Two big reasons in seeing 'Les Petits Meurtres D'Agatha Christie' was my love of Agatha Christie, a favourite author of mine seeing seeing the Miss Marple adaptation of 'A Murder is Announced' and reading 'And Then There Were None', and of French from studying and singing in it. Although not straight up faithful adaptations, with a mix of fairly faithful, loosely adapted or inspired by, it is to me an entertaining and worthwhile series with a mix of comedy and mystery all done with a French twist.
"Le Crime Ne Paie Pas" was a disappointment to me. Not just because it just came after the excellent "Cartes Sur Table" (the series' adaptation of 'Cards on the Table' which was vastly superior to the better known David Suchet version), which signalled a step in the right direction after not being wholly sold on the previous Laurence and Avril pairings. But also because it is the second adaptation, or more it is inspired by, of one of Christie's best Poirot novels and despite a lot of excellent things it falls short of it. Did have a few problems with the David Suchet adaptation and not considering that one of the best of that series, will agree that it is a lot better than this.
Will start with the good things. Again, particularly good are the production values, the character of Alice and Blandine Bellavoir. The production values are handsome and makes one nostalgic for the period with it being so lovingly recreated. The beautiful photography complements more than nicely. Have always liked Alice and she is continually a bright spot in all her episodes, have always gone as far to call her a breath of fresh air. Bellavoir portrays her very charmingly and with great spirit, loved a lot to do with the nightclub (which is significantly more interesting than the whole Laurence subplot), she has a nice voice too.
Again, the music matches the light-hearted and at times very atmospheric tone very well. Enough of the writing is fun and probes thought, with the light heart and intrigue nicely balanced. Most of the supporting cast do well if not outstandingly.
Did have some problems with "Le Crime Ne Paie Pas". Although not as annoying or as stiff as he was in the pre-"Cartes Sur Table" (which saw a massive improvement to how his character was written and how he interacted with Avril, where they actually gelled), Laurence is pretty bland. Then again he is over-shadowed by something that really hurt the episode badly, which will be come onto in a minute. There is nowhere near enough of he and Avril together either, so it was hard to say whether their chemistry had really improved or if the previous episode had been a fluke.
Regarding the mystery, it may be slightly less convoluted than the Suchet adaptation in the plot (though that is not a bad thing with that adaptation, as the book's plot itself is convoluted, which usually is not a positive word but is not a negative with that story in my view). But it is also nowhere near as interesting, found it often very dull, especially the Laurence subplot which felt like a different episode altogether, too safe and lacking in suspense. Absolutely agree that the biggest problem is Dominique Pinon, his character is incredibly irritating and like he came straight out of a cartoon, probably the most annoying supporting character of the series. Pinon overacts badly and he is used far too much, it unbalances everything and it felt like the Dominique Pinon show.
Overall, a lot of very good things here but a few very significant flaws bring it down. 5.5/10
