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jennariaMEURTRE AU CHAMPAGNE (episode 2, season 2 of Les Petits Meurtres d'Agatha Christie) - originally aired 2013
Official description (from IMDB): A famous movie star commits suicide during the shooting of her latest film. Alice replaces her on the set while Laurence investigates; adapted from "Sparkling Cyanide".
Review: Wife and I are in search of a good murder mystery series, and have been checking out a bunch from our local library (as you do). For some reason they have a large number of French series, so I've been getting an involuntary education in the stereotypes of French murder mysteries, as opposed to the more familiar stereotypes of English murder mysteries or American murder mysteries.
First of all, there's a lot of sex. And not very sexy sex, which I don't think is just a Too Ace For This problem because there's been a couple times where Wife has questioned whether this is supposed to be sexy, too. I mean, I expect rampant adultery in these kinds of shows - it's an ongoing joke in MIDSUMMER MURDERS, for example, that the only happy couple we get to see is the male lead detective and his wife, and everyone else is either cheating on their spouse, murderous, or both. But we don't usually get Random Sex Scenes thrown in at quite the same rate.
Second of all, you know that trope where the Spunky Female Lead has no use for men, and eagerly awaits the feminist uprising, yet does not kick her male detective partner in the balls even if he's an asshat to her? ...yeah. That one. Out of my sample size of three, the only series that hasn't hit this trope is a series where the female lead is old enough to be the male lead's mother, and already in a polyamorous relationship, so there's not even a gesture toward a possible romantic entanglement between the two of them.
So! This is a French adaptation of a British murder mystery, where they have blithely played fast and loose with Christie's original. First it was a short story with Hercule Poirot as the lead; then it was a novel with Random Dude Nobody Cares About as the detective. Now it's part of a TV series which all have the same leads (a spunky girl reporter and a police inspector), at least for the length of each season. The mystery, and the key to solving it, comes from Christie: the rest is, uh, not. Part of it is them shoe-horning in their original detectives, and part of it is someone saying 'you know what would be cool? MAKING IT ABOUT A MOVIE ACTRESS.'
Is it enjoyable? Well, except for the part where both Wife and I spent a good chunk of it wanting to strangle the police inspector (who thinks it's funny to get the spunky girl reporter arrested, twice, but to be fair doesn't appear to respect any woman ever). Finished the episode, will not be picking up any more of the series.
Official description (from IMDB): A famous movie star commits suicide during the shooting of her latest film. Alice replaces her on the set while Laurence investigates; adapted from "Sparkling Cyanide".
Review: Wife and I are in search of a good murder mystery series, and have been checking out a bunch from our local library (as you do). For some reason they have a large number of French series, so I've been getting an involuntary education in the stereotypes of French murder mysteries, as opposed to the more familiar stereotypes of English murder mysteries or American murder mysteries.
First of all, there's a lot of sex. And not very sexy sex, which I don't think is just a Too Ace For This problem because there's been a couple times where Wife has questioned whether this is supposed to be sexy, too. I mean, I expect rampant adultery in these kinds of shows - it's an ongoing joke in MIDSUMMER MURDERS, for example, that the only happy couple we get to see is the male lead detective and his wife, and everyone else is either cheating on their spouse, murderous, or both. But we don't usually get Random Sex Scenes thrown in at quite the same rate.
Second of all, you know that trope where the Spunky Female Lead has no use for men, and eagerly awaits the feminist uprising, yet does not kick her male detective partner in the balls even if he's an asshat to her? ...yeah. That one. Out of my sample size of three, the only series that hasn't hit this trope is a series where the female lead is old enough to be the male lead's mother, and already in a polyamorous relationship, so there's not even a gesture toward a possible romantic entanglement between the two of them.
So! This is a French adaptation of a British murder mystery, where they have blithely played fast and loose with Christie's original. First it was a short story with Hercule Poirot as the lead; then it was a novel with Random Dude Nobody Cares About as the detective. Now it's part of a TV series which all have the same leads (a spunky girl reporter and a police inspector), at least for the length of each season. The mystery, and the key to solving it, comes from Christie: the rest is, uh, not. Part of it is them shoe-horning in their original detectives, and part of it is someone saying 'you know what would be cool? MAKING IT ABOUT A MOVIE ACTRESS.'
Is it enjoyable? Well, except for the part where both Wife and I spent a good chunk of it wanting to strangle the police inspector (who thinks it's funny to get the spunky girl reporter arrested, twice, but to be fair doesn't appear to respect any woman ever). Finished the episode, will not be picking up any more of the series.