We Cluedo-do Ahead Of The Current Number 2 On Netflix?

Netflix, in the living room… with the remote control. For several days on Netflix there has been an air of crime. Nothing to do with the controversial finale of Stranger Things, the platform simply looked at the bibliography of the queen of the genre: Agatha Christie.

The Seven Dials by Agatha Christie is TOP 2 and we said to ourselves that it was high time that we looked at this miniseries which tickled the fan of Miss Marple and Hercule Poirot who lies dormant in us. But at a time when At Knives Outs kills the competition (sorry Kenneth Branagh), does this adaptation have what it takes to wake us up from our winter lethargy?

Direction 1925, the day after a war which left scars in Europe. At a party hosted by Lady Caterham, a prank turns horrific and a guest is found dead in his room. If the suicide trail is the one favored by the investigators, the young Bundle is convinced that it is in fact a murder. With her impeccable sense of deduction and her unwavering courage, she embarks on an investigation that will change the course of her life.

Like a Swiss clock

With its temporal context as much as its settings, The Seven Dials at all “cosy mystery” perfect for surviving the winter. Its creator, Chris Chibnall, knows his stuff quite well as a police officer, since he worked on the excellent Broadchurch for the British channel ITV. Too good? From the first moments, the series carefully lays the groundwork for its mystery to immerse the viewer in this Cluedo life size.

Inspired by Christie’s talent, the screenwriter knows how to manage his effects and does not demerit in the construction of his story. Everything falls into place, hits the mark… with the attention to detail of a watchmaker. So much so that after the first episode we wonder what the series could possibly have to say that its elders have not yet said, particularly in Christie’s adaptations.

We have the budding detective who refuses to accept that the death of her friend is natural, the police officer who tries to calm his ardor and the friends – from the English aristocracy – who throw themselves headlong into this hunt for the murderer like a game of cards.

In form and substance, The Seven Dials looks like anything we’ve ever seen in Hercule Poirot, Miss Marple or even Sherlock Holmes. The series even goes so far as to summon John Watson to play the counterweight to the main actress Mia McKenna-Bruce. The duo she forms with Martin Freeman works wonderfully, helped by Edward Bluemel who provides the comic side of the proposition.

Nothing to say here, the series takes care of the details even in its distribution. The heroine stands out, McKenna-Bruce, who we loved in How To Have Sex puts her energy to the benefit of comedy and adventure, does not demerit against a Helena Bonham Carter who continues to be fascinating. Without giving too much away, one mother-daughter chat is enough to prove that Mia McKenna-Bruce is an actress worth keeping a close eye on.

Wake the dead

Despite the talent of the cast, the series struggles to exist beyond its characters and its mysteries. We would have liked the production to have as much fun as the young Bundle when she carried out her investigation, that she was not content with just placing clocks and other cuckoo clocks here and there. A pure Netflix product, which uses and abuses the effects of focal length, the series never manages to bring its locations into existence. However, this is precisely what makes a successful “whodunit”, the importance of the settings in the construction of the mystery. Whether it’s the ruined castle that serves as the residence of Bundle and his mother or the home of a zealous politician, The Seven Cadrans never takes the time to take care of its atmosphere. Although it evolves during the Roaring Twenties, the series is sadly conventional in its form. And its background then?

Setting the record straight

Now, the conclusion is approaching, we wait for the traditional explanatory scene from the investigator and we make a bittersweet observation. We are sleuths, we have already found the identity of the assassin: Colonel Mustard, in the billiard room with the chandelier… No huge surprises on the horizon, the machine is rather well oiled. Even without having read the work on which the series is inspired, the series is not a priori a monster of suspense.

However, it is in its last half hour that The Seven Dials will set the record straight… quite skillfully. Without saying too much, the series reverses the narrative process of the novel to evoke the condition of women in the 1920s. Immediately, it is no longer a question of telling the story of an aristocracy which fears a new war but of making Bundle a symbol. It’s pretty clever, the series has a series of twists and doesn’t skimp on the action to stand out from everything coming from the “whodunit”. A scene on a train is much more fun than one could have imagined, it wakes up the viewer on the home stretch.

We would undoubtedly have liked that The Seven Dials takes more time to construct its twists and turns, other than through dialogue and a pile of explanatory sequences. We will also ignore the few inconsistencies and weaknesses of the story. With just under three hours on the clock, The Seven Dials is a nice game of Cluedo…but not with the greatest criminal minds in the world. We recommend it for a rainy Sunday by the fire. Avoid if you really want to pull your hair out solving an investigation. For creativity and direction, as much as for captivating mysteries, we will instead turn to Rian Johnson and his trilogy At loggerheads.