I read this one the day I started this article and I’m already starting to forget it. Which should just about sum up the review, really.
Poirot is off for a holiday, eager to get away from crime and detective work. Unfortunately, our favorite Belgian ends up embroiled in a complicated web of love and affairs! One that quickly takes a turn for the bloody when one of the women embroiled in the drama is poisoned and killed!
Wait… A woman murdered on Poirot’s tropical vacation… Didn’t we just do this? Like, last week?
This short can hardly even be called a mystery. It’s just a whole bunch of people going on and on about men and women and love affairs and other such boring nonsense. No one dies until the end of the story, and Poirot solves the case immediately! There isn’t a single clue, red herring, enticing hook or intrigue, nothing! Someone gets poisoned, and Poirot instantly knows who the real culprit is. Boy, I’m really scratching my head over this one!
That just leaves us with the characters. The whole short is devoted to developing them, so are they any good? I’ll be honest: no. These people are so forgettable they slipped my mind while I was still reading the story! Why should I care that one of these cardboard cutouts died? The only trait I recall her having is being an annoying chatterbox!
Hell, I’m not even sure if that was the same character. There were roughly five of them, and they’re about as memorable as a paint-drying livestream.
Do we at least get some fun Poirot moments? No. Our leading man hardly even has a role in the story. He’s silent for most of it, and he only contributes to the conversation at the very end when he solves the case! He spends more time drawing triangles than he does speaking!
‘Triangle at Rhodes‘ is yet another Poirot dud. It’s boring, forgettable, and is barely even a mystery. There are plenty of better Poirot shorts, and most of those are only half as long as this one! Go read one of those instead!
Two bad apples in a row. Never a good sign. But who knows? Maybe the next short will turn things around.
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