[BBC] Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency

Isgrimnur · Post by **Isgrimnur** » Fri Jan 08, 2016 2:51 pm

BBC America has given an eight-episode order to an adaptation of the Douglas Adams novel series “Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency,” written by Max Landis.
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The series is co-produced by AMC Studios, Ideate Media and comic book publisher IDW Entertainment with Circle of Confusion producing. Exec producers are Landis, Ideate’s Arvind Ethan David and Zainir Aminullah, IDW Entertainment’s Ted Adams and David Ozer and David Alpert and Rick Jacobs from Circle of Confusion.

The series will follow the surreal adventures of the highly unconventional detective and his reluctant assistant Todd as they navigate one big metaphysical mystery per season.
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Landis, who made his mark as a screenwriter with the 2012 sci-fi thriller “Chronicle,” and David met about seven years ago in Los Angles through mutual friends at Circle of Confusion. When David secured the TV rights to “Dirk Gently,” he knew Landis had the understanding of the character to handle the adaptation. Landis said yes even as he was juggling numerous feature projects.

In his enthusiasm, Landis wrote the pilot on spec for Ideate and he wrote summaries for an additional nine episodes in the first season. “It was only after the fact that they told me I’m supposed to do that in a room with five other writers,” Landis said.

“Dirk Gently” was shopped around but BBC America was a natural home for the show given the British roots of the character. The TV series will see Gently heading to the U.S. — a storyline envisioned by Adams in drafts for a novel he was working at the time of his unexpected death.
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“Dirk Gently” will also relaunch as a comic book series through IDW Entertainment that David will write.

“Dirk Gently” is Landis’ second TV project headed to the airwaves this year. He’s also co-writer of the horror anthology series “Channel Zero” bound for Syfy later this year.

Kraken · Post by **Kraken** » Fri Jan 08, 2016 2:54 pm

I remember not liking the book, at least compared to HHGTTG. Maybe it will be better as a TV play.

Pyperkub · Post by **Pyperkub** » Sat Jan 09, 2016 12:01 am

Linky?

Hrothgar · Post by **Hrothgar** » Sat Jan 09, 2016 12:11 am

Pyperkub wrote:Linky?

Linky.

Given the nature of the books, this could go either way.

Isgrimnur · Post by **Isgrimnur** » Sat Jan 09, 2016 12:15 am

I guess I was too excited to properly form my post.

tiny ogre · Post by **tiny ogre** » Sat Jan 09, 2016 2:59 am

This is the second time they(*)'ve made it into a series. The first one was just a couple of years ago and they only made four episodes. I (downloaded it from somewhere and) enjoyed it... but it wasn't actually great. I did enjoy the books quite a bit, and certain things from them have stuck with me for years. Like the couch that was impossibly stuck in the stairwell, and Dirk's idea that following people could get you where you actually needed to be, rather than where you thought you were going. I haven't read them since they were new.

(*)"They" being the actual BBC the first time around, not BBC America. Which the article does mention.

Isgrimnur · Post by **Isgrimnur** » Sun Jul 24, 2016 2:23 pm

Comic-Con Sneak Peek

Holman · Post by **Holman** » Sun Jul 24, 2016 3:48 pm

Looks like it could be good.

It doesn't really remind me of the book (which, granted, I read in the 80's), though. Maybe an update will make it more fun.

Jaymon · Post by **Jaymon** » Sun Jul 24, 2016 4:35 pm

I wonder if the show will finally reveal how many rocks there are in Scotland

Smoove_B · Post by **Smoove_B** » Sun Jul 24, 2016 5:59 pm

First and foremost, The Hitchhiker's Guide is one of my favorite books. The remaining 4 books in the trilogy...not nearly as much. They're good, but I never felt they were as good as the first. So with that, I actually think I liked the Dirk Gently series a bit more and reading the Salmon of Doubt (published after his death) was such a bittersweet experience.

So yeah, I have pretty high expectations for this. I might actually give the books another reading in anticipation.

The door was the way to... to... The Door was The Way. Good. Capital letters were always the best way of dealing with things you didn't have a good answer to.

Kraken · Post by **Kraken** » Sun Jul 24, 2016 6:43 pm

I would watch that. I've liked that Elijah Wood fellow ever since Wilfred.

Scoop20906 · Post by **Scoop20906** » Sat Nov 12, 2016 11:49 pm

Is anyone watching the show? I absolutely love it. Dirk is very Dr. Who-like except he is played more as an accidental tourist of the bizarre.

I'm not sure where its going but I love the characters.

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Scoop20906 · Post by **Scoop20906** » Sat Nov 12, 2016 11:50 pm

BTW, Elijah Wood is great as the assistant.

