Finished it. And along with The Crown it’s probably the most enjoyable show I’ve watched this year on Netflix. The season ended when it felt right - not too late for the final episodes to become a drag, not too early for central questions staying unresolved. And really every member of the actor ensemble was fun to watch.
[spoiler]I don’t know the books, but I figured time travel, not clones would be a central plot point the second Todd sees himself in the first second. And when it became apparent, that ‘soul switching’ too played a part, my gut reaction was: this might be one mystery gimmick too many. Ultimately, the show did a good job at handling and merging both. It also had the right amount of quirkiness to sell a character like Friedkin to the audience without being a comedy show or so serious that the dumbness of him would stick out like a sore thumb.
Nitpick - it’s not directly the shows fault though: the villain’s (Gordon?) delivery was awfully close to Mike Stoklasa’s Harry Plinkett character that, which was slightly distracting to me at times.
Fiona Dourif was great, and you really could see her father’s likeness when she was channeling crazy.
Did the tattoos have a special meaning, or was it simply the symbol the Men of the Machine had without there being any deeper meaning to it?
[/spoiler]
Binged this yesterday. I much prefer the 2010 version as an adaptation of Dirk Gently, but this was pretty fun regardless.Maybe a bit too long (it almost would have been better as a movie), but it definitely had the one-more-episode thing down pat.
I finished it yesterday as well, watched over the last few days. Agree with what most wrote that it was very different from the previous TV series with Steven Mangan. I thought it was thoroughly enjoyable and well acted all around, took me a while to realise it was Gaylan from Battlestar Galactica.
Caught up with this, for some reason it completely went under my radar. Really top notch show, fulfilling IMHO a good deal of the promise that Max Landis showed in Chronicle. (American Ultra, although it had some fun elements, was overall a bit naff, but the writing in this really shines.)
To me the most interesting point is its refined comic-book sensibilities. It’s like watching a Grant Morrison or Warren Ellis graphic novel come to life. It all clicks together nicely, there aren’t any dangly, un-nerd-satisfying bits like you’d get with a writer who wasn’t really deeply immersed in this sort of stuff, didn’t really “get” it and was doing it for a job: everything has a payoff, purpose and resolution, despite the louping surreality.
Star of the show has to be the “holistic assassin”, awesome character. But the thing’s chock full of them, and they’re all superbly acted too.
And its back! The new season of Dirk Gently started airing this week on BBC America. It is a bit more dark and depressing to start as all of our favorites are dealing with the after effects of last season. But it looks like most of the characters are back including Bart the holistic assassin. Looks like this season involves an alternate dimension fantasy world. Should be another insane ride!
Just got around to watching it. “Insane ride” seems like an understatement. I guess they feel they needed to take it up a notch for Season 2. I loved it.
During my second viewing of the most recent episode, it hit me that there is a character with the name Agrajag who meets an untimely demise. A likely minor and throwaway character, but one can dream (spoilers, maybe, but probably not).
In more casual snapshots than those, she looks a lot like her dad, Brad Dourif.
I hope that the character is still around after being magic-blasted like that.
I was wondering if this show might go through a sophomore slump but my worries were for naught. The show is is fantastically insane. Such great characters!
This show feels like it has derailed. The first season was wacky, but set in the real world. This season is just lots of wacky shit, where it feels like they’ve gone, hey game of thrones was cool and shit, let’s do some fantasy stuff. That’s not to say it doesn’t have it’s good moments, like when the sister gets put in the cage.
It’s probably too hard to do a grounded detective show of the sort that dirk gently was in the books, so they don’t even try.
Like most video adaptations, this show is not a direct representation of the books. It takes the basic “holistic detective” premise and then does its own thing. I really enjoy it for what it is and try not to judge it by the books. I will say that in the latest episode there is evidence that the “fantasy shit” as you put it, has more grounded explanation than you might think. I believe that there is logic to it and it isnt just wacky for wacky’s sake. If it is going where I think it is, it’s a concept that has been explored in other works and will pay off in the long run.
And it went where I expected it to. There’s one episode left and I think so far the 2nd season has been excellent. It’s not quite as good as I felt season one was but I think its held up for its sophomore season rather well. Hopefully we get more adventures from Dirk and Todd in the future.
