Criminal Games is a collection of French adaptations of Agatha Christie novels. The series is called Les Petits Meurtres d'Agatha Christie in France. They used the French title on the previous collection of the series. Not sure why they changed it for this one. Correcting a stupid mistake? French titles probably don't sell well. Too bad, some might have missed this clever and entertaining series.
The adaptations don't have the detectives that were in the Agatha Christie stories. They change a lot of the original story but keep the core of the plot. It's been on TV since 2009 and there are only two or three 90 episodes each year. The 6 in this set are from the second series and they all aired in 2013 and 2014.
That's Élodie Frenck as Marlène Leroix, Samuel Labarthe as Swan Laurence and Blandine Bellavoir as Alice Avril. Laurence is the Inspector, Marlène is his secretary and Alice is a reporter on a newspaper. She mostly writes the agony aunt column but somehow she stumbled onto the inspector and has become intertwined with his investigations. The Inspector is a sophisticated fellow and Alice is down to earth and pretty uncouth, he's pretty much annoyed by her and she just won't give up. Though Marlène is an excitable but somewhat dim character, she still manages to help out in one way or another. In one episode she crashes a car, rather slowly, through a barn door to rescue the other two.
The stories are good, there's a nice sense of humor and a bit of action and danger. It's set in the 50s, so there's all the nice fashions, props and vehicles. Interesting and beautiful scenery and locations too. Big win in my mind, watching this series is a pleasure. There are 4 sets of DVD out from Acorn with most of the series. I got these from the library but I've added them on my Amazon Wish List and as the budget allows I'll be adding them to my collection. I'll want to watch them again sometime.
Meurtre Au Champagne is adapted from Sparkling Cyanide.
Témoin Muet is adapted from Dumb Witness
Pourquoi Pas Martin? is adapted from Why Didn't They Ask Evans?
Meurtre à La Kermesse is adapted from Hallowe'en Party
Cartes Sur Table is adapted from Cards on the Table
Le Crime Ne Paie Pas is adapted from Murder on the Links
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