The ABC Murders is a 2018 miniseries adaptation of
Agatha Christie's 1936 mystery novel of the same name. While the series adapts the plot of the novel faithfully, it also features a number of notable changes to the story and as well as a
Darker and Edgier tone.
John Malkovich stars as
Hercule Poirot, alongside
Rupert Grint as Inspector Crome.
In addition to the tropes applying to the novel, the miniseries adaptation has examples of:
- Adaptational Angst Upgrade: This adaptation's Poirot is a tortured soul whose career is at a low point and whose faith is severely damaged, even going so far as to avoid confession out of a belief that he's unworthy of communion. Poirot's backstory is also more far more painful, as his detective career was born of guilt rather than a successful police career.
- Adaptational Backstory Change: In the novels and every other adaptation, Poirot was a detective on the Brussels police force before he came to England as a refugee during World War I. In this series, while Poirot still claims to be a former policeman, his stated backstory is revealed to be a lie. Poirot was a priest in the Belgian countryside who watched all his parishioners burn to death by invading German troops. The guilt stemming from not being able to save their lives led him to renounce priesthood and reinvent himself as a detective when he came to England, so that he would be able to bring justice to other victims.
- Adaptational Context Change: In the original novel, Hastings comments on Poirot paternally addressing a group of assistants as "mes enfants", musing that it's similar to how a teacher or a priest would address them. Malkovich's Poirot has this habit because he actually was a priest.
- Adaptation Distillation: No messing about with a cinema and an innocent fall guy in the BBC adaptation - the alleged 'mistake' the ABC killer makes is to kill the person in the same room as Dexter Dooley, the supposed fourth victim. The victim is not painted in a bright light before or after the event either, unlike the completely innocent person in the novel or the ITV adaptation.
- Adaptational Jerkass: Happens to a lot of characters. Betty Barnard in the book was a flirt, but in this version we see her as a cruel and manipulative woman. Her boyfriend, Donald Fraser, who was merely described as 'jealous' in the book but was otherwise a pleasant chap, is here a sexist control freak. Thora Grey, who is merely accused of being a Gold Digger in the original, is depicted as an actual one in this version, in addition to being intensely arrogant.
- Adaptation Personality Change: Poirot retains his intellect and grand deductive skills. That, his name, and his nationality are about all he has in common with his literary counterpart. Gone is his famous vanity, and his love of order and neatness, replaced with a weather-beaten, tired, dreary disposition. This is a man who has lost almost all hope, and boy does it show.
- Adaptational Villainy:
- The motive of the killer is revealed to be a lot more unhinged and vile than in the novel. While Franklin of the novel was motivated by greed only, this version of the character starts to enjoy his role as ABC so much that he continues murdering people to continue the "game" with Poirot. He only frames Cust because the latter's illness would prevent him from continue traveling, which implies that, unlike the novel, Franklin really was willing to go through the entire alphabet.
- Subverted with Thora Grey. Towards the end it's revealed that she acted as an accomplice to Franklin by providing an alibi for him. However, this revelation is almost immediately followed by a flashback that shows that she was not aware of Franklin's crimes until he approached her while covered in his own brother's blood, and then threatened to kill her unless she played along.
- Adapted Out:
- Captain Hastings. Presumably done to heighten Poirot's feelings of isolation in keeping with the overall Darker and Edgier tone of the adaptation.
- Mary Drower, Alice Asher's niece in the novel, is nowhere to be found.
- Age Lift: The Clarke family - Sir Carmichael, Lady Hermione and Franklin - are all markedly younger than they were in the novel.
- Alexander Bonaparte Cust is significantly younger in this version.
- The Artifact: The fact that the fourth victim was supposedly a case of Murder by Mistake does not serve any purpose in the adaptation. In the novel it's a clue that the killer doesn't care about the ABC pattern at all and just wants their Fall Guy arrested as soon as possible. The series changes it into an actual mistake, as the killer has no intention of stopping anytime soon. They only frame Cust after the next murder, and the mix-up has no relevance to the case.