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Smoove_B · Post by **Smoove_B** » Sun Nov 13, 2016 12:16 am

Yeah, I've been watching. I love the books - probably more than the five books in The Hitchhiker's Guide trilogy. For those that don't get BBCA, it's apparently coming to Netflix on 12/11. I'm really enjoying all the characters, but yes Elijah Wood is quite good and was well cast.

Scoop20906 · Post by **Scoop20906** » Sun Nov 13, 2016 1:54 am

I loved the books too although I never imagined Dirk as he being portrayed in the show but I'm finding it refreshing. Maybe it's the fact that he so enthusiastically understands that he doesn't understand what he is doing but that universe around him does.

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Kraken · Post by **Kraken** » Sun Nov 13, 2016 3:26 am

I don't remember the books very well, but I do remember not liking them as much as HHG. The TV show is great though. I especially like the holistic assassin -- don't remember her from the books at all.

Pyperkub · Post by **Pyperkub** » Sun Nov 13, 2016 5:37 am

I just remember the 1st one being kind of all over the place, but the second book being much better.

LordMortis · Post by **LordMortis** » Mon Nov 14, 2016 11:04 am

Pyperkub wrote:I just remember the 1st one being kind of all over the place, but the second book being much better.

I remember the first being all over the place and not particularly good for my slow reading, making me picky about what I read. I don't really remember the content any more but I never read any after the first.

As far as H2G2 goes, I never got past So Long And... as the last also felt more like a chore than entertainment, the magic of reading every page was gone and the story just was no longer there. The novels started as brilliant and then got progressively less entertaining for my read.

Scoop20906 · Post by **Scoop20906** » Tue Nov 15, 2016 10:28 pm

Kraken wrote:I don't remember the books very well, but I do remember not liking them as much as HHG. The TV show is great though. I especially like the holistic assassin -- don't remember her from the books at all.

I think show should really say "Inspired By: Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency" because it feels like quite a lot of the details are different however I will say the show seems to catch the zanny Adam's spirit perfectly.

Oddly, the version of Dirk is much younger, innocent, and clueless than I imagined Dirk from the book but I have to say I like it. He also seems to have some odd back story with the US Military that is new and MIGHT turn out to be interesting.

The Holistic Assassin is by far my favorite character of the show and no she doesn't appear in any of the books. I love how her character realizes she isn't normal, got bored with it, and just seems to be playing out the string until she met the hacker and decided she'd rather talk to him than kill him which is sort a surprise to her.

Either way the show is a hit with me and I just hope they can keep up the level of writing thought the first season.

Smoove_B · Post by **Smoove_B** » Tue Nov 22, 2016 11:12 am

Offically renewed for second season.

Adapted from the wildly popular novels by Douglas Adams ("The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy"), season two will return with ten episodes and premiere in 2017. The series is produced by AMC Studios. Season one will finale on December 10 at 9/8c.

Scoop20906 · Post by **Scoop20906** » Thu Dec 08, 2016 11:36 pm

Smoove_B wrote:Offically renewed for second season.

Adapted from the wildly popular novels by Douglas Adams ("The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy"), season two will return with ten episodes and premiere in 2017. The series is produced by AMC Studios. Season one will finale on December 10 at 9/8c.

This is good news but I'm wondering how this will be done. I think there is a rich backstory for Dirk to mine but I'm not sure they should keep the game cast together as it doesn't seem to be in keeping with Dirk Gently as a character in this iteration.

I guess I will know more from the finale on Saturday which I'm very excited for.

dbt1949 · Post by **dbt1949** » Sat Dec 10, 2016 10:39 pm

Man, but I must come from a different planet than you guys. I barely last 5 min.

Smoove_B · Post by **Smoove_B** » Sat Dec 10, 2016 10:55 pm

Did you read the books?

dbt1949 · Post by **dbt1949** » Sun Dec 11, 2016 12:37 am

As I hated Hitchhikers Guide movie, no. And to make things worse I also hate Dr. Who.

Kraken · Post by **Kraken** » Sun Dec 11, 2016 2:41 am

dbt1949 wrote:As I hated Hitchhikers Guide movie, no. And to make things worse I also hate Dr. Who.

Do you get British humor in general? How do you feel about Monty Python? The HHG movie was nowhere near as good as the cheesy BBC series. Have you seen that?

I liked how Dirk Gently tidied up their storylines in the penultimate episode, because I was getting lost. It really is a convoluted story. Looking forward to the finale and some more holistic assassin action.

dbt1949 · Post by **dbt1949** » Sun Dec 11, 2016 3:47 am

I liked Monty Python for the most part. I didn't care for their animation (or British animation in general).

