YMMV / Poirot

• Adorkable: Miss Lemon's quest to create the perfect filing system is endearing as she puts together an intricate catalog that only she understands.
• Can't Un-Hear It:
  • David Suchet is considered the definitive version of Hercule Poirot, and that counts for his voice too.
  • Similarly, few French Poirot fans imagine someone other than his dub actor, Roger Carel, voicing him.
• Complete Monster:
  • "Hallowe'en Party": Michael Garfield is the seemingly friendly garden caretaker for Rowena Drake but is in fact a narcissistic sociopath trying to obtain her family's inheritance. Seducing her and manipulating her to help him with his crimes, Michael killed Rowena's husband and helped her poison her aunt to help gain the inheritance. Michael then forced Leslie Ferrie to forge a fake will before killing him once he has it. When caught by Poirot, Michael tries to kill everyone present, including his and Rowena's daughter. Despite Rowena genuinely loving Michael, Michael reveals he only used her for his own desires and planned to abandon her as a scapegoat for the crimes.
  • "Murder on the Orient Express": Lanfranco Cassetti is a ruthless gangster out to escape justice. A blackmailer who kidnaps people, murdering them when the authorities close in but still collecting the ransoms, Cassetti was the murderer of a little girl named Daisy, having continued to exploit her family days or even weeks after he had already killed the girl. Uncaring of how this killed four innocent people, from Daisy's mother dying from grief in premature labor with her new baby, to her father's suicide and an innocent maid killing herself when she was falsely accused of complicity, Cassetti cares only for escaping justice and was so evil that even the heroic Poirot feels obliged to cover for his killers.
• Ensemble Dark Horse: Mrs. Oliver is one of the most popular characters in the series despite appearing in only six episodes. It also helps that she fills the void left by Japp, Miss Lemon and Captain Hastings as Poirot's close friend and comic relief.
• Fanon Discontinuity: Due to its unrelently somber tone, the suffering of both Poirot and Hastings and the fact that Poirot himself dies in the end, some fans prefer to ignore the final episode Curtain and consider The Labour of Hercules a more satisfying and meaningful ending for the series.
• Hilarious in Hindsight:
  • David Suchet plays an immigrant/refugee who takes shelter in an English-speaking country during "the war" and becomes a detective on his first case... sound familiar?
  • In Three Act Tragedy, the killer is also Judge John Deed, and Inspector George Gently.
  • Likewise, Inspector Lynley was the killer in The Affair at the Victory Ball.
  • In Murder on the Orient Express, Lord Grantham works as a valet.
  • In the episode The Kidnapped Prime Minister, the IRA turns out to play a significant role. Hugh Fraser would later play a minor character in Patriot Games.
• Hollywood Homely: Pauline Moran as Miss Lemon. The character is supposed to be plain-looking at best, while Moran was conventionally attractive even in episodes where she was clearly middle-aged.
• Idiot Ball: Colonel Arbuthnot grabs it in "Murder on the Orient Express" when he attempts to shoot Poirot and Bouc, leaving only the conspirators remaining. The others appeal to his morals, but nobody points out that three dead bodies - including that of Poirot - would be considerably harder to explain than just one, belonging to a candidate for biggest Asshole Victim in the Christie canon.
• It Was His Sled: Anyone who's read the obituary in the August 6, 1975 edition of The New York Times or the original Curtain novel will know that Poirot dies of angina in the series finale.
• Jerkass Woobie:
  • Robin Upward from Mrs. McGinty's Dead. On the one hand, he murdered an old woman and framed an innocent man purely to protect his reputation. On the other hand, he's extremely pathetic and his Villainous Breakdown at the end when he's screaming at people not to look at him shows that he's never really gotten over his massive mommy issues.
  • Norma Restarick in Third Girl. Abandoned, betrayed or just plain let down by her father (both of them, actually), her mother, her lover, her nanny, her uncle and her stepmother, but it's easy to understand why they keep doing it, as she's unpleasant and neurotic to the point everyone (including her) believes that she is capable of murder, and she's even starting to suspect herself when her old nanny is found dead after she had an absence at an alcohol-fuelled party. It then gets turned on its head when you realize that she's only that way because the childhood traumas her parents inflicted her have carefully been reawakened through constant manipulation by her would-be murderer, in order to gaslight her. The reason why they could get away with it ? Every single "innocent" person in her life was either too carefree, jealous, condescending or just plain selfish to notice or care.