- Asshole Victim:
- Betty Barnard is mourned by her parents... and nobody else - the few scenes she appear in make the viewer glad that it is all but stated she is going to die. Even her fiance is having tea with her mother shortly after the event, which Poirot thinks is a bit much. Subverted in the final episode when Betty's mother and fiance try to convince Betty's sister Megan to marry the fiance, who had dumped Megan in the first place in favour of the more glamorous Betty, for their own very obviously selfish reasons. Megan later has a flashback of Betty telling her she did her a favour by stealing her boyfriend and that one day Megan will realise that. As Megan then packs her suitcase and sneaks out of the house using the same route Betty used to use it looks like she was right.
- The risque comic who dies in Dexter Dooley's place is shown being deliberately dickish and interferes with Dexter's ventriloquist dummy.
- Bait-and-Switch: Cust is apparently paying his landlady's daughter for something. It is highly implied to be sex, as she is strongly indicated to be providing such "extras" to other male tenants. It isn't, she is digging her heels into his back to the point of drawing blood.
- Bilingual Bonus: One so subtle it might be a translation error. In the flashback to Poirot's arrival in Britain he gives his profession in French as "gendarme" - a uniformed, stereotypically not very bright, protector of public order. A Francophone police detective proud of his intellect would describe himself as a "policier" or "agent de police", and be insulted to be called a "gendarme". This might be a deliberate clue that he was never really a police officer.
- Canon Foreigner: The series adds an unnamed, fifth victim who is stabbed to death in a public bathroom in Embsay. The man is never identified, but presumably continued the Alliterative Name theme with the letter E.
- Casting Gag: Two retroactive examples:
- Chekhov's Party: Hermione mentions that Carmichael, her husband, always adored Poirot since they played a murder-mystery game at a party twenty years ago. This turns out to have been where the murderer, Franklin - Carmichael's brother - developed his obsession with Poirot.
- Complexity Addiction: In this adaptation the killer adds an unnecessary layer of complexity to his plot by making sure the locations of the ABC murders take place in a town with a connection to Poirot. In one case, a place he had visited only in passing in the middle of the night twenty years previously. This is due to an obsession with Poirot himself.
- Covering Up Your Gray: Hercule Poirot is humiliated in his first meeting with Inspector Crome when the dye he uses to keep his beard black starts running. He leaves it gray for the rest of the series.
- Create Your Own Villain: A somewhat downplayed example. While Franklin Clarke's primary motive was murdering his brother for the latter's title and wealth, he was also driven by his obsession with Poirot and a desire to be the perfect Arch-Enemy to the famous detective - an obsession that was sparked of by an evening he spent at a dinner party where Poirot played a murder game. Poirot downplays Franklin's argument though. He instead compares Franklin to tinder- someone who'd kill eventually, but Poirot acted as a trigger. Considering how Franklin's deranged plot and how he admits he probably wouldn't be able to stop killing even when the murder of his brother was obscured, Poirot has a point.
- Darker and Edgier: The BBC adaptation has a police force openly hostile to Poirot (at first), even getting a warrant to search his apartment, questioning his past, and with an openly racist organisation featuring as a background element. Plus all the Adaptational Jerkassery above.
- Death by Adaptation:
- In the novel, Inspector Japp is in charge of the investigation. In the series he's retired and drops dead of a heart attack at the end of a brief scene with Poirot. (Given that he's played by Kevin McNally it's pretty much a case of Death by Cameo.)
- Also Cust. In the book, his blackouts and headaches are caused by epilepsy stemming from a wartime head injury, and he ends the book alive and well and with renewed confidence in himself. In the adaptation, he has an inoperable brain tumour, and we last see him comatose and not expected to regain consciousness before he dies.
- Deconstruction: Of the classic Poirot story, and more generally of the kind of Cozy Mystery that Agatha Christie and other 'Golden Age' writers were famous for:
- Malkovich's Poirot was indeed once a celebrated detective who hob-knobbed with the wealthy, much like the character in the novels - but he did so largely by being an entertainer and playing 'murder games' at their country house dinner parties.
- Anti-immigrant sentiment (realistic for the period), coupled with resentment over Poirot's constant showing up of Scotland Yard, has led to him becoming persona non grata among the police, who have adopted an openly hostile attitude towards him.