I just don't like inane in my science fiction.

rshetts2 · Post by **rshetts2** » Fri Dec 23, 2016 9:46 pm

I just binge watched Dirk Gently and I thought it was awesome. It had a different set up from the book but what they did change worked well, especially the Holistic Assassin, who was fantastic. As mentioned it was quite confusing for the first 3/4 of the run but they did a great job of pulling all the strings together. Hopefully they have plans for a season 2 because while they definitely wrapped up the current case, things were very much left hanging.

Kraken · Post by **Kraken** » Fri Dec 23, 2016 11:16 pm

I wish my cable company would get BBC America in HD. Dirk Gently and Dr Who are the only two shows I still have to watch in blurryvision.

Max Peck · Post by **Max Peck** » Fri Dec 23, 2016 11:35 pm

This showed up on Netflix a couple of weeks ago, and they have it branded as a "Netflix Original" series rather than BBC.

Isgrimnur · Post by **Isgrimnur** » Fri Dec 23, 2016 11:50 pm

Not so in the states. You got my hopes up.

tiny ogre · Post by **tiny ogre** » Wed Dec 28, 2016 11:58 pm

I just finished this. Weird and confusing though it might be, It's one of the most intricately plotted seasons of TV I've ever seen. There's a LOT of stuff going on. I liked that. I think they did a pretty good job capturing the essence of Dirk Gently's universe in that regard.

It had some laughs too, but it's not hilarious. It's really more drama than comedy, surprisingly.

On the down side, there's some really bad acting from the supporting cast. Some of whom won't be back at least.

I'll watch season 2.

Scoop20906 · Post by **Scoop20906** » Mon Jan 02, 2017 2:01 am

Tiny orge, which supporting characters were you thinking of as bad? Descriptions are good enough as I doubt I remember the names anyway.

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tiny ogre · Post by **tiny ogre** » Mon Jan 02, 2017 2:13 am

I didn't like Rimmer (the guy the rock star swapped into). I did really like Bart, the character, and the girl playing her (wh is Brad Dourif's daughter) is probably not terrible, but I greatly dislike the voice she does. Bart is the girl who can't be hurt.

I also found Farah to be pretty flat. Also the older cop, zimmerfield, who is a really well known character actor whose name I don't know, seemed like he was phoning it in.

I am not usually so picky. Which makes me think I should be blaming the director(s) more than the actors.

Smoove_B · Post by **Smoove_B** » Tue Dec 19, 2017 10:47 am

I just finished watching the second season last night. It was entertaining, but not as good as the first. That being said, it was also cancelled.

Kraken · Post by **Kraken** » Tue Dec 19, 2017 2:28 pm

Awww. I was unenthused about S2, too; it was always the last thing on the DVR that we would watch, and I'm still three episodes behind. But it had its moments, and I'd have given another season a chance.

Oh well. No huge loss.

rshetts2 · Post by **rshetts2** » Tue Dec 19, 2017 2:59 pm

I really enjoyed both seasons. Thought the cast was great. Really sorry to see it go. The first season was pretty much perfect insanity so it was a hard act to follow but season 2 was still good and they introduced some interesting new characters as well. The end of season 2 had laid the ground for another season at least so I think this may have come as a bit of a surprised to the writers. While this is totally rumor, I saw it mentioned on another site that there is the possibility that Netflix might grab it. I didn't see anything to substantiate that though so its likely wishful thinking.

Smoove_B · Post by **Smoove_B** » Mon Mar 12, 2018 9:28 am

rshetts2 wrote: Tue Dec 19, 2017 2:59 pm While this is totally rumor, I saw it mentioned on another site that there is the possibility that Netflix might grab it. I didn't see anything to substantiate that though so its likely wishful thinking.

No new home was found. It's officially dead.

Scoop20906 · Post by **Scoop20906** » Mon Mar 12, 2018 9:46 am

Smoove_B wrote:
rshetts2 wrote: Tue Dec 19, 2017 2:59 pm While this is totally rumor, I saw it mentioned on another site that there is the possibility that Netflix might grab it. I didn't see anything to substantiate that though so its likely wishful thinking.
No new home was found. It's officially dead.

That’s a real shame. This show was quirky and fun. I think if the creator hadn’t had the trouble he had recently we’d have seen this show continue.

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Scoop20906 · Post by **Scoop20906** » Mon Mar 12, 2018 9:50 am

Just a final thought I think the show shift from Season One primarily following Todd as the focal point to shifting amongst most of the other characters hurt the narrative. I felt Elijah Woods really did a great job reacting to stuff and when they mostly ignored his plot line in the 2nd season I felt it did not flow as well.

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tjg_marantz · Post by **tjg_marantz** » Mon Mar 12, 2018 10:04 am

Haven't seen any episodes. In light of this news, take it off my list of 90+ shows I haven't yet started our keep it on there?