Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency: Seasons 1 & 2 (2016/18) - Written Review
The show follows Todd (Elijah Wood from The Lord of the Rings trilogy) as his life is turned upside-down by a murder in the hotel he works at. Fired, and confused by what he saw there, he meets Dirk Gently (Samuel Barnett), a holistic detective who promises to hold all of the answers Todd seeks. Sadly, those answers haven't quite reached him yet. Joining forces with Dirk, Todd realises that the Universe is interconnected in all sorts of strange ways. How does the disappearance of Lydia Spring connect with this dog Todd keeps seeing? Who are the mysterious bald men, and what's their relationship to Gordon Rimmer? Where does a rock singer Lux Dujour fit into all of this, and who killed Patrick Spring? One thing is for certain: it'll all tie-up somehow. Sort of.
While Dirk Gently has been previously brought to the small screen in a short-lived BBC Four series starring Stephen Mangan, this BBC America reboot jettisons any similarities between the two. Richard MacDuff, Inspector Gilks and Dirk's secretary are all absent from Max Landis' series, with the suggestion that after having solved the two cases documented by Adams, Dirk moved to America to solve some new cases. There are, however, some problems with this.
Firstly, Samuel Barnett's Dirk Gently is not Dirk Gently. Or, at least, he's not the Dirk Gently as described in Adams' books. For me personally, Dirk Gently is a scruffy-looking guy in a horrible-looking suit who somehow inexplicably manages to solve cases by seemingly not actually solving them in the process. Dirk, as re-imagined here, is a smart, sophisticated man with over-exaggerated "quirky" mannerisms (in akin to Matt Smith's Doctor Who...but presumably on something) and a super-power that allows him to solve his cases - which also means that he's been kidnapped and experimented on by a CIA conspiracy called Blackwing. Now, Barnett's Dirk isn't so much the opposite of the character as presented in the books, but lacks a lot of what made that character somewhat endearing or likable. I'm not really a fan of Barnett's portrayal of Dirk, and its only when I don't think of him as Dirk that I actually don't mind his character in the show.
Oh yeah, and the Holistic Detective Agency of the title isn't actually a thing in the show, despite being hinted at as a future direction the show was planning to take. This seems a little odd, as this is a show called Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency which doesn't feature a particularly accurate representation of Dirk Gently and doesn't feature the Holistic Detective Agency.
Now, before anyone moans at me, let me say that the following shall probably be nothing but praise of this show.
Elijah Wood's Todd is a fantastic audience point-of-view character into the show, fulfilling the Richard MacDuff role of the original novel but being a very different character. His character arc over the course of the two seasons is incredibly well-plotted, as is the development of his dynamic with both Dirk and Farah Black - a bodyguard who's tightly interwoven into the narrative of the first season, before becoming a lead in the second. Farah is a character who at first I didn't really like. She's a cool, calm, collected and badass bodyguard...and then the show actually gives her some interesting character development and she suddenly becomes a really engaging protagonist alongside Dirk and Todd. I mean, sure, she's still "cooler" than those two, but is really well-developed over the course of eighteen episodes.
Oh yeah, and in this show, Dirk isn't the only one with strange abilities: there's Bart the holistic assassin (who kills people the Universe allows her to kill, and who befriends her own Todd in the form of Ken); the Rowdy 3 (energy-sucking biker vampires who befriend Todd's sister Amanda, who's also kinda psychic as it turns out), Mona (a holistic actress who can...well, you'll see) and a guy in a coma (because...exciting). The show has a large ensemble cast, but this only helps to develop a variety of different plot-threads which all inexplicably interweave into one strangely cohesive narrative. Yeah, believe it or not, Landis really thought all of this through and provides us two brilliant cases over the course of the show's run which feel like natural successors to Douglas Adams' own. The writing is surprisingly brilliant for a show like this, managing interesting character development, a strong case story-line and all of the bizarre Adamsian weirdness you want in a series based upon his work.
Cristobal Tapia de Veer composes the score for the first season, and it is brilliant, combining all sorts of different sounds and melodies together to form a bizarre soundtrack that completely embodies the show. I thought Daniel Pemberton's score for the BBC Four series was good, but de Veer's compositions are just incredible. Seriously, look up his "Dirk Gently Soundtrack" on YouTube. It's sixteen minutes of amazing music. In the second season though, the Newton Brothers took over, resulting in a less interesting score, but one that maintains some of the themes and styles of de Veer's work. It's good, although by no means as interesting or strange as the first season's soundtrack. Speaking of which...can we get a full soundtrack album please? I would totally buy that.
The show is shot fairly well for the most part, although its very much filmed like a TV show as opposed to a a big-budget miniseries; it's by no means up to the standards of stuff like American Gods, Legion or Westworld, but still looks good. The production design is fantastic, and even if I hate Dirk's costume (aside from his weird 80's one in Season 2 which looks perfect for the character), the costuming is great too. It's a show that constantly surprised me with how far it was willing to go with its ideas visually, without actually having the budget to do some of the stuff particularly well. Quite often the shoddy production values are intentional on the part of the production team, especially when it comes to Wendimore in Season 2.
Even with all of this, Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency has some wonderfully heartfelt moments at points, creating engaging characters out of bizarre backstories and plot-threads. When it got to the end of Episode 6, I was just dying to see what would happen next - the show had rewarded my interest so far, and the build-up to the show's big twist was perfectly-handled. Now, this is an imperfect show, but its one which has clear ambitions - ambitions that it, for the most part, achieves.
A thoroughly engaging watch if you haven't already, Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency is well worth watching, regardless of your thoughts on Max Landis himself (believe me when I say that I wasn't his biggest fan even before a month ago). It's a fantastic series which may never see a proper end, but one that resolves itself in a nice and satisfying way...ignoring real-life events outside of the show itself. Everything is connected.
****
Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency: Seasons 1 and 2 are currently available on Netflix UK.
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