MURDER IS EASY (2023) – Utterly dreadful and unworthy of its association with Agatha Christie
Rating: ⭐

Penelope Wilton and David Jonsson
This two parts BBC adaptation of Agatha Christie’s novel is a total mess. There is so many things that is wrong here I find it hard to begin. First and foremost, the cast. British drama series can often take pride in their high standards in performances. Not so this time. The overall performance by the entire cast is amateurish with many instances of the side characters over acting as if they were in some sort of pantomime or play. The choice of David Jonsson to take on the lead is curious. Since he is black, I can only conclude that his selection was to support the film makers’ side agenda to promote woke. I have no problem with the selection provided the actor selected has the chops to do the job. David Jonsson was totally unconvincing as anyone who possess the intelligence to solve the murder mystery and just does not have the charisma of a leading character. His limited facial expressions which basically consist of variations of a half smile is annoying to say the least.
I guess one could not blame the actors totally for their dreadful performances since they were given such a poorly written and juvenile script. The source material has all the usual Agatha Christie murder mystery trademarks. However, this time around, we do not have the presence of her famed Belgium detective Hercule Piorot or a Miss Marple to solve the mystery. Somehow, we never get fed-up of the antics of her celebrated fictional sleuths. I am not sure how faithful this adaptation is to the original novel, but the number of murdered dead bodies is alarming. Someone is literally dropping dead every few minutes making the whole premise feel more like a farce than a proper whodunit. By the time the big reveal is made during the final act, the viewer’s interest has long withered. It is also impossible for anyone watching to claim they managed to solve the mystery because a lot of the clues were not provided.
I understand that this was a Christmas special from BBC in December last year. We used to get treated to a good old fashioned Christie murder mystery but this time BBC did nobody any favours with a lack luster effort. This is quite possibly the worst Agatha Christie adaptation I have seen.