debut is part of the problem and not part of the solution. The experience of watching a program knowing there is a twist ahead is a very different one than trusting the show along its journey - and social media buzz has already tainted the well for “Pale Horse” not only about the existence of a twist, but also to the overall plausibility of the ending.Īnd yes, I understand, this review timed to the U.S.
Much like the ITV-to-PBS voyage of the Jane Austen adaptation “Sanditon” - which also had an ending that pissed off a whole lot of people - it’s a fair question to wonder if viewership for “Pale Horse” would have been different if the show had a day-and-date release strategy in all territories. Even the most cursory and benign Google about the show results in a dozen articles dissecting the improbably layered ending, and offering critiques. last month and, in our woefully over-connected age, this kind of split trans-Atlantic release window creates issues for the audience. This culminates in another problem: “The Pale Horse” originally aired in the U.K.
(Emphasis on camp, frankly, although Kathy Kiera Clarke’s portrayal of witch Sybil is a fun triple-take-inducing switch from her work as the ditzy aunt on “Derry Girls.”) It’s whiplash inducing, more creepy for creepy’s sake than entirely sensical in the context of all the groundwork that came before. The scientific, empirical twist ending of the novel remains, but a coda is added alluding that all the preceding events took place squarely in the supernatural camp. Rita Tushingham, Kathy Kiera Clarke, and Sheila Atim in “Agatha Christie’s The Pale Horse”ĭespite Sewell and Kaya Scodelario - who plays the in-over-her-perfectly-coiffed-head wife 2.0 - selling every spooky undercurrent, all these questions resolve with an ending that’s too purposefully oblique. All of the victims have a tendril of a connection to the peak-British-named town of Much Deeping, where a trio of witches read tea leaves, make herbal concoctions for mild maladies, and quite possibly hex people to death upon request and payment. A balding woman is discovered dead in a London street with a hastily scrawled list of names in her shoe almost every single person on it has died in sudden but plausible circumstances.
Agatha christie pale horse tv#
“Pale Horse” is definitely one of the most woo-woo of Christie’s detective stories with an unusually significant dash of body horror added in, but this TV adaptation doubles down on it with the Wiccan-adjacent atmospherics. on Amazon Prime starting March 13, this is the third Agatha Christie adaptation originally done for the BBC by executive producer Sarah Phelps she previously served as EP on 2015’s “And Then There Were None” and 2018’s “The ABC Murders.” (More recently, she was the showrunner on the gloriously creepy “Dublin Murders” on Starz.) But ultimately, this back-and-forth switch between these settings and scenarios, motives and motivations comes at the expense of crafting a plausible, earned ending to the core mystery.Īiring as two episodes in the U.S. The costumes and production design are great, a tricky mix of expensive class signifiers and rustic vintage elements without being twee. It leans in hard to the contrast between slick, successful Carnaby Street-curious Mark and the visceral pagan folk horror of the English countryside. This is both the good and the bad of “The Pale Horse” on Amazon Prime Video. And in our post-”Midsommar” world, everyone knows that’s when things are going to start getting real. Thanks to his profound narcissism and arrogance - I mean, it’s earned, you guys have seen Sewell in a vintage suit, right? I know you have, because I picked the photo for this review - Mark is essentially unfazed by his first wife and his mistress dying until the wicker man and corn dollies start appearing around him. 'The White Lotus': Everything You Need to Know About the HBO SeriesĮvery IndieWire TV Review from 2021 So Far, Ranked by Best to Worst Grade 'The Expanse' Season 6 Review: Amazon's Flagship Sci-Fi Show Leaves with More Left to Say 'A Very British Scandal' First Trailer: Claire Foy Looks Fabulous as Infamous Divorcee
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