• Moral Event Horizon:
  • Taken at the Flood: David Hunter is initially thought to be just a Jerkass at worst and a Jerk with a Heart of Gold at best. that is, until the truth is revealed. His Adaptational Villainy turns him from a simple opportunist to someone who raped simple farm-girl Eileen Corrigan until she was pregnant and forced her to abort the baby so as to convince her that she was Beyond Redemption and put her under his control. He then detonates a bomb that kills dozens of totally innocent people, just so that he can murder his own sister and make Eileen take her place so that she could inherit a vast fortune. He forbids her from giving any of the money to anyone else, causing her to be unfairly hated by everyone involved, and drives her into morphine dependency, which almost results in her deliberately overdosing (just as he had planned). By the end of Poirot's explanation, he is so horrified and furious at what David has done and is capable of doing, he is almost reduced to spluttering. What is more, he never expresses a shred of genuine remorse for his actions and generally relishes making others hate and fear him. It is ultimately telling that he's the first culprit in the show to be shown executed rather than simply carried away for trial.
• Narm: If a Poirot story featured a children's rhyme, then the Suchet adaptations would invariable try and use them as a creepy leitmotif.
  • One, Two, Buckle My Shoe features two girls playing hopscotch while singing the titular rhyme as a recurring theme. Unfortunately, while the girls are clearly cheerful and having fun, their voices are dubbed over by grown women trying to sound like young children while also singing the rhyme in a slow and creepy manner. And this is heard repeatedly throughout the episode.
  • "Hickory Dickory Dock" features that rhyme being sung in unusually intense and hushed tones as a leitmotif whenever something dramatic happens on screen. Hickory, Dickory Dock is also an example out of too many in the series of adaptational Darker and Edgier for no good reason except as an excuse for dreary lighting and artistical posturing. It features quite a number of close up shots of rats, just to let the viewer know that THIS IS DRAMA.
  • "Hallowe'en Party", like "Hickory Dickory Dock", would use the chant that accompanies Snap-dragon to signal dramatic developments seen on screen. The original novel actually didn't feature the chant, instead depicting the children playing the game yelling out in delight and in pain as they either grabbed a raisin or got burned by the flame.
• Narm Charm: The end of How Does Your Garden Grow features the culprit going from "normal" to insane in about three seconds, overacting for the rest of the scene to a hilarious degree. It's so hilarious and unexpected that you can't help but be delighted during the scene.
• Narrowed It Down to the Guy I Recognize: The series' Long Runner lifespan (1989 to 2013), and the cast of characters from many different generations of British television and film leads to a general aversion of this effect. For example: In Appointment with Death, when one sees that the victim's husband is played by Tim Curry, one starts to suspect him only to have his son being played by Mark Gatiss and John Hannah playing their doctor friend. Sad Cypress seems to be aiming for this, featuring Paul McGann and Rupert Henry-Jones among the guest cast (neither of them did it). Emily Blunt shows up in "Death on the Nile" and is the victim. Naturally, this only applies to viewers who havn't read the books first.
• Nightmare Fuel: While completely deserved, Lady Boynton's fate in "Appointment With Death" is one of the most prolonged and painful deaths in the series: she's injected with a paralyzing agent and left to roast in the desert sun for hours before being stabbed to death, which almost comes off as a Mercy Kill at that point.
  • The show's take on Murder on the Orient Express pulled zero punches. The actual murder of Cassetti is very unsettling, with Princess Dragomiroff speaking to the half-conscious Cassetti as he is stabbed to death. Unique among the adaptations, you hear him groan and whimper after each blow.
• Paranoia Fuel: "Death in the Clouds", because being pricked with something poisonous by a passer-by could apply to any plane, train, or bus journey even today. And similar things have happened in real life.
• Replacement Scrappy: After regular comic-reliefs Inspector Japp, Miss Lemon and Captain Hastings were Put on a Bus for unknown reasons, numerous Scotland Yard inspectors sharing Japp's mustache, Iconic Outfit and accent, and often described as old friends of Poirot, began to appear (one of them, Inspector Spencer, even appeared several times). A faithful valet, George, was also added and took on part of Hastings' and Miss Lemon's roles. None of them were very well-liked. Japp, Miss Lemon and Hastings do appear again near the end of the series though, while the latter is also an important character in the series finale.
  • George, at least, is from the books and short stories, where his main traits are being an extremely efficient butler and a bit of a snob (Poirot puts his intricate knowledge of people's social standing to good use). There are a variety of police inspectors who appear in the source material (Japp having had far fewer appearances than in the series) but the ones in the show rarely even have the same names as them, let alone anything resembling their description.
• Retroactive Recognition: Many actors began their careers playing supporting roles, including: Sean Pertwee, Christopher Eccleston, Damian Lewis, Jamie Bamber, Russell Tovey, Emily Blunt, Alice Eve, Michael Fassbender, Jessica Chastain, and Elena Satine.
  • A younger Peter Capaldi played Claude Langton in Wasps' Nest.
  • Magdalene in "Hercule Poirot's Christmas" is played by Andrée Bernard, who would later be best known for playing Liz Burton in Hollyoaks.
  • Nicholai from "How Does Your Garden Grow?" is played by Peter Birch, who would later be best known for playing Jack Hathaway in CASUAL+Y.
  • Georgina Morley from "One, Two, Buckle My Shoe" is played by Rosalind Knight, who would later be best known for playing Beryl Merit in Gimme, Gimme, Gimme and Horrible Grandma in Friday Night Dinner.
