REVIEW: ‘Agatha Christie’s Seven Dials’ Is A Quintessential Whodunnit

Agatha Christie is the one name that will get me invested in an adaptation, and there is no shortage of the iconic author’s work. The Netflix Original mini-series, Agatha Christie’s Seven Dials, created for television by Chris Chibnall, transports the audience all the way back to 1925 England.

Filled with gorgeous period costuming, the film starts with a party at a lavish country house. But when a practical joke seemingly goes tragically wrong, and a man winds up dead, the inquisitive and tenacious Lady Eileen ‘Bundle’ Brent (Mia McKenna-Bruce) sets out to solve it. 

With her crush dead and the police ruling it a suicide, Bundle knows that this was a murder, and she will do anything to find and expose the truth. But as Bundle follows the clues and pulls on every loose thread to unravel the mystery, she finds herself in the center of a secret society, the Seven Dials, and a plot to steal a potential war-ending scientific invention. 

Agatha Christie’s Seven Dials continues the tradition of bringing together some of Britain’s high-profile actors to tell an Agatha Christie story. And that’s precisely how it should be done. However, Seven Dials also trusts some of its larger roles to newer actors, balancing recognizable faces with fresh talent, with Mia McKenna-Bruce, Edward Bluemel, Hughie O’Donnell, Nyasha Hatendi, Martin Freeman, Helena Bonham Carter, and Iain Glen.

Lady Eileen ‘Bundle’ Brent is the perfect protagonist for this murder mystery. 

Lady Eileen ‘Bundle’ Brent is the quintessential Agatha Christie heroine, and the mystery at her feet is astoundingly complex. Our heroine is moved by emotion and dedication to catching the person who killed the man she was hoping to make a future with. In her personal moments, Bundle is emotional and vulnerable, best showcased when speaking with her mother or very close friend Ronny Devereux (Nabhaan Rizwan).

Still, though, in true Christie fashion, Bundle is steadfast, headstrong, and worth more than the men around her. Agatha Christie’s Seven Dials expertly uses 1920s gender expectations, showing her navigating them with ease. Bundle knows when to be brash, when to be demure, and, ultimately, how to set the stage herself, often using the self-centered ego of a man to her advantage. 

As the protagonist of Agatha Christie’s Seven Dials, Bundle hits every charming quality you need for the lead of a murder mystery. As for the mystery itself? It’s true, Agatha Christie. Misdirection is always afoot, and each person you meet holds one more piece of a very large puzzle. Bundle sifts through the mess left behind, uncovering who the secret order of the Seven Dials is and how it fits into the larger schemes to steal the indestructible metal. 

Agatha Christie’s Seven Dials introduces elements of surprise throughout with a strong ensemble.

That said, every reveal and big upset is best left unspoiled before watching Agatha Christie’s Seven Dials. However, not every item Bundle sees is pertinent to closing the case. Instead, and perhaps most interestingly, the amount of white noise scattered throughout the murder mystery deepens suspicions about multiple characters and casts doubt on assumptions that both the audience and Bundle begin to make. 

As for the rest of the cast, Freeman’s Superintendent Battle is interesting enough, serving as the counterweight to Bundle’s individual investigation. He’s also a friendly (albeit accusatory) face when she’s backed into a corner. He’s smart in his own right, and while he is running his own investigation, his kindness makes him helpless to say no to Bundle’s assertion that she should be by his side as he turns over stones to solve the case. 

The rest of the ensemble cast is memorable enough in the way the genre allows characters to be. We have the ones who mysteriously die, the hapless witnesses, the red hearing(s), the trusted confidant, and, of course, a couple that don’t fit neatly into tropes, which gives them the freedom to surprise as the story unfolds before the audience. 

The Agatha Christie adaptation engages with the time period on its own terms. 

Agatha Christie’s Seven Dials honors why Agatha Christie has become the mother of mystery while also giving its actors enough leeway to craft their own takes on the novel’s characters. Each of the actors, big and small, contributes to the ensemble cast beautifully, and fits directly into England in 1925 thanks to thoughtful production design and costuming. 

One scene that stands out is toward the end of the series. Everyone has gathered for dinner, and as we begin to understand the scientific discovery that Dr. Cyril Matip is holding onto, the table turns to the military, the Great War, and those who served in it. Dr. Matip is an African man whose citizenship is designated by whichever imperial power has established control over his country. 

It’s a moment that forces the table filled with wealthy Englishmen to know who sits with them, who is smarter than them, and how war means something different for each person experiencing it. Especially, when your continent is being ripped apart by foreign wars brought to its soil through nothing more than colonialization.

Agatha Christie’s Seven Dials isn’t afraid to engage with the time period on its own terms, while also using the audience’s contemporary expectations to guide it all. Striking the balance between the time of the source material and expectations of modern life is hard with a work set in 1925 for a book that was released in 1929, yet it’s easy work for this Netflix series. 

The Netflix adaptation beautifully embraces the nostalgia of the genre. 

Here, it’s a heavy topic at the table, but the way that the conversation weaves in and out of societal hierarchies and expectations is too good not to point out. Agatha Christie’s Seven Dials is a murder mystery, first and foremost; however, it’s also a gateway to larger conversations about war and how you fit into it, and how people profit from it as well. 

Agatha Christie’s Seven Dials is a miniseries that follows a tried-and-true formula without ever feeling redundant. If anything, the intrigue that we see in the miniseries serves as a testament to Christie’s work and why we can look back on it today with the same excitement as others did when the original book was released almost 100 years ago in 1929. 

While Netflix has been embracing the murder mystery genre, Agatha Christie’s Seven Dials taps into the nostalgia fans of the genre have, but without feeling like a retread. Yes, it’s Agatha Christie, but through Mia McKenna-Bruce’s performance, it feels familiar and new at the same time. This whodunit is well worth the three-hour investment.

Agatha Christie’s Seven Dials is streaming now, exclusively on Netflix.