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Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency

Started by Steven, October 29, 2016, 08:59:55 PM

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Steven

From the SAME STUDIO WHO MADE THE WALKING DEAD.

It's an American adaptation of the Douglas Adams character, also starring Elijah Wood.

Trailer.

BritishHobo

What's giving me hope for this is that Max Landis has talked off exploring the existential/sci-fi madness of the books to its full potential. I liked the BBC series, but it stayed really grounded after the pilot, just the pair of them exploring vaguely odd crimes.

Twed

I'm glad it looks like Skins and is set in America

phantom_power

This doesn't seem to be "available" anywhere

Small Man Big Horse


Bad Ambassador


phantom_power

Thanks all. I shall wait for it to come to Netflix then

Johnny Caramel

I like the look of this but I won't bother my arse to source it untill it's all available, and preferably two series of it.

Edit - not that this interests you in the slightest. What you really want is access to my Toad Stool, and other forum dramas.

Feeble minded twits.

Small Man Big Horse

I quite enjoyed the pilot but I'm not familiar with the source material so I don't know how faithful an adaptation it is. If there's a weak point it's the guy playing Dirk Gently, who seems like a far too youthful drama school type, but then again I don't know if he's meant to be like that or not. The rest of the cast are strong though, and it certainly moves at an impressive pace and had a good few scenes that either intrigued, made me laugh or freaked me out a bit (
Spoiler alert
machete woman's sudden appearance and murder of the bald fella especially
[close]
) so I'm looking forward to seeing where the series goes.

BritishHobo

Yeah I think I mistakenly claimed in the Channel Zero show that that would all be on UK Netflix once the finale aired in the US, but it's actually this show that's doing that. Got confused because Max Landis is behind both.

I wasn't too sure about the first episode, but it intrigued me enough that I'll keep going, for now. I quite like that it's quietly a sequel to the books, and Posner's performance grew on me (he seems to be essentially playing Doctor Who, but so far the performance hasn't been annoying as the trailer suggested). Also really enjoyed the fact that Elijah Wood's put-upon everyman sidekick
Spoiler alert
turned out to not have been quite so clean-cut, actually being in the wrong with regards to the landlord.
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I'm just worried they're kinda toploading on mad, quirky characters. The crazy thugs (essentially just Griff's gang from Back to the Future 2), machete woman and the woman chained to the bed, all seem a bit too self-consciously weird, so far.

But like I say, something about it's intrigued me. There's something curiously grounded in Dirk's character, behind all the madness. And I'd like to see where the overall mystery goes. Going to load up episode 2 now.

Small Man Big Horse

The second episode has got me really liking this now, Gently's slightly less wacky and is coming across more sympathetic now, whilst the plot is absolutely insane in an incredibly pleasing way.

BritishHobo

Yeah, I thought the same. Gently is almost the sanest, most relatable one, which is an interesting setup. The Mangan series, and the first episode of this, make Gently look like an OTT Sherlock, the emotionless maniac who finds crimes fascinating and doesn't give a shit about any of the people that get in the way of solving them, be they other detectives, his own friends and assistants, or even the victim. So I adored the little moment in episode 2 where
Spoiler alert
he talked about basically bring at the mercy of the universe, witness to so much awful brutality, because no-one else will do it. It was a brilliantly performed, quiet little moment.
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Samuel Barnett's impressed me really quickly here, even with the trailers priming me to be annoyed by his performance. Lovely stuff. I'm in for the whole season.

Would it be fair to guess that
Spoiler alert
Elijah Wood hasn't been magically cured of his disorder, and is in fact still suffering, just trying to give his sister hope that her ordeal might not be forever?
[close]
Or is that just me trying to pre-empt twists there are no evidence for? Thinking it might be the latter.

BritishHobo

Enjoyed the latest ep, but my big fear last week and this week is that it's massively style over substance. Landis wasn't wrong when he said he'd intentionally avoided trying to write like Douglas Adams, because everything about this show is straining to look achingly cool.

Skip Bittman

It's not like he's capable of "writing like Douglas Adams" even if he wanted to!

Johnny Caramel

Just had it.

Fucking mint.

Edit - I thought this thread was about this - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ToGEn86u93g ... Not the pap that's linked in the OP.

gloria

Is it in any significant way recognisable as the Dirk Gently of the books?

Small Man Big Horse

Quote from: gloria on November 14, 2016, 03:21:22 PM
Is it in any significant way recognisable as the Dirk Gently of the books?

I haven't read them myself but the general feeling online is that he's barely recognisable. In this Dirk's like an incredibly hyper nineteen year[nb]Though I know he's supposed to be a few years older than that[/nb] old version of Matt Smith's Doctor.

