Netflix Needs To Greenlight ‘The Thursday Murder Club’ Sequels ASAP
When Steven Spielberg’s Amblin Entertainment acquired the rights to adapt Richard Osman’s novel The Thursday Murder Club, readers had every reason to be excited.
The good news continued to roll in as Home Alone and Harry Potter filmmaker Chris Columbus was announced as the director, while Helen Mirren, Pierce Brosnan, Ben Kingsley, and Celia Imrie were confirmed for the main roles of Elizabeth Best, Ron Ritchie, Ibrahim Arif, and Joyce Meadowcroft respectively. Then, the penny dropped: The Thursday Murder Club movie was going straight to Netflix.
Look, let’s be real here: when it comes to original movies, Netflix doesn’t have the best track record. The general rule of thumb is that the streaming giant picks up all the projects that no studio in town wants to touch. Consequently, the quality is so-so. What no one in the world needed was an average live-action adaptation of The Thursday Murder Club. No siree.
Well, The Thursday Murder Club has finally arrived on Netflix – and thank the gods of literature and film that no one screwed this up!
‘The Thursday Murder Club’ isn’t a direct page-to-screen adaptation
Yes, yes. Calm down. The book is better. It’s always the case, since a writer possesses the time and space to build characters and add all the necessary nuts and bolts to the story. A film needs to condense 400 pages into a two-hour runtime, so, naturally, there will be a lot left out or lying on the cutting room floor. Having said that, Katy Brand and Suzanne Heathcote’s script captures the significant beats from the book. As before, The Thursday Murder Club centers around the elderly Elizabeth, Ron, Ibrahim, and Joyce who attempt to solve the mysterious murder of Cooper Chase co-owner Tony Curran (Geoff Bell) and prevent their retirement home from being turned into luxury apartments by the slithery Ian Ventham (David Tennant).
How this story is told differs slightly from the book, but there’s nothing too glaringly different from the source material – except for maybe the fate of Bogdan (Henry Lloyd-Hughes), which may prove to be controversial to readers. For the most part, every character gets treated with the care and respect they deserve. In some cases, the actors even elevate the personalities further, with moments and idiosyncrasies that weren’t in the book. Look at what David Tennant does with Ian Ventham as an example. He’s a scumbag in both the film and book, but Tennant adds a fiery spark and swagger to turn him into a deliciously rotten character. Try to re-read the book and imagine anyone else but Tennant as Ventham; it’s near impossible.
Similarly, Mirren, Brosnan, Kingsley, and Imrie cement themselves as the Thursday Murder Club. There’s an ease and warm rapport between them, making you want to be a part of their exclusive club and to have cake and tea with them. Each of them has their own quirks, but their hearts are always in the right place. These are the friends whom everyone waits an entire lifetime for.
This is a story about the best kind of companionship
Speaking of which, there’s a cheerful melancholy to The Thursday Murder Club, even if those words sound like they shouldn’t be paired together. The Coopers Chase residents know their best years are behind them, but they appreciate every second they still have. At one point, Ibrahim tells Ron that the beauty of Coopers Chase is that you can close the door when you want to be alone, but if you open it, there will always be someone there. For the elderly, who often feel isolated or lonely because they have lost friends and partners, the ability to build a community in their advancing years is special.
Watching The Thursday Murder Club, you can’t help but be faced with questions of your own mortality. Everyone understands that there’s a beginning and end to life, but what happens when you’re closer to the finish line? The residents of Coopers Chase showcase how no one really has the answers, but it’s a journey that friends can take together. It leaves you with a smile and assurance that the future will be okay.
Announce the sequels already, Netflix
According to Columbus’ comments to PA, everyone should know within 10 days after The Thursday Murder Club‘s release if a sequel gets the thumbs-up or not. There’s no shortage of source material, as Osman has written five books in the series; however, the fate of a sequel lies in the palm of Netflix’s weird and top-secret viewer metric system that no one knows how it works – presumably, not even the people who work for the company.
Seriously, how many times have we seen something that looks like a bona fide hit and Netflix kills it in its tracks? Yet, Emily in Paris still continues. For real, though, Netflix needs to do us a solid and greenlight a sequel to The Thursday Murder Club. Failure to do so could result in us downgrading our subscription plans, or sharing passwords with more relatives and friends. What? This isn’t a threat; it’s just an observation…
Watch The Thursday Murder Club now on Netflix.
