the 29 already produced episodes. Neither does Set 1 contain the first 7 episodes, but skips down the list. I can hardly wait to see what comes next, but it appears that Set 1 is the only version released in the US. S'il vous plaît, hurry with subsequent sets!