'Pension Vanilos' is one of the best paced episodes too, it gets to the point quicker than most episodes of the series and doesn't lose momentum, padding is very little to none and everything felt important.

Really appreciated that Laurence looks more relaxed and less annoying, and Samuel Labarthe does well in even bringing more dimension to the character. She still is, Blandine Bellavoir's charming and spirited acting has a lot to do with it, and in a way that does not distract from the, by 'Les Petits Meurtres D'Agatha Christie' standards, dark story. They are great individually, have never had a problem with Alice and have always considered her a breath of fresh air. In most of their previous episodes, with a couple of exceptions, it was like two flavours of a meal clashing with each other which was not the case here. Am so glad though that 'Cartes Sur Table' was not a fluke with the improved character writing for Laurence and the chemistry between him and Avril being far more harmonious when they are together. Would have liked to have seen more of Laurence and Avril together but that is a small personal preference.

Like with 'Cartes Sur Table', there is very little to criticise with 'Pension Vanilos'. If, if necessary, comparing the far more faithful (with it being far less loose) David Suchet adaptation, actually consider this better and much tighter paced with far less padding. Having been mixed on their previous episodes and really missing Larosiere and Lampion. Also consider it, along with 'Cartes Sur Table' (the superior adaptation of 'Cards on the Table'), one of the best Laurence and Avril episodes. Very loosely adapted (with not much resemblance actually) from 'Hickory Dickory Dock', not one of my favourite Christies but any Christie is worth reading at least once, 'Pension Vanilos' for me was one of the best episodes of 'Les Petits Meurtres D'Agatha Christie' and a contender for the best up to this point. It is an uneven series but it is interesting and entertaining mostly and it was nice to see something different without disgracing the source material. With Agatha Christie being one of my favourite authors for quite a long time now, being someone who likes foreign language detective/mystery series/dramas and as someone who's studied and sings in French and loves the language, 'Les Petits Meurtres D'Agatha Christie', as said frequently, appealed to me straightaway.

Hickory dickory dock agatha