The Labours of Hercules
- Episode aired Aug 18, 2014
- TV-14
- 1h 29m
Poirot's pursuit of an infamous art thief leads him to a snowbound hotel in the Swiss Alps, where he is met with a plethora of mysteries and the reappearance of a familiar face from the past... Read allPoirot's pursuit of an infamous art thief leads him to a snowbound hotel in the Swiss Alps, where he is met with a plethora of mysteries and the reappearance of a familiar face from the past.Poirot's pursuit of an infamous art thief leads him to a snowbound hotel in the Swiss Alps, where he is met with a plethora of mysteries and the reappearance of a familiar face from the past.
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Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaThe original book features Poirot taking on twelve cases (12 short stories) each one referencing Greek mythology. The TV adaptation is a combination of some of those stories into a single location. The central plot is "The Erymanthian Boar" which takes place in a Swiss mountain-top hotel as Poirot searches for master-criminal Marrascaud. In "The Arcadian Deer" Poirot is asked by a car mechanic to locate the maid of a Russian ballerina. "The Stymphalean Birds" features a man trying to help a woman in an abusive marriage. "The Girdle of Hippolyta" is about stolen paintings. While "The Capture of Cerberus" has Poirot reunited with Countess Vera Rossakoff.
- GoofsPoirot speaks poor French when he says "Je m'excuse", which translates literally as "I excuse myself", which is impolite. He should ask to be excused with "Excuse-moi", or say sorry with "Je suis désolé".
- Quotes
Dr. Lutz: May I ask you something? Why do you insist on referring to yourself in the third person? It is intensely irritating!
Hercule Poirot: Because, Doctor Lutz, it helps Poirot achieve a healthy distance from his genius.
It has thrills, it has intrigue, it has drama, it has tragedy, and it has comedy; okay the construct is perhaps not what I have come to expect, but it works in the rather unusual way it sets out to do. As a mystery it is perhaps less satisfying because it is so event- driven that it doesn't really have time to lay down a lot of clues so much as throw them at you while setting up or closing out an entirely different mystery. I guess for some this change in style will be too much, but for me I quite enjoyed it; although I liked the patient elegance of Dead Man's Folly, I have not been a massive fan of the season thus far, so, while not perfect, at very least the amount of events and sheer energy here did make it engaging – it really didn't leave a choice.
The design of the film is also quite something. Some have commented on the absurdity of this hotel really being situated in the Alps, but for me it is part of the appeal – the absurdity of the place, the people, and the whole film, all works in the favor of the rather overblown and busy delivery. It looks beautiful as a film – while the back projection of Elephants Can Remember was poor, here the Alps look both fake but yet also great, again all part of this almost other-worldly place that Poirot finds himself. This feeling is in all the regards and frankly helped me buy into the coincidences and contrivances across the narrative. The cast buy into this too. In the lead Suchet is fantastic, showing that he can work with all the elements of the series whether it be the darker side of his character or his comic timing; he really gets a bite of everything and does it very well. The support cast are uniformly colorful, from Callow, O'Shaughnessy, Brady, Katz, Tomlinson and others. Personally I greatly enjoyed Lindsay– such a great comedic performance throughout. Wlaschiha stood out in his performance, although I found it endlessly distracting that his voice and delivery was so similar to his character in Season 5 of Game of Thrones.
It is an unusual Poirot, and it does lack the qualities that one usually looks to the series for, but it is full of events and has a great mix of absurdity, comedy, drama, and thrills, which all work remarkably well together while the performances and the design do connect with this approach, and make it work.
- bob the moo
- Jun 6, 2015
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- Saint Hilaire du Touvet, France(Funicular Railway)
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