  • Miss Blanche and Adam Goodman from Cat Among the Pigeons are played by Miranda Raison and Adam Croasdell respectively, who may be better known to gamers as the voices of Cassandra Pentaghast and Ignis Scientia, respectively.
• Strawman Has a Point: On both sides in this version of Murder on the Orient Express. Poirot is correct in that people should always try to choose law and order over vigilantism and anarchy. However, the passengers retort that they already relied on lawful means to punish Cassetti, which only resulted in failure and further grief for them. It then degenerates, if you can call it that, into "Poirot pontificates". Apparently David Suchet started to have more influence over the series as it grew more popular, understandably enough, but somewhere along the line he seems to have had a religious awakening and it shows to the detriment of Agatha Christie's normally light, humouristic touch. It is of course a matter of taste.
• They Changed It, Now It Sucks!: The adaptation of The Murder of Roger Ackroyd has been criticised as a disappointment in this regard. The Twist Ending in the novel depends on two concepts - the Unreliable Narrator and the fact that the killer is The Watson. The first is not especially difficult to pull off, but would merely look out of place since no other episode in the series uses it; the second is undermined because they put Inspector Japp in it and he ends up fullfilling the same role, meaning the killer is reduced to just another suspect, and consequently the story is just another murder mystery. Nearly every Agatha Christie fan thinks this was a poor adaptation.
• Unintentionally Unsympathetic:
  • Downplayed in Three Act Tragedy with the murderer, Sir Charles Cartwright. While the episode doesn't whitewash him for his crime, it really tries to elicit him some sympathy in a How the Mighty Have Fallen / Alas, Poor Villain / Love Makes You Evil kind of way. The problem is that Sir Charles Cartwright may be one of the worst murderers of the Poirot stories, up there with the culprits of The ABC Murders or Evil Under the Sun. Indeed, his first murder was simply done because he wanted to do a rehearsal. Yes, a rehearsal, in order to execute flawlessly the crime he wanted to do. He didn't do this with random people either; he knew that the victim of this "rehearsal" was going to be one of his friends or acquaintances. He then proceeded to murder his childhood friend in order to cover the fact that he had a crazy wife with whom he couldn't divorce, so he could marry the woman he loved. Finally, he murders a stranger, a female patient at Strange's sanatorium, simply to create a false lead. And, after all this, the guy has the nerves to try to lie to his so-called true love and to blame Poirot for exposing him?
• Values Dissonance:
  • Invoked in Murder on the Orient Express when Poirot and a couple of the passengers witness a stoning of an adulteress in Turkey and Poirot excuses it with this trope; it comes back to haunt him later when the girl who saw it and angrily disagreed with him asks him how he could stand back and let that happen but (in this version) is revolted by the vigilante justice of the murderers, despite the Asshole Victim being far more deserving of his fate than the adulteress was. He fails to give himself a satisfactory answer.
  • The club where Major Eustace is interviewed in "Murder in the Mews" dabbles with this, with the waitstaff and lounge singer dressed in Asian farmer hats.
• The Woobie:
  • Cust in The ABC Murders. It's really hard not to pity the poor guy, not only because of his frequent blackouts, but also the emotional torment he suffers when he becomes convinced he committed the murders. Clearing his name is one of Poirot's greater triumphs.
  • Gustave in The Labours of Hercules. His desperate devotion to the killer leads him to commit suicide rather than betray the killer's identity. Even Poirot feels dismayed at Gustave's death.
  • Eileen Corrigan in Taken at the Flood. From the very beginning, she was a normal Catholic farm girl and parlor maid of Rosaleen Cloade, until David Hunter, whom his sister Rosaleen had excluded as his "first love", seduced Eileen, raped her, and made her pregnant; afterward he performed an induced abortion on her, then broke her will by promising her salvation if she followed his orders and "the fires of hell" if she did not. She was then forced to pose as his sister Rosaleen, whom he had just slaughtered along with her husband and his entire family by blowing up the house in a surprise bomb attack. As if that was not enough, she was repeatedly bullied and denounced as a slut through Kathy Cloade-Woodward's phone calls and induced by David into attempted suicide by morphia overdose (and she would have been dead had Poirot and Lynn Marchmont not arrived in time, had Dr. Lionel Woodward (a morphine addict) not stolen some of her morphine, and had the Spared by the Adaptation trope not come into play). After all she's done by believing that she has been "cut off from the mercy of God", the poor girl needed a hug so badly.
  • James Bentley in "Mrs. McGinty's Dead"; he's a nice guy who unfortunately isn't terribly smart and is a bit of a momma's boy. He's also just lost his job and is in trouble with his landlady, which makes it VERY easy for the murderer to frame him for the crime. Ultimately, it's only because the investigator has second thoughts and asks Poirot to reinvestigate the case that Bentley is saved and the true killer exposed.

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