Customer Reviews

Agatha Christie's Marple Series 3

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

Now, I have to say right off, that, even though I appreciated Geraldine McEwen's portrayal much more, the scriptwriters had her saying the most hilariously inane things--unfortunately the viewer is tempted to laugh in all the wrong places, despite her excellent performance. No one on the production staff seemed the least bit concerned with historical or literary accuracy. It makes you sigh for what could have been.

Also ironic is the appearance of perhaps an anti-clergy slant, since Miss Marple was the daughter of an Anglican vicar. Earlier we saw at least one alcoholic rector, and now we have presented to us a), a society matron in the book Nemesis changed into a murderously obsessed nun for television; and b), a character changed from the kind, gentle Canon Pennyfather in the novel of At Bertram's Hotel to a crazed Nazi war criminal masquerading as an Anglican priest.

Nor is the QUIET, efficiently run establishment of understated elegance in the novel anywhere to be seen; it is a place of utter chaos invaded by an American jazz band (which Miss Marple seems to relish; she's almost snapping her finger to the beat--"Yeah man"). Yikes! By changing and inventing all the characters for the TV series while keeping some basic thread of the original plot, the viewer gets the worst of both worlds: Everything but the ending is now a surprise.

Which brings us to the most hilarious bit of all: In Bertram's Hotel, when Miss Marple asks Jane, the chambermaid, if she and the chief inspector are going to get married after discovering romance, the young woman says, "Oh no, we're just going to live together; that's how it's done these days" (remember, this is 1952); and even more roll-on-the-floor funny is Miss Marple's reply: "That's not what I would have done at your age, but I probably would now."

Oh yes. Little ladylike Miss Marple shacking up with the (not even very handsome) chief inspector. Good lord--where will the scriptwriters go from there? That's the REAL mystery.

Geraldine McEwen is a wonderful actress, but the current BBC production doesn't serve her well. Everything is wonderful except the scripts, which are often ludicrous. With such wonderful material as the Marple novels, why do the screen writers deviate from them so gratuitously, often turning the plots into gibberish? Try the Joan Hickson Marple films. With no disrespect to Ms. McEwen, Ms. Hickson was the perfect Jane, and the plots of these Christie stories were not nearly so badly mauled.

Ever since season 1, I have enjoyed the cinematography of this new Jane Marple series, and the production design. The colors are eye-popping, the costumes over-the-top, the acting arch and stylized (I wonder if Ken Russell, who had a key role in an episode of Season 1, had anything to do with that). I bought Season 2 and 3 as soon as they came out on DVD, and I have to say that Season 3 has turned out to be a laughable disappointment.

The production values are still here, the series continues to provide an extra paycheck for unemployed British acting greats, but the writing has wandered away from the Christie novels and ended up in a soap opera somewhere. The dialogue is stilted and unbelievable, Miss Marple behaves more and more out of character, and the plots are changed out of all recognition, and not for the better.

In some misguided attempt to make the stories more "modern" and "interesting," the writers dream up the most ludicrous stereotyped characters - murderous nuns (yes, there's a nasty anti-religious theme through this Season), Nazis on the lam, drunken novelists, an oily-haired gigolo - and have them commit bizarre actions, such as switch bodies so that characters thought to be dead aren't really dead at all, or commit suicide with a piece of statuary. Or better yet, stage a shootout in olde London town! If it weren't so disappointing, it would be funny.

In Season 4, I suggest a new episode - Miss Marple investigates the murder of a fine series of Agatha Christie mysteries, perpetrated by a gang of postmodern hacks.

I have been a fan of Miss Marple ever since the wonderful Joan Hickson portrayed her in BBC's production of Miss Marple in the 1980's. While I will always love the BBC productions, Geraldine McEwan has brought a more modern, stylized Jane Marple to PBS. She breathes new life into an almost stuffy character, and it, in my opinion, makes her seem more human and down to earth than Joan Hickson's Miss Marple.

I also love to see today's British actors in these new productions. Who can go wrong with guest stars like Timothy Dalton, John Hannah, Juliet Stevenson, Greg Wise, and Mark Heap, just to name a few. This series showcases some of the greatest talent Britain has to offer. The sets are wonderful, the costumes beautiful, and the attention to detail is unmatched.

While Marple purists will critisize that the stories deviate from the original writings of Agatha Christie, sometimes it is allowed, even encouraged, to go a different direction when prior productions have stuck with the book. There are always going to be people that are unhappy because it the story isn't followed verbatim, but an artistic license is allowed. It makes the story interesting, especially if the person watching thinks they know in advance how the story is going to unfold. There are twists and turns in the plot that keep everyone guessing.

All in all, it is a wonderful series. I highly recommend it for anyone who likes to enjoy a good murder mystery. The acting is top notch, and the stories never seem to age. And, they will keep you guessing from beginning to end.

I continue to be amazed by the silly changes they have made in these book "adaptations" in order to make Miss Marple "relevant." I'm no worshipper of the old Hickson series and would have been happy to see new versions, but these new ones are just dumbed-down and insulting to Christie. Some of the newer Poirots have been quite good, but even with sexing up most of them have remained sufficiently true to the text (a major exception being the egregious Cards on the Table adaptation). The Marples, on the other hand, have just been one disaster after another, beginning with the ongoing destruction of Miss Marple's character. Whoever the woman is in these films she is not Miss Marple. Christie's grandson should be ashamed of himself for allowing this to continue. But, that aside, the adaptations just aren't very good. Nemesis and Bertram's Hotel are by no means perfect books, but the changes in the films make them look idiotic. They just seem to be doing changes for the sake of making changes at this point. With the others, I find introducing Miss Marple into books where she does not belong upsets the structure. But obviously the adaptors don't care about such things. Awful.

