Towards Zero Rotten Tomatoes Score Is In — Is The New Agatha Christie Adaptation A Winner?

As the show finally expands to an international audience, Towards Zero has landed a Rotten Tomatoes score. The three-part limited series serves as an adaptation of Agatha Christie’s 1944 novel of the same name, following a star tennis player going to his wealthy aunt’s sprawling manor with both his ex-wife and his new wife, whom he cheated on the former with, leading to a tense weekend with a dead body. Led by Oliver Jackson-Cohen, Ella Lily Hyland and Mimi Keene, Towards Zero first premiered on BBC One in March prior to its April BritBox release.

Now, on the heels of its international release on BritBox, Towards Zero has landed a critical score on Rotten Tomatoes. At the time of writing, with 24 reviews calculated, the TV show has a 71% approval rating from critics on the review aggregate with a 6.2 average rating, netting it a Fresh rating on the Tomatometer. The Popcornmeter, which measures Audience ratings, currently has fewer than 50 ratings, therefore leaving it without a score.

What This Means For Towards Zero

The Show Redeems The BBC’s Christie Adaptation Run

The BBC has a long history of adapting Christie’s novels for the screen, whether through the classic Miss Marple series or a variety of limited series, TV movies and filmed stage plays. The past few years, in particular, have seen them tackle a mix of her most familiar and more underappreciated works, some of which have included 2015’s Partner in Crime, 2016’s The Witness for the Prosecution and 2020’s The Pale Horse.

With Towards Zero landing a Fresh score on the Tomatometer, though, the three-part limited series restores the BBC’s success streak with Christie adaptations on the review aggregate. The majority of their prior adaptations had landed similarly positive scores on the site, with 2022’s Why Didn’t They Ask Evans? netting a perfect 100% score, only for 2023’s Murder is Easy to upend that with its 36% rating. Check out how Towards Zero compares to other recent BBC Agatha Christie adaptations on Rotten Tomatoes in the chart below:

While its 71% score may not indicate a runaway success for the show, it does point to the show being another win for the BBC in the Christie adaptation genre. Most Towards Zero reviews point to the show suffering from a somewhat sluggish pace and generally familiar approach to Christie’s whodunnit formula, though do praise the cast and overall production value of the series. With no audience score, it’s a little trickier to tell how the reviews will impact the show’s performance, but a positive score from critics does give it better footing to do so.

Our Take On Towards Zero’s Rotten Tomatoes Score

The Adaptation Is Likely To Split Viewers

While there is always a divide between critics and audiences in general, the BBC’s history of Agatha Christie adaptations shows that the lower the former score is, the more likely the latter is to fall into Rotten territory. There are certainly exceptions to the trend, like 2015’s And Then There Were None, but Towards Zero coming in so low on the Tomatometer does make me think the three-part series is going to divide audiences.

Source: Rotten Tomatoes

Towards Zero

4/10

Network

BBC One

Directors

Sam Yates

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  Anjelica Huston

  Lady Tressilian

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  Oliver Jackson-Cohen

  Nevile Strange