I'm still liking this, even if Dirk does irritate at times. The ridiculousness of the plot entertains, and there's lots of fun little moments to keep me intrigued.

gloria

Adams based Dirk on his friend Michael Bywater. In the South Bank Show about Adams, Bywater actually plays Dirk in some dramatised scenes: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oS0XDsElRcQ


Small Man Big Horse

Ha, no, it's nothing like that at all. This is a skit that Elijah Wood and Samuel Barnett did in character for comic con, and shows how different his performance is - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FkXakDokF7U

olliebean

Worth mentioning that although the titular character doesn't much resemble the one in the books, overall the whole thing has a more Douglas Adams-y feel to me than the Mangan version did. If you don't mind it not being a faithful adaptation, I'd recommend giving it a try.

samadriel

Yeah, admittedly it's been about 20 years since I read the books, but I've really enjoyed this so far for what it is, in a very different way to the also-enjoyable 2010 take.

Small Man Big Horse

Up to episode 5 now and I only just realised that the holistic assassin is played by Brad Dourif's daughter, so it's nice to see he's passed his ability to be fucking weird on to her. Overall it's still coming along nicely though it's slowed down during these last couple of episodes. Gutted
Spoiler alert
to see Leo from The West Wing buy it, but I had a feeling he wasn't long for this world, and bar Dirk, Todd and the sister I could imagine a lot of the cast dying before the end of the series.
[close]

It's been renewed for a second season which is good news, but I hope they wrap everything up by the end and start next year with a completely new mystery.

samadriel

I'm guessing the CIA/Black Wing/holistic assassin thread is going to continue beyond this season, as there's only two episodes left - enough to wrap up the whole dog/girl/cult story, but not the rest.

Edit: that's me guessing that the holistic assassin ties into Black Wing - from what the CIA characters have said, it sounds like they've been watching lots of characters like her and Dirk.

BritishHobo

No-reservations loving this now. Every time I thought it was being too achingly cool, I was shut up by a moment as lovely as Dirk telling Todd how easy and weak it is to wallow in your own shitty behaviour. Barnett is fantastic in this. And I couldn't not grin at how the last episode ended.

blue reel

Episode 7 will be airing on BBC America a few hours from now.  I have been looking forward to this all week, which is unusual.

In preparation, I had a marathon of the first 6 episodes today.  There are quite a few details that tie in with the plot that only make sense after seeing the later episodes.  The story lines all appear to be coming together nicely. By this point in a series I am usually wary of an impending big, dumb ending - but not this time, I hope they can keep it on the rails.

A fantastic show all around. Maybe more on that later, after tonights episode.

BritishHobo

Ahh, see, now that's what I thought the British series was missing, and I think makes this closer to the spirit of the books as a result -
Spoiler alert
that moment where all of these strange, disparate, out-of-chronology strands all come together to show, when put in the right order, one single mad but perfectly logical solution. The way each mystery carves out a huge backstory - stuff like the birth of the villains being a group of squatters who mistakenly end up in possession of the machine.
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BritishHobo

My one reservation might be that Todd appears to be either thick as fuck, or a massive hypocrite. He
Spoiler alert
rails on Dirk for having known they'd travel back in time, but Todd's been privy to that information for literally about thirty seconds less than Dirk. If we're meant to assume he never figured it out then he really is stupid, because either way there's been countless moments where he's spotted something from that moment in the hotel and CLEARLY connected it. I mean, in the last episode he deliberately stole Gordon Rimmer's coat because he knew that's what he'd be wearing in the hotel. Either way, he never fully explained this to Dirk, so it's a bit sodding rich to have a go at Dirk for holding on to the exact same secret.
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Small Man Big Horse

Quote from: BritishHobo on December 04, 2016, 01:42:55 PM
My one reservation might be that Todd appears to be either thick as fuck, or a massive hypocrite. He
Spoiler alert
rails on Dirk for having known they'd travel back in time, but Todd's been privy to that information for literally about thirty seconds less than Dirk. If we're meant to assume he never figured it out then he really is stupid, because either way there's been countless moments where he's spotted something from that moment in the hotel and CLEARLY connected it. I mean, in the last episode he deliberately stole Gordon Rimmer's coat because he knew that's what he'd be wearing in the hotel. Either way, he never fully explained this to Dirk, so it's a bit sodding rich to have a go at Dirk for holding on to the exact same secret.
[close]

Yeah, I thought that, I keep on trying to persuade myself there must be a reason, but I'm struggling so far. Hopefully it'll become clearer next week, but if not then it does make Todd look a bit of a twat.

BritishHobo

This has finished in the US and gone straight up on Netflix here in the UK. So I'll avoid any spoilers except to say that that was wonderful. End of the episode genuinely left me fucking open-mouthed with delight, like a child seeing his favourite toy dangled in front of him.

Small Man Big Horse

Yep, loved that.
Spoiler alert
So glad it's been renewed though as that would otherwise have been a horribly bleak ending to the series!
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