Bad acting, dreadful writing, annoying camera work. Were it not for the title, it would be unrecognizable as a work based on Christie's Miss Marple. Tasteless adaptations full of silly anachronisms. Buy the Joan Hickson classics instead.

Great liberty has been taken in drastically rewriting the plots of the original novels. The only thing these dramatizations have in common with the original novels is the names of a few characters and a weak link with what happened. The problem being that Christie was probably the best writer of coherent plots with no flaws and the script writer is not up to that standard. The plots seem to be a jumble of activity that does not fit together.

The characters are now lower class compared to the characters in the novels. As an example, Bertram's hotel (which originally had only upper class customers) is now populated with lower class people wearing expensive clothes who are so socially unskilled that they cannot walk across a room without bumping into a few dozen other people.

The only two good thing I can say about this set of dramatizations is that none of the actresses wear heavily padded bras as did the actresses in the first two sets. In fact the few actress that are above average in fullness dresses to tone it down. Also, there is no woman to woman romantic-physical affection as occurred in the first two sets.

One of the program plots relies on a convent of Catholic nuns allowing a novice to wear secular jewelry. Either the script writers were disconnected from reality or they thought the audience would be.

Call me a "Purist," if you want, but this series doesn't even come close to Agatha Christie's wonderful spinster sleuth. Christie's intricate plots, complicated and multi-dimensional characters, red herrings and surprising endings have all been changed. With this "New" series we have foolish and unintentionally comical scripts, shallow characters, and some of the silliest plot twists since Peter Sellers did the Pink Panther. There's very little of Christie's books here except for the titles, the names of a few characters and Miss Marple of course. Everything else has been changed to suit a newer market, whatever that may be. My biggest criticism is for Bertram's Hotel, where Miss Marple is literally sidelined for the Hotel Maid. Yes, the creators have made Miss Marple so dithering, twittering, twinkling and feeble that the Hotel Maid has to do the sleuthing and summing up of the crime. Agatha Christie would turn in her grave!!

BERTRAM'S HOTEL: The creators of this series changed Bertram's Hotel from the classy and Edwardian style hotel with older clientele and elaborate teas to a loud and garish three-ring circus. It opens with Miss Marple walking in and looking like a homeless waif. There's a group of screaming young twits running to see....are you ready for this???.....Louie Armstrong!!! Bess Sedgwick has been changed from a classy, thrill-seeker and absentee mother to a dumpy, depressed looking drudge. She's also been made a secondary character. Of Course in keeping with the inane changes of Christie's writing, there's a Nazi spin just to keep things repetitive and boring. There's also one of the silliest and unbelievable shootouts in the streets of London no less. Cartoonish characters of a hat designer who looks like a 1700's style French clown and a loud Jazz Singer have just been thrown in to be the new red herrings. This is the worst of the lot, strictly because they push Miss Marple to the sidelines. Geraldine McEwan doesn't have a chance to show her real acting abilities. Miss Marple is the real victim here. Bumped off by an annoying Hotel Maid.

NEMESIS: Again more incomprehensible plot and character changes make Christie's real "Nemesis" unrecognizable from this mess. Too bad some of us actually know what great plots Christie wrote because they don't exist here. More recognizable actors have been placed in each episode to make us forget that the real plot doesn't exist. Richard Grant is wasted and given the inenviable role of a foolish womanizer. Again with the German Nazi plot twist added where it never existed in Christie's plot. The three sisters who are essential to the plot have been changed to Nuns in the Catholic Church. The ending is comical. Too bad Peter Sellers is dead. He would be great in this one.

TOWARDS ZERO and ORDEAL BY INNOCENCE: Miss marple never appeared in Christie's wonderful mysteries by these titles, but since when has that stopped this untalented crew? They just plopped her in anywhere. That's okay since there's no plotting or characters of note. Just a lot of scenery chewing by more recognizable actors. Since I've seen most of them in other British productions I know they're worthy of better acting. Unfortunately not here because their main function is to do a lot of eye popping. Jane Seymour and Greg Wise literally do that. It's a waste of their talent.

These productions remind me of little community plays put on by amatuers. They're loud, garish and sadly lacking in any quality. For those of us who know and love AGATHA CHRISTIE'S real Miss Marple this is a major diappointment indeed.

If you want to enjoy this series, don't open an Agatha Christie book. Also, Keep your expectations low. Do these things and I can assure you that you will not be disappointed.

Of the four mysteries included in Series 3, I've seen "At Bertram's Hotel" and "Ordeal by Innocence" on PBS. "Bertram's Hotel" was fine, but anyone who read and enjoyed "Ordeal" in book form should be warned that the resolution is MUCH more downbeat than the book. Couples who get together in the book don't do so here, and there's an additional (gratuitous) murder of a very sympathetic character.

Overall, this is a fine series that takes few liberties with Chrstie's plots or characters. I hope the "Ordeal" treatment remains an anomaly.

The best way to relax is to sit down with a hot cup of coffee and Miss Marple. She is so unassuming and clever. Each detective she meets views her as a snoopy, little old lady until she reveals to them, the master sleuth that she is. Then, it is all over, as Miss Marple puts all the pieces together. She gathers the suspects and often painstakingly, offers up the murderer. What will she do next??