‘Agatha Christie’s Seven Dials’ Review

For better or for worse, Chris Chibnall’s adaptation of Agatha Christie’s “The Seven Dials Mystery” is faithful.

“Why three episodes?” is the question I asked myself when watching Netflix’s newest mystery, Agatha Christie’s Seven Dials. Writer and executive producer Chris Chibnall hasn’t made a career of truncated seasons, even by British TV standards, with at least six episodes in each of his seasons of Doctor Who, and eight episodes per season of Broadchurch. In the case of Seven Dials, the episode count severely undermines what should have been a successful attempt at reframing one of Christie’s most divisive works.

Mia McKenna-Bruce stars as Lady Bundle Brent, an upper class woman whose personal connection to a victim draws her into a conspiracy that spans decades. A strong point in the show’s first half hour comes from the sudden loss of innocence that Bundle undergoes; McKenna-Bruce convincingly navigates the grieving process and, for a moment, it feels like Seven Dials will veer away from her preordained characterization. But, too quickly, Chibnall slips into modern familiarity with this chipper-attitude-investigator who is told by the world to just leave things alone; think Pip from A Good Girl’s Guide To Murder, or Enola Holmes. It’s a character we’ve seen before, recently, and from Netflix itself. And, unfortunately, Seven Dials is so narratively overstuffed that there isn’t room in these three episodes to differentiate Bundle from her contemporaries.

Clocks appear throughout the show but, until their beige justification is revealed, they’re a rather frustrating visual and auditory flourish that has no reason to exist. This may seem like a nitpick, and the show has enough ticking to trick the audience into believing the clocks are integral to the story (not just the ending), but the clocks are perhaps the most prominent example of Chibnall’s approach to style over substance. That approach is to subvert by overwhelming. In Seven Dials, the viewer gets three dense episodes, bereft with clocks and characters and collusion, which makes it impossible to decode what is and isn’t important.

With its emphasis on introducing “a new” type of detective, the marketing for Seven Dials is more accurate than it may seem. The three hours of television serve largely as an origin story for what appears to be Netflix’s attempt at launching another mystery franchise. It’s a shame that the character of Bundle isn’t one I’m interested in seeing any more than I’m interested in a third Enola Holmes movie or a second season of AGGTM.

If you’re wondering if a show can, in three episodes, tell a satisfying murder mystery that has deep roots with the back doors of high society in early-1900s England, while introducing a compelling detective, then Netflix’s Seven Dials is proof that it can’t.

AGATHA CHRISTIE’S SEVEN DIALS IS NOW STREAMING ON NETFLIX. CHECK OUT THE TRAILER BELOW.