Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency - The New BBC America Vs

[Alex]

Somewhat shamefully I have to confess to having never read the source material, and I've absolutely no idea why as I love Hitchhikers to pieces and was obsessed with it when younger, owning and all but memorising the radio scripts along with all the other books. So I've no idea how faithful an adaptation this is (but I get the feeling the answer is not very, given how american it feels) but I have to say I'm enjoying it so far. The only problem is the guy playing Dirk Gently feels a bit 'fresh out of drama school', but the rest of the cast are great and the pace is really impressive and it's constantly inventive too.

[Richard Brinck-Johnsen]

Is it on Netflix already?

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[Alex]

I don't know to be honest, I watch it via nefarious means.

I've read a few reviews and the people who love the novels seem to hate it, and apparantly it's an enormous deviation from the books, but those who haven't seem to quite like it. So I'll probably wait until the series is over before reading them now.

[Dirk Gently]

The Stephen Mangan series was quite a departure from the books, but that's typical of DNA to be honest.

[Richard Brinck-Johnsen]

I can remember watching some of the Stephen Mangan but it certainly wasn't memorable. I gather that it eschewed a large amount of the sci-fi /fantasy elements from the novels.
The BBC America version should be arriving on UK Netflix in December

Just a comment that Samuel Barnett who plays Dirk is actually only a year younger than me (that makes him 36 despite appearing to be "fresh out of drama school"). His numerous Film, TV and Theatre credits include The History Boys, Queen Elizabeth in Richard III at Shakespeare's Globe (2012) and several Big Finish appearances including most recently The Confessions of Dorian Gray Series Five and The Torchwood Archive. Both worth checking out although I still need to finish my review of the former as I wasn't entirely happy with the final episode.

[Richard Brinck-Johnsen]

Very pleased to see that Dirk will finally be landing on UK Netflix next weekend on 11th December

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[Dirk Gently]

Any news on it being on a 'usual' channel in the UK?

[Richard Brinck-Johnsen]

Not that I've heard. I imagine Netflix will have paid for a reasonable period of exclusivity.

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[Andrew Curnow]

I really enjoyed it, I have to say. Although the titles say 'based on' it's not, as far as I can see, in any way based on either of the books but instead takes the notion of a huge number of disparate elements coming together - so there's some body-swapping, kidnap, a bit of time travel, a killer kitten, etc, etc. There's a brief reference at one point to Thor, in a 'past adventures' kind of way, but other than that it's really just taking the character (well, the name...) and the concept.

Enjoyable, though, and I must admit I rattled through all 8 episodes fairly quickly. The guy playing Dirk is not akin to the book at all, but does have a certain something about him that means it works - there's maybe one or two too many 'emotional confrontation' moments between Dirk and Todd (Elijah Wood), and I didn't like the cliffhanger ending all that much (although Wikipedia tells us there's a second series commissioned, so at least it should be followed up on) but other than that a pretty enjoyable show.

But (which quite surprised me) there is a lot of blood and mindless violence!!

PS the 'potato potato' joke I very much enjoyed.

[Richard Brinck-Johnsen]

Finished this off last night, don't really have anything to add to Andrew's comments as I don't want to spoil anything but I will be looking forward to series two.
In the meantime, Sam Barnett also stars in Big Finish's new historical venture Cicero which will hopefully lead to a series and he'll no doubt turn up again in Torchwood at some point