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Nine Perfect Strangers (2021)
The ending ruins it
The first six episodes, really solid, if questionable focus at times. The atmosphere is eerie. The camera shots are confusing. The characters all have secrets.
What's up with Masha's mysterious past? Who really was the cause of the son's suicide? What's the deal with Carmel and Lars? Will Frances and Tony make it work? What's Masha's real game with these people's lives?
Until we get to the final episode where it's revealed...
Masha really was just a therapist who wanted to help her clients. And she probably broke the law a hundred times yet gets off scot-free. And everybody had a neat happy ending, as a result of a fake near-death experience given to them by the Tranquillium staff. Two of the main characters even went to work at Tranquillium somehow, while the murderous villain actually became a therapist and became in charge of administering therapy to others very shortly after?! Meanwhile, Delilah, the staff member who had been imprisoned at her workplace and had to drive through a fence to get out, happily reunited with her husband who collaborated in her imprisonment?!
I felt that the focus on the Marconi family throughout at the expense of all the other characters was somewhat gratuitous and overblown. The trauma was interesting and well-acted, but it detracted from the storylines of some of the rest of the group, and consistently treating the family as a single unit devalued the individual members, especially given that they were all adults.
On the positive side, all characters were well-acted and the cinematrography and stylization was excellent. The consistent eerie tone and suspicion-inducing soundtrack however turned out to be inappropriate for the ultimate tone of the series - a successful therapy session. The direction seemed instead to be hinting at a wider mystery - societal apocalypse, a mad science subplot etc. And that it was truly in the SF genre rather than essentially a simple surface level family/bereavement drama with additional drug themes.
Miss Marple: The Murder at the Vicarage (1986)
Not bad, if a little muddled and old-fashioned now
A classic adaptation that goes for a cosy, non-threatening tone that's a little at odds with the subject matter of a grisly murder and subsequent crimes.
As some other reviewers have noted, the thick accents make the plot a little hard to follow. It's in my opinion not convincingly explained as to why Miss Marple is actively involved with the police investigation (especially when the detectives in charge seem to actively dislike and distrust her) or able to get access to the crime scene etc. She seems to just appear and sneak into rooms in plain view of everyone without being asked to leave.
In my view it was also hard to follow who each character was in this adaptation because of very similar styling and haircut etc. choices. Characters didn't refer to each other by name very often either which didn't help. Only striking characters like Mrs Le Strange, and a character who started wearing black for mourning, were easily identifiable scene to scene.
However, for what it was, it was well acted, and at least this adaptation made the choice to give us Marple's narration over a recreation of the crime, rather than Marple blithely explaining what went on as one long monologue while others in the room sit and watch, as has happened in some of the Hickson adaptations.
Personally I favour something a little more dramatic and more tightly plotted, but these adaptations are also familiar and were trying to achieve something different, so that's not a fault.