IR TV Review: MURDER IS EASY - PARTS 1 & 2 [BritBox]
The context of a murder mystery is the context of stakes and a certain amount of groundedness. Even in Kenneth Branagh's recent Poirot outing "A Haunting In Venice", there was a bit of dread despite being at times overtly theatrical in its pontification. "Murder Is Easy", an interpretation of Agatha Christie's novel from BritBox is definitely more stifled simply because most of the actors, especially lead David Jonsson as Luke FitzWilliam are playing it too obvious or without a hint of melancholy. Here, Fitzwilliam is placed as a social justice crusader versus an officer of the law in the original novel. Because of that, his need to get involved in solving a crime where he doesn't necessary have any stakes involved seems trite. Jonsson is also not very emotive beyond his eyes, wrinkling his face to express puzzlement which doesn't go far in selling the character. However this is a bigger trap of the larger whole of the production.
While this romp is meant to be light (despite the texture of murder in its title), the mechanics seem to be a bit off and simply nonsensical at times with lapses in judgment and details that fall by the wayside. Fitzwilliam has a suit for every occasion and he doesn't even live there. The local law enforcement seem bewildered or just don't care. Some of the locals put up with Fitzwilliam's never ending pontification and the murders jusy keep on streaming along without much consequence for the most part (or dread for that matter). There is a romance that unlies the whole element and that is the only redeemable element since Fitzwilliam and Bridgette Conway (Jonnson and Morfydd Clark) have a decent chemsitry. However Conway's overlying motivations (like many in the 2-part miniseries) don't seem enough to go on.
Fitzwilliam is brought to bear by a woman he simply met on a train but we don't know enough of his motivations to understand why. The lord of the house in the small town Fitzwilliam is investigating is already suspect because he is an overwhelming braggart with low self esteem and a jealous streak. While one could call this quick murder mystery a guilty watch, there really needs to be more to it and not so much leaning towards melodrama and tongue-in-cheek (as this specific adaptation can't quite make up its mind). The eventual resolution or path forward is decently ho-hum and fairly pedantic. If the whole thing had a little more justice (maybe even a little "Desperate Housewives" sarcasm) it would be more watchable. As this seems endorsed by the Christie estate, maybe they wanted to have something more British with a little less bite, but a story like this (think "Blue Velvet") needs a bit of edge to make it seem pertinent even if one sees no blood literally spilled. D
By Tim Wassberg
