Agatha Christie’s The Seven Dials, directed by Chris Sweeney, is a curious series with a typical, yet intriguing murder mystery, but it kills the momentum by underutilizing its characters.
The Seven Dials is a Netflix miniseries that adapts Agatha Christie’s novel of the same name. Taking place in 1925, a young woman named Eileen “Bundle” Brent (Mia McKenna-Bruce, Vampire Academy) dives into an investigation after she discovers a murder in the comfort of her own home. She then falls into a rabbit hole of murders, secret societies, and secret inventions to find the truth.
The miniseries follows the casual format of any murder mystery — no surprise since it’s adapted from one of the queens of crime novels — the amateur sleuth, the first murders, the clues, the tensions, the red herrings, and the twists. It’s simple, but it is certainly entertaining, as some scenes are surprising, like one of the murders in Episode 1 or when the protagonist discovers who is behind the murders and the theft of Dr. Cyril Matip’s (Nyasha Hatendi, Swan Song) invention in Episode 3.
The Seven Dials can be rather slow at times. The flow of the series ebbs in and out between Episodes 1 and 2, because whenever the focus isn’t on the mystery, it’s easy to lose interest. This is because most of the characters aren’t interesting except for Bundle, her mother, Lady Caterham (Helen Bohnam Carter, Enola Holmes), Jimmy Thesiger (Edward Bluemel, Castlevania: Nocturne), and, at times, George Lomax (Alex Macqueen, Hilda).
Bundle is an endearing character for sure. She is the amateur sleuth who is pretty clever, courageous, and stubborn. She is a fun protagonist to follow because she is the emotional core of this series, as her reasoning to solve this case is out of grief for a lost loved one, and to solve this injustice. It would have been better if they had delved more into her past and allowed her to do more investigating alongside Superintendent Battle (Martin Freeman, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever), or on her own.
However, the biggest pet peeve with Bundle is the amount of showing and telling they do with her character. To reiterate, Bundle is a great character, but every time she does something witty or clever, there’s always a character pointing out how clever or observant she is. At times, in crime novels or films, the sleuths/detectives can be described as intelligent once or twice, but it’s unnecessary to bring it up several more times. The audience doesn’t need someone to hold their hand and talk about how clever Bundle is when she can easily show how intelligent she is through her actions.
A major strength of The Seven Dials is its outstanding cinematography, with wide shots that establish the series’ setting and the spiraling staircase of Bundle’s home. It makes the world feel far more alive and lived in. The particularly creative shots are the POV shots from the inside of the clocks seen throughout the series, coinciding with a menacing ticking.
By far the most standout scene is in Episode 3, the conversation between Bundle and her mother is just so heartbreaking as they figure out Lady Caterman’s motive. As well as how Bundle feels like her presence and love aren’t enough to cure her mother’s grief, nor stop her from betraying her own country. Both Carter and Bruce give excellent performances, carrying the final confrontation with the necessary grief and disbelief to bring a riveting conclusion to the mystery.
One of the issues The Seven Dials has is their underutilization of certain characters. Plenty of characters can become red herrings, but the lack of depth in their character prevents them from being convincing enough. The Seven Dials themselves fall in this category in Episode 2, only showing up once or twice, sending death threats to our protagonist, and that’s it. Their true reveal subverts the set expectations of what they could’ve been, but it feels too lackluster due to their underwhelming presence, causing the real killer’s presence to be too obvious.
If you’re in the mood for a simple mystery or are a beginner to the crime genre, give this a watch, as it is still an enjoyable series with few flaws. Overall, my love for crime shows/films remains the same, but I won’t be rewatching this series to look for further hidden clues.
