Les petits meurtres d'Agatha Christie

Season 2. Wonderful, so funny... The characters are very characteristic, with fun, the inspector is somewhat dog but in a funny way. The journalist a modern woman and the secretary is so suite. Congratulations.

Agatha Christies Criminal Games is a total delight despite the fact any relation to reality is purely coincidental. How many Police Inspectors have a beautiful, huge private office with a private secretary who bears a passing resemblance to Marilyn Monroe? None in the many other TV series I've seen. (Sorry, I don't know any Police Inspectors personally.)

Basically, this French series adapts Agatha Christies mysteries to fit three characters wholly made up for the series. Thus Piorot, Marple, et. Al. Are replaced by Inspector Swan Laurence (Samuel Labarthe), a rather somber, often insufferable, caricature of a 1950s male chauvinist. If he was the only major character there is no way I would have called the series delightful. Luckily there are two major female characters who give the show its sparkle. First off, Blandine Bellavoir as Alice Avril, a newspaper advice columnist turned reporter, who manages to insinuate herself into every case Laurence is investigating, sometimes by accident, sometimes on purpose. If that challenges reality so does her frequent barging into his office at all times a day, seemingly having free reign at Police Headquarters, something even in France would seem out of bounds to a reporter. But, make no mistake, those scenes and her and Laurence's frequent bickering help make the series endearing. Certainly Ms. Bellavoir performance as Alice Avril is the highlight of the show. Then there's Elodie Frenck as Laurence's secretary, also a caricature, in her case, that of a dumb blonde. Her role got bigger as the series progressed and soon she too became endearing. Both actresses deserve accolades for lifting the series above the norm.

The mysteries are nicely adapted to fit these characters. Though light-hearted, and at times almost a semi-comedy, be warned some of the murder scenes can be gruesome. If you, like me, love mysteries, this series can be addictive.

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The other reviews say it all. I am a longtime Christie fan and love these humorous, clever, modern adaptations. Yes, some artistic liberties have been taken, but all the better to set it apart from other versions. See this link for the complete list of episodes. You'll see that Set 1 only includes 7 of the 29 already produced episodes. Neither does Set 1 contain the first 7 episodes, but skips down the list. I can hardly wait to see what comes next, but it appears that Set 1 is the only version released in the US. S'il vous plaît, hurry with subsequent sets!

I guess this series was made following the success of "Petits meurtres en famille", which is, the best movie version of Hercule Poirot's Christmas I've ever seen. To lead the investigation, instead of Hercule Poirot or Miss Marple, we have here Commissaire Jean Larosière (Antoine Duléry - who I think looks like Robert De Niro) and his subordinate Inspector Lampion (Marius Colucci), who shows a homosexual tendency. In Petits meurtres en famille, Larosière - Lampion remind me of funny detective couple in Les 4 as, where the subordinate shows high respect to his idiot superior; but in this series, Commissaire Larosière is not that stupid anymore and he really does his share in solving the cases. The relation between the 2 is like father - son and each cannot live without the other.

British series based on Agatha Christie books are too faithful and we can see how the characters come alive like how they have been written. This French version is more free in the adaptation and therefore more interesting to watch.

Amazing casting and production. Attention to detail is very impressive...and what about the era cars? Wow The interpretation of Agatha Christie's stories is unique with french flair. What a treat to watch .