- Even the media and public opinion has turned against Poirot, and his detective practise has been running out of steam.
- Poirot's physical vanity is not played for laughs in this version. His attempts to downplay his aging come off as quite tragic, and invite open mockery from policemen.
- Poirot's quasi-mysterious past here works against him, as it makes him look like an unqualified conman who has tricked his way into leading investigations. Poirot here also hides his past in order to cover up a traumatising failure.
- Decon-Recon Switch: Poirot in this adaptation may be isolated, haunted and apparently not as accomplished; but he is still the Hercule Poirot, a man who can call himself one of the greatest living detectives. As detailed in Reconstruction below, he ends the series with his standing resembling his book counterpart's more, albeit with the underlying pain remaining.
- Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: The killer is rather surprised that Poirot isn't grateful, since the entire case resulted in Poirot's reputation being restored. Poirot doesn't care since 5 people are dead from the maniac's rampage
- Evil Counterpart: The ABC killer explicitly wants to be this to Poirot. He dresses like Poirot, is inspired directly by Poirot's methods from a dinnner party, and commits murders in places that Poirot has previously visited - taking pleasure in watching Poirot try to catch him. In their final conversation, he refers to himself as the "dark" to Poirot's "light".
- Genteel Interbellum Setting: Averted. Unlike most Christie works and adaptations, this mini-series highlights the rampant socio-economic anxiety and xenophobia of the real-life 1930s.
- Jerk Ass Has A Point: As obnoxious as Betty was she was entirely right about Donald being a worthless piece of shit and an all around terrible boyfriend.
- Just Train Wrong:
- In the London Underground scene towards the end of episode 2, the train is obviously the 1972 Tube Stock train kept at the disused Aldwych station for such filming purposes, with its large window panes and brushed-aluminium finish, neither of which would have been seen on any train running in the 1930s.
- In the scene in episode 3 with Cust being chased across the railway tracks, there are some mildly unconvincing CGI trains, including a loose-coupled freight train hauled by an express passenger locomotive which would not have been seen on such lowly work in real life.
- Mysterious Past: Poirot's past is touched on in throughout the series - or rather, the extreme lack of information on it. The Inspector points out there is no information on Poirot's life and police career in Belgium at all, and that lack of information cost the now deceased Japp his reputation when he vouched for Poirot. It's is eventually revealed that Poirot was in fact a priest, who lied about his profession when he came to England and decided to become a detective, having witnessed the slaughter of all his parisioners by the invading German troops.
- Mythology Gag: When Inspector Japp reads some of Poirot's hate mail, we get this nod to a running gag from the books:
Japp: "You're not better than us. Piss off, froggy."
Poirot: "Nineteen years I've lived here, and still people think I'm French."
- Never Trust a Trailer: Some early publicity strongly implied that Poirot would be accused of committing the murders himself. In the serial, Crome accuses him of being a charlatan, and some xenophobic press and members of the public accuse him of intentionally obstructing the investigation, but he's never accused of being the killer.
- Pet the Dog: Betty Barnard is portrayed as a totally unpleasant character who manipulates everyone around her. But, in a flashback, she is shown sincerely telling her sister that she did her a favour because she deserves better - making her just about the only person who treats her sister with respect.
- Reconstruction: Poirot is eventually hired to investigate the case by wealthy aristocrat Franklin Clarke, just like in the "good old days". He gradually earns the trust and grudging respect of Inspector Crome and forms a new partnership with him, reminiscent of his old partnership with Inspector Japp. In fact, in the end the murderer reveals that part of his motivation was to 'revive' and 'restore' Poirot to his former glory by being a Worthy Opponent to him.
- Shoo Out the Clowns: Hastings is nowhere to be found and Japp is written out early on, meaning Poirot has no friends with whom he can play off of or lighten the atmosphere in this adaptation.
- Shovel Strike: In this adaptation, Sir Carmichael Clarke is beaten to death with a spade, when it was a cudgel in the original novel.
- The Sociopath: ABC claims to be able to feel love for Carmichael, Hermione and Poirot, but Poirot believes that he is incapable of understanding or feeling the emotion. The closest approximation ABC really shows on screen is shallow affection or warped obsession.
