Agatha Christie's Poirot: The Early Cases Collection

I had previously bought the standard definition complete Poirot set and was terribly disappointed in the poor image quality and the lousy packaging of the disks (many of the 33 disks arrived loose and floating around in the plastic retainers!) Thus I decided to return them and buy this remastered Blu Ray version of the "Early Cases." I am extremely pleased with video quality and have no regrets at all. While there are slight variations in quality between some of the episodes all are far better than the SD versions.I have long favored the early seasons of Poirot, finding the later seasons far darker, both in image quality and content. These 45 episodes are to me, anyway, what Agatha would want. When the producers dropped the marvelous art deco intro and went darker and grainier with far more contrast I felt they had decided to go "modern" and play to a younger audience. That leaves this eighty year old Agatha Christie fan slightly annoyed (of course, most everything annoys me these days.)Still, I might ultimately buy the rest of the episodes in Blu Ray, if only to have the complete collection, sitting proudly beside my remastered Joan Hickson Miss Marple set.

Now I have the whole set of David Suchet's Poirot. All of them are good. I had watched most of them before on library DVD's but I am glad to have them for myself and I watch them very often. I am glad they have become available on DVD for the fans to enjoy. I have many other sets of mysteries, so when I watch an episode of Poirot after an interval, I very often do not know who the killer was though some of them I do. I like the acting, the music, the stories, the friendship among the main characters, the various settings, London and even faraway places. It is a wonderful series. I am glad that after all these years they finally completed it.

David Suchet is to Poirot, what Rathbone was to Holmes. Even though some are rather evident, I am never surprised at how he names the culprit by deduction, similar to Holmes. His supporting cast, Hugh Fraser, as Captain Hastings (his Doctor Watson) and Phillip Jackson as Inspector Japp ( Lestrade) along with Paline Moran (Miss Lemon) make for a very entertaining series. What action there is, is basically low keyed and has little if any real violence. The one negative comment I have concerns the length of the episodes. An extra 10-15 minutes of plot and character development would have been a plus. Lastly, the DVD Blu Ray reproductive quality is fantastic. This set may not be for those with little interest in Poirot, but I would highly recommend it to anyone who does have such an interest.

I've viewed all of the Poirot films and I have to say that these early ones are the best. Unfortunately, I've already figured out the first four films within a few minutes of each one. I don't care much for the later ones that left out Inspector Japp, Miss Lemon and Hastings. Guess their contracts ran out or they wanted too much money.Overall, if you are a fan of Poirot, Agatha Christie or British mysteries in general, you should enjoy this set. I do and look forward to seeing each film over and over again. The DVDs are of good quality with proper video and audio. Unlike a great many DVDs, I don't have to strain to hear the dialogue while the music hurt my ears.

If you are a fan of this punctilious, albeit brilliant, little dandy then this is the compilation for you. Importantly, the image is crystal clear and one notices the tendency toward particularly balanced composition---very particular to the art deco motif of both the period and the series [look at a piece of deco jewelry to see what I mean]. In such a way, the mood-between-the-wars is conveyed very subtly. I also am taken with the costumes/dressing. Poirot one expect to be fastidiously perfect. And Miss Lemon is always charming. But its the Oxbridge-ian Captain Hastings that one looks to for both casual elegance and a boys naivtee that contrasts with Poirot's worldliness. All that and creative plots and beautiful image...what more can one want?

I bought this as the perfect 'Ah-Ha' gift for my son in law, because like us, he too, is a fan of Poirot. I have the same complete set, but bought mine as they were available individually. My son in law one day asked if he could borrow one of my dvd's and I told him he could. He has borrowed only one other complete volume since. I ordered this set, hoping it would be different than the ones I was letting him borrow from, but since there was no description of what I was actually ordering, other than Poirot's complete set of 'The Early Cases'. I got him the same set. It won't have the same impact I was hoping for, but I do believe he will still enjoy them. I would really like if the seller would tell you what volumes are in the set, and maybe an episode title from each volume, so this doesn't happen to someone else.

This newly remastered set is an absolute joy to watch. The colors are vibrant and the images are crisp. The audio is improved too and the subtitles are a bonus. This series is well worth the price especially if you are addicted to Poirot like I am and will watch these over and over. By the way this seller answered my question quickly and the set arrived earlier than anticipated. Great all around.

I grew up reading Agatha Christie mysteries especially Hercule Poirot. Yea, I was a little weird. David Suchet is the perfect Poirot in my opinion and I have enjoyed watching many of these shows on PBS. This Blu Ray anthology was a great find, but too expensive until Amazon made it a deal I couldn't refuse. The transfers are very good although not as crisp and detailed as I would have liked, but pleasing none the less. The stories are , of course, great and the acting is excellent. To have all of these in one package is wonderful!

I got into Poirot when I started to borrow them from the local library. I think the first one I ever saw was Murder on the Links, which was fine but I did not think too much of it, it was just something to watch for free that was somewhat amusing. However, as I continued to borrow them and watch them I began to fall in love with the show and the characters. I won't go into much detail about who's who and why they are so wonderful because if you are considering buying this collection you already know all that.It was not long before I knew that I had to own every bit of David Suchet's Poirot but while I was ready to do the work to find out which episodes are in which collection, I was not ready to shell out a bunch of money to buy them individually. The release of Agatha Christie's Poirot: The Early Cases is a gift from above. In the order of the original U.K. broadcast, it collects the first 6 series in 6 individual cases (with 3 DVDs in each case) in a lovely outer box. They are great for someone who does not have any of the earlier DVDs but they are also perfect for those who are seeking an upgrade. I have watched some of the original versions from the library so I can compare. The new DVDs are remastered, making the picture quality much more crisp and best of all they now come with subtitles. The DVD menu is also different with a polished new look and easy navigation capability.At one point I was thinking of waiting until they come out with Poirot: The Complete Collection but series 13 is yet to be aired, which is the last one but who could wait that long? Also, I am not sure if there will ever be a North American release of the complete collection. Acorn Media holds the rights to series 1 - 6 and 11 - 13, while A&E owns series 7 - 10, which are 12 feature length movies. So in addition to the Early Cases I have also purchased , which collects series 7 - 10. Here's to hoping after series 13 Acorn releases Agatha Christie's Poirot: The Later Cases, collecting the remaining series.Highly, highly recommended.

i VERY MUCH ENJOY POIROT AND AM WATCHING THEM FOR A SECOND TIME.

It is nice to be able to watch this show from the beginning since I have not watched all the episodes.

Great collection.

I don't know what Moran is on about in his (her?) review, but I own the DVDs and now the Blu-rays of this set and there's no comparison, at least on my high quality 65" monitor. It's true that the Blu-rays could be better, but the problem is in the source material and not the remastering or at least that's how it seems to me. True there's grain, but FILM HAS GRAIN. To remove it you need to use strong noise reduction and then restore the lost sharpness through digital "sharpening". Both of these destroy quality.There are issues with colour changes. On occasion the colour tone will shift mid scene. Also there are times when the sharpness isn't as good as I would like. Are the Blu-rays up to the highest quality possible now? Of course not, but none of these issues changes the fact that the Blu-rays are much superior to the DVDs.