To the reviewer who berates the legions of us appalled by most scripts in this mid-2000s reboot of Agatha Christie's detective novels and stories: 'new' is not synonymous with 'refreshing ' as you put it. To be 'refreshing,' a change has to be, you know, good. In the 5-6 Marple episodes I've seen before this one, the changes are largely absurdist or tacky or both. Color me 'non-refreshed.'
Until this episode, 'Ordeal By Innocence.' Now, I'll grant you that I've not read Christie's source material for this episode, however given the telewriters' butchering of Christie's work in several other episodes, I can well believe complaints of a hatchet job here, too. But 'Ordeal' is actually cohesive and entertaining in its own right.
Much of that is down to the cast, which is anchored by two big stars--Jane Seymour and Juliet Stevenson--and bolstered by a stable of talented, well-known actors including Denis Lawson, Alison Steadman and Richard Armitage. Weirdly, the 90s pop singer Lisa Stansfield has a supporting role and is actually pretty good at it.
Let me say right now: Juliet Stevenson improves everything she's in. I don't say that because of her credentials (she was part of the illustrious "new wave" coming out of RADA in the 1970s); truth is, I only found out about that recently, after 25+ years of watching her shine in film, TV, radio, even audiobooks. She is a seriously good actress and if her performance here in 'Ordeal' doesn't move you in some way, you're not paying attention!
And it's relatively easy to pay attention to this 'Marple' episode. It's a classic closed-circle/locked room mystery, with a large family all at home the night one among them is murdered. No outlandish plot points; perhaps the usual 'Marple' scriptwriters were on holiday for this entry.
To my surprise, one of the murders packs a genuine emotional punch, which I attribute to the all-around good acting of the episode as well as to the specific emotional position this character occupies relative to the people around him/her.
Unlike the 5 or 6 other Marple episodes I've seen, 'Ordeal' didn't trigger an eye roll, not even one!
If you're going to invest feature-length viewing time in one of the 'Marple' TV series, begin here. It might well be all downhill from this one!
P.s. Miss Marple is given almost nothing to do, apparently as per usual for the 'Marple' series. But given it's Juliet Stevenson doing a lot of the other stuff, all is forgiven here.