A new Agatha Christie adaptation is always an event, and the BBC’s and BritBox’s Towards Zero is no exception. How will they make the show feel fresh and exciting for avid book readers? What will set it apart from the dozens of other British crime dramas being released every year?

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This version of Towards Zero doesn’t hold back. The glam, the glitz, the debauchery, the secrets, and the seductions are all turned up to 11. While most of it works—many beautiful people are being beautiful in this—I found the series’ quieter moments, with powerhouse performers like Matthew Rhys and Anjelica Huston, to be the most impactful. As Towards Zero only consists of three hour-long episodes, however, there were, in my opinion, too few of those moments amid the chaos of the impending murder mystery.

Anyone even remotely familiar with a classic British murder mystery will know that they typically start with someone discovering a body. Not Towards Zero, though. Instead, as explained by Clarke Peters’ wonderfully soothing voice, Towards Zero begins by providing character and narrative background, rather than that background being uncovered by the leading detective once the investigation begins. I’ve never read Christie’s original novel, so I can’t compare it to what happens in the book, but in this case, it was a nice deviation from the norm. It’s interesting to get a sense of all the characters before they’ve been irrevocably altered by the death of a loved one, or, at the very least, someone somewhat close to them.