Unapologetic Reviews

I watched the adaptation of The Murder of Roger Ackroyd , based on the novel by Agatha Christie, shortly after finishing the book. One thing became clear very quickly: this adaptation is far more dramatic than the source material. The novel is almost a cosy mystery. Despite the murder, much of the story revolves around village life, conversations, and the relationship between Poirot and Dr Sheppard. The adaptation shifts the focus firmly onto Poirot, which is actually something many Poirot adaptations do. Interestingly, a surprising number of the original novels are not really about Poirot at all. He often enters the story as an outsider and solves the mystery, while the narrative follows other characters. In the novel, Dr Sheppard narrates the story. Through his eyes, we meet Poirot, who is supposedly retired and spending his time growing vegetable marrows. One of my favourite moments in the book is when Dr Sheppard initially assumes that Poirot is a hairdresser because of his immacul...

I watched The Labours of Hercules , season 13, episode 4 of Agatha Christie’s Poirot , after reading the original short story collection, and I think its placement in the series is one of its strongest choices. In the original book, Poirot is thinking about retirement. Before he leaves detective work behind, he decides to take on twelve final cases, each one loosely connected to one of the Labours of Hercules. Of course, the book was published in 1947, so Poirot does not actually retire, but the idea of him preparing for the end of his career is built into the premise. That makes this episode’s position in the television series feel very deliberate. It is the penultimate episode, coming just before Curtain, and that gives the adaptation a sense of finality that honours the original concept beautifully. The original book is a collection of twelve short stories. Each “labour” is its own case, and many of them are built around deception. People pretend to be what they are not. Identities ...

Let me start out by saying that I haven't read the books. So if you're expecting some sort of comparison, not in this review. Though the books have been on my list for about a decade, maybe I'll finally read them. MTV makes TV shows. It was odd at first, after all, first it was music, then reality shows, and now, TV shows. I was sceptical at first. That is, before I saw Teen Wolf . I kept hearing about it, so one day I decided to give the first season a shot. About 10 hours later, I couldn't stop watching it. Now with The Shannara Chronicles I was hoping for more of the same. Let me tell you, it didn't disappoint. When is the next episode again? So I'm writing this 3 episodes into the series. Let's start with the visuals. Every good fantasy has to wow us with the visuals, that's sort of a given. It certainly does. One thing I didn't know about the world was that it's actually set on a future Earth. The pictures in the show never make...