Although the Knives Out movies brought the thrills of the legendary author’s work to a new generation, Netflix’s upcoming murder mystery, Agatha Christie’s Seven Dials, will benefit from one thing that the franchise always missed out on. The Knives Out movies owed a lot of their inspiration to the classic murder mystery novels of Agatha Christie.
Their quirky protagonist, Benoit Blanc, was heavily indebted to Christie’s most famous creation, Hercule Poirot, and the starry casts of the movies, as well as their self-contained storylines, borrowed stylistically from Christie’s playbook. To be fair, director Rian Johnson’s series was also inspired by a variety of lesser-known mysteries, such as 1973’s The Last of Sheila.
However, while they were not direct Agatha Christie adaptations, there is no denying the fact that the Knives Out movies were inspired by Christie’s work. As such, it is exciting to see that Netflix’s next major murder mystery series will bring back one element of the writer’s work that was sorely lacking in Johnson’s franchise.
Agatha Christie’s Seven Dials Is A Period Murder Mystery Adaptation
Based on Christie’s 1929 novel of the same name, Agatha Christie’s Seven Dials will see Netflix bring the author’s work to life in a three-episode miniseries. The show stars Mia McKenna-Bruce as Lady Bundle Brent, an unlikely amateur sleuth who is spurred into action by the sudden, unexplained death of her potential paramour.
With a supporting cast that includes Martin Freeman and Helena Bonham Carter, this glitzy Christie adaptation is almost as starry as one of the Knives Out movies. However, it has one crucial edge on Johnson’s movies. Unlike the Knives Out series, Agatha Christie’s Seven Dials is a period piece.
Like the novel itself, Agatha Christie’s Seven Dials is set in 1929, and its trailer plays up the period setting for all it is worth. There are grand country houses, society balls, and all manner of period detail that mark this adaptation out as a classic old-fashioned murder mystery.
In contrast, the Knives Out movies transplanted the murder mystery setup of Christie’s classic novels to modern settings. Although Blanc’s quirky detective act owed a lot to Poirot, the people he met lived very modern, contemporary lives. In fact, many of the franchise’s mysteries seemed to be ripped straight from real-life headlines.
Netflix’s Knives Out Movies Were Too Contemporary To Be Classic Christie-Style Murder Mysteries
From the extremely online Catholic reactionaries in Wake Up Dead Man to the broad parody of Elon Musk featured in Glass Onion, the Knives Out movies openly flaunted their contemporary status. Rather than leaning into the period trappings of traditional cozy mysteries, the series made a point of focusing its big plot points on modern social, cultural, and political events.
While Kenneth Branagh’s Poirot movies were lavish period pieces, the Knives Out movies were concerned with timely issues like American immigration policy, the COVID-19 pandemic, and online radicalization. This allowed Johnson to offer topical satirical commentary via his murder mysteries, but it also left the movies feeling very different from a traditional murder mystery.
From the adventures of Poirot to the mysteries solved by Miss Marple, Christie’s work is closely associated with the era she wrote in. Ironically, Christie’s books were considered contemporary when they were first published, as they were set around the same time that they were released.
However, by the time Christie’s most famous novels were adapted to the screen in the 1970s, directors had begun maintaining their original 1920s and 1930s settings, thus turning them into period pieces. As the gap between their original publication dates and the release dates of these movies widened, they became famous for their period settings.
As such, the period piece trappings are now a big part of what viewers come to a murder mystery for. The Knives Out movies made an admirable stab at updating this formula, but they inevitably could not recapture the cozy tone of stories set almost a hundred years ago.
Agatha Christie’s Seven Dials Must Avoid One Major Netflix Murder Mystery Mistake
Luckily, Agatha Christie’s Seven Dials will be able to lean into this nostalgia. However, the miniseries should take care not to lean too far into this. After all, Netflix’s last major murder mystery adaptation was set in the present day, but still managed to feel far too schmaltzy and sentimental to convince as a thriller.
The Thursday Murder Club was far too twee and sentimental for its own good, which is something that the similarly starry, quintessentially British period murder mystery Agatha Christie’s Seven Dials must avoid. At the end of the day, this Christie adaptation is about a man’s murder, so it shouldn’t feel like a broad, goofy comedy, as that weightless Richard Osman adaptation did.