Poirot "Appointment with Death" #11.4 (2008 (TV)

"You see, mon ami, the voices of the little gray cells have begun to sing to Poirot.", 26 February 2017

While traveling with her archaeologist husband in Syria, Lady Boynton is murdered in plain sight of everyone at the dig. There are no shortage of suspects as Lady Boynton was a beastly, overbearing woman who mistreated just about everyone she met - especially her children. Poirot is (naturally) on hand to find the order in things and uncover a killer.

God, do I hate a lot of these new entries in the Poirot series. They lack the charm and simplicity of the earlier episodes. Episodes like Appointment with Death are full of style, stars, and "art", they lack the soul of good storytelling. Everything is overdone. And why change the story. I may seem like a hypocrite because I recently wrote that the changes made in Marple's Body in the Library didn't bother me. But those changes were minor compared with the gigantic rewrites to Christie's story in this one. It's heartbreaking and unnecessary. Finally, I miss the old intro. Seeing Poirot walking toward that art deco triangle/pyramid, I knew I was in for some fun. I can't believe I'm writing this, but if you want to see Appointment with Death, look for the 1988 film with Peter Ustinov. It's nothing to write home about, but it's a far sight better than this bloated monstrosity.

There are a lot of the newer episodes I still haven't seen. If they're all like this, I'm in for a rough time.

3/10