# Masterpiece Mystery will be showing the final David Suchet "Poirot" episodes **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [July 22, 2014, 6:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/masterpiece-mystery-will-be-showing-the-final-david-suchet-poirot-episodes/693762 "2014-07-22T18:15:36Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![teela\_brown](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/d9b06d/32.png) [@teela\_brown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/teela_brown)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2014, 6:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/masterpiece-mystery-will-be-showing-the-final-david-suchet-poirot-episodes/693762/1 "2014-07-22T18:15:36Z")
Apparently Suchet has brought to screen every Poirot episode except five, and those five are to air on upcoming Masterpiece Mysteries. Yay, the first one brings back Captain Hastings, Inspector Japp, and Miss Lemon from the old days of the television show! And it’s written/adapted by Mark Gatiss! Who else is going to watch? [Story](http://www.sfgate.com/tv/article/TV-review-Suchet-splendidly-wraps-up-Poirot-5636694.php?cmpid=hp-hc-entertainment). ---
**Author:** ![Miss\_Mapp](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miss_mapp/32/369_2.png) [@Miss\_Mapp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miss_Mapp)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2014, 6:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/masterpiece-mystery-will-be-showing-the-final-david-suchet-poirot-episodes/693762/2 "2014-07-22T18:33:31Z")
I saw one of these last autumn in the UK–_Dead Man’s Folly_. I can’t believe it’s taken them this long to get to the US. Although I know it really is the very last Poirot, I’m really looking forward to seeing what they’ve done with _Curtain_. ---
**Author:** ![Pai325](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/c68b51/32.png) [@Pai325](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pai325)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2014, 9:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/masterpiece-mystery-will-be-showing-the-final-david-suchet-poirot-episodes/693762/3 "2014-07-22T21:14:18Z")
When are they airing? I need to set TiVo. ---
**Author:** ![teela\_brown](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/d9b06d/32.png) [@teela\_brown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/teela_brown)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2014, 9:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/masterpiece-mystery-will-be-showing-the-final-david-suchet-poirot-episodes/693762/4 "2014-07-22T21:25:25Z")
> [@Pai325](#): > > When are they airing? I need to set TiVo. The first one, the Gatiss-written one I mention above, will air Sunday July 27 on our local PBS station. I don’t know if the schedule is exactly the same for where you live; Google “Masterpiece Mystery” to find their website and they’ll make sure the schedule is correct for your region. ---
**Author:** ![Pai325](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/c68b51/32.png) [@Pai325](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pai325)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2014, 9:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/masterpiece-mystery-will-be-showing-the-final-david-suchet-poirot-episodes/693762/5 "2014-07-22T21:58:09Z")
> [@teela\_brown](#): > > The first one, the Gatiss-written one I mention above, will air Sunday July 27 on our local PBS station. I don’t know if the schedule is exactly the same for where you live; Google “Masterpiece Mystery” to find their website and they’ll make sure the schedule is correct for your region. Thanks. My listing shows there are two upcoming in my area. I hope the other three show up on the schedule soon. ---
**Author:** ![Heart\_of\_Dorkness](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/4bbf92/32.png) [@Heart\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Heart_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2014, 10:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/masterpiece-mystery-will-be-showing-the-final-david-suchet-poirot-episodes/693762/6 "2014-07-22T22:40:52Z")
Oh, yay! I’m so excited! Must record! By the way - if like me, you could watch Poirot over and over, you might be interested to know that you can also stream 10 of the previous 12 seasons on Amazon. Seasons 1-6 and 11 are free with Prime. For some reason, 9, 10, and 12 are surprisingly expensive: $9.00 an episode. And 7 and 8 can’t be had for love or money (streaming, anyway; they do have them on DVD). ---
**Author:** ![urban1a](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/e47c2d/32.png) [@urban1a](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/urban1a)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2014, 2:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/masterpiece-mystery-will-be-showing-the-final-david-suchet-poirot-episodes/693762/7 "2014-07-23T02:06:32Z")
The local PBS is currently showing Viscous. I don’t know how many episodes there are of that (they have shown 3 or 4). I’ll check out the site but I may just wait until it comes to Netflix. Bob ---
**Author:** ![teela\_brown](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/d9b06d/32.png) [@teela\_brown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/teela_brown)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2014, 5:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/masterpiece-mystery-will-be-showing-the-final-david-suchet-poirot-episodes/693762/8 "2014-07-31T17:54:29Z")
I watched it and liked it a lot. It was good to see Captain Hastings, Miss Lemon, and Chief Inspector Japp back again. They didn’t give the former two very much to do, though. Japp was as good as ever he was, working in tandem with Poirot to solve the mystery. The mystery was of course very involved and improbable, Sherlock-style. That’s no wonder, as Mark Gatiss wrote it. In fact, I suspected him of making it up out of whole cloth. But a quick check of Wikipedia shows that there is indeed an Agatha Christie novel by the name of _The Big Four_, written very early on in her career. I recognized the actor who played William Higgins (“Billy”) from the last episode of _Sherlock_. I’ll be watching for the other _Poirot_ episodes. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2014, 6:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/masterpiece-mystery-will-be-showing-the-final-david-suchet-poirot-episodes/693762/9 "2014-07-31T18:06:15Z")
> [@teela\_brown](#): > > Apparently Suchet has brought to screen every Poirot episode except five, and those five are to air on upcoming Masterpiece Mysteries. What I read in the [New York Times](http://www.nytimes.com/2014/07/26/arts/television/agatha-christies-poirot-comes-to-an-end.html) is that three of the episodes will only be available online. The article says, “The final episode, one of three that will not be shown on PBS but will be available exclusively online at [acorn.tv](http://acorn.tv), adapts ‘Curtain: Poirot’s Last Case,’ in which Christie finally killed off the character she’d grown so tired of.” I believe [acorn.tv](http://acorn.tv) is a paid subscription service, much like Hulu Plus or Netflix. I’m not about to subscribe to yet another TV service just to watch those last few episodes. So I’ll just wait for the DVDs to become available on Netflix. (The old-fashioned DVD-by-mail Netflix service, which still is better than the streaming service in that most anything published on Region 1 DVD is available for rental.) ---
**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2014, 6:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/masterpiece-mystery-will-be-showing-the-final-david-suchet-poirot-episodes/693762/10 "2014-07-31T18:49:19Z")
So, they ARE going to do\*\*\* Curtain\*\*\*? Excellent- that was one of Christie’s best, and it will mark the ideal end to the series… ---
**Author:** ![Lamia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Lamia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamia)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2014, 7:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/masterpiece-mystery-will-be-showing-the-final-david-suchet-poirot-episodes/693762/11 "2014-07-31T19:33:31Z")
> [@teela\_brown](#): > > The mystery was of course very involved and improbable, Sherlock-style. That’s no wonder, as Mark Gatiss wrote it. In fact, I suspected him of making it up out of whole cloth. But a quick check of Wikipedia shows that there is indeed an Agatha Christie novel by the name of _The Big Four_, written very early on in her career. It’s been long enough since I read _The Big Four_ that I don’t remember the details well, but it’s my recollection that it was actually a lot more complicated and implausible than this TV version. The big twist in the TV version is that:“The Big Four” is not a real organization, it’s a conspiracy theory that “Dr. Quentin” invented to make himself seem important. He’s guilty of all the murders attributed to the organization.But in the book:The Big Four are real.Another difference is that in the book:Poirot not only fakes his own death, but disguises himself as his twin brother Achille.