The New Dirk Gently Series!

I’m super excited that this weekend Mark and I are going to watch the new Dirk Gently Series! Of all of Douglas Adams’ books, the ones about Dirk were my favorites.

Stay tuned to read a full review. Click here to watch along with us!

UPDATE: Ugh. I can’t recommend this series unless you have a strong stomach and really liked the movies Memento and Pulp Fiction. But if that’s you, watch away.

It has So. Much. Gore. Everyone gets kidnapped, shot, stabbed, electrocuted, or punched. The only characters who remain clean and unblooded are the corgi and the kitten.

Let’s start out superficial because the series does have that going for it; the actors are nice to look at if you can take your sexy liberally smeared with blood. Samuel Barnett, who plays Dirk, is very serious eye candy if your type is clean cut, nerdy boys with soulful eyes and streaky red highlights. Similarly,  Jade Eshete, who plays Farah, is so divinely gorgeous that I half expected her to be the daughter of Bowie and Iman (she’s not). And who doesn’t love the pathetic suffering of Elijah Wood, even filthy, depressed, and with patchy facial hair. The fact that the corgi and kitten are adorable goes without saying, right?

The main idea of the series–the fundamental interconnectedness of all things–gets repeated over and over, but fails to hang together. Several of the central conceits are not believable, and all the character relationships are over-the-top reacting to each other with heavy-handed drama.

As a devotee of the novels, I feel like someone read through the Dirk books and wrote down every awesome thing that happened; one thing on each of a hundred 3×5 cards.  Then they threw them up in the air. The way they landed was the order they had to be used to construct the plot, with the addition of a government cover-up, a made up disease, and body swapping. Complexity beyond the edge of nonsense. Unbelievable to the point of uninteresting to try to follow.

The acting is absolutely top-notch. Amazing, considering that the writing goes from occasionally funny and clever all the way to broken nose. You know broken nose; that’s what happens when you’re on-the-nose moralizing like a brick in the face through a plate glass window.

For this fan of the books, it is the worst combination of recognizing every awesome idea Douglas Adams wrote, dissected and re-attached to create a monstrous, unrelated story. It is an ugly show, barely lurching around, and I fear it will die a horrible death, unloved.

Tragic really, since it came from such noble, comedic origins.