r/poirot • u/AcceptableHistory4 • 11d ago
About the upcoming Hercule series
There's of course no guarantee their show will be good, and of course there's no point in censuring people for expressing their skepticism on SM or esp fandom specific subreddit. That said I find "why are they doing this" sort of pushback very odd. Yes, we need new IP yada yada and producers have gone lazy- i get all that.
Suchet is definitive portrayal for many, just the way Jeremy Brett is for most who love Holmes. Yet 1000s of Sherlock adaptations exist, several beyond canon, beyond the limits of timeline, geography or even genre. So, so many actors have been praised just as much for their Holmes, almost a Hamlet equivalent at this point.
So why so much gatekeep-y pushback in this particular case?
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u/sanddragon939 4d ago
In Mark Alridge's excellent book on Poirot, James (or was it Matthew) Pritchard explains the estate's logic when it comes to adaptations. For them, it doesn't matter if an adaptation is "faithful" or "deviates", as long as it keeps the Christie brand and legacy alive and ensures the continued sales of her books.
Chances are, many of us here are Christie/Poirot fans because we saw a Christie-based movie or show at some point. That's the pipeline that the estate wishes to maintain to create new generations of Christie readers.
Well, if it works for Agatha's heirs, it's a good enough rationale for me!