The second episode of this ninth season of Poirot continues in the vein of the first episode. The framing is like that of a film more than a television episode, the tone is more serious, and the reoccurring supporting characters are not present (as they would be considered more televisual I guess). Similar to the previous episode, we open with a woman charged with murder before we then jump backwards in time to before it occurs. In this case Elinor Carlisle is the accused and we join her in the pre-court case days as she travels with her fiancé to see her wealthy aunt who is ill; they are motivated not only by concern, but also an anonymous note which says someone is trying to ingratiate themselves with the aunt and cut to the front of the inheritance queue. The couple take the advice of Dr Lord and engage Poirot to assist (he is bored with another case and agrees to look into it), but soon things go far beyond a threatening letter.
With the pleasure of Five Little Pgs fresh in my mind, I did come to Sad Cypress with high expectations. On the face of it, all is well since we have a film with a similar approach and feel as the previous one, but unfortunately the same cannot be said of the film where it matters – which is in the script. Generally speaking it is well written and engaging, and it builds events and suspicions well, however I thought that the conclusion was a bit messier than usual, even if I did enjoy the final confrontation for doing something a bit different. Outside of Elinor, the characters themselves are not so interesting, and it did make me remember how well the previous episode had done this. Poirot seems inserted too early into proceedings, although he is always welcome, but is not always seeming at home.
The production values remain high; the bigger scale of the series does appear to have also changed the set design and locations to be larger and more spacious in nature, but the period detail is still there and well captured. The film looks and sounds sharp too, with a good use of one special effect in a particularly memorable nightmare sequence. The cast are variable. Suchet maybe doesn't have the spark he has in other episodes, but is ever reliable and has some nice "Poirot" moments and lines, whether they be comedic or more reflective. Dermot Walsh is by far the best of the supporting cast, although McGann, Penry-Jones, Reilly and others all do decent work.
Sad Cypress continues to high standards of the series, however it is unfortunate that it follows the much better Five Little Pigs, because by contrast it is less effective at building the mystery, developing characters, and revealing who and how it was all done – all of which are pretty fundamental. It still engages on a level that I was happy with, but it didn't match the standard of the season opener.
With the pleasure of Five Little Pgs fresh in my mind, I did come to Sad Cypress with high expectations. On the face of it, all is well since we have a film with a similar approach and feel as the previous one, but unfortunately the same cannot be said of the film where it matters – which is in the script. Generally speaking it is well written and engaging, and it builds events and suspicions well, however I thought that the conclusion was a bit messier than usual, even if I did enjoy the final confrontation for doing something a bit different. Outside of Elinor, the characters themselves are not so interesting, and it did make me remember how well the previous episode had done this. Poirot seems inserted too early into proceedings, although he is always welcome, but is not always seeming at home.
The production values remain high; the bigger scale of the series does appear to have also changed the set design and locations to be larger and more spacious in nature, but the period detail is still there and well captured. The film looks and sounds sharp too, with a good use of one special effect in a particularly memorable nightmare sequence. The cast are variable. Suchet maybe doesn't have the spark he has in other episodes, but is ever reliable and has some nice "Poirot" moments and lines, whether they be comedic or more reflective. Dermot Walsh is by far the best of the supporting cast, although McGann, Penry-Jones, Reilly and others all do decent work.
Sad Cypress continues to high standards of the series, however it is unfortunate that it follows the much better Five Little Pigs, because by contrast it is less effective at building the mystery, developing characters, and revealing who and how it was all done – all of which are pretty fundamental. It still engages on a level that I was happy with, but it didn't match the standard of the season opener.