Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency

Discussion in 'Movies and Television' started by Fuzz, Jan 1, 2017.

  1. Fuzz

    Fuzz Garbage Pail Kid

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    Anyone catch this show? I'm currently binging it and am three episodes in. It's bat-shit crazy, and have no idea what the hell is going on, but I can't stop watching. I love all the awesome characters!

     
  2. Tekkaman Blade

    Tekkaman Blade Professor of Animation

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    From the mind of the same writer from Hitchhikers guide to the Galaxy and a former Doctor Who senior script editor Douglas Adams. This is the 2nd or 3rd tv series with this character.
    In fact in the books there is a crossover character from Doctor Who,Professor Chronotis. He appeared in a Tom Baker episode Shada also by Adams that never finished filming due to a Strike. Though there is a Audio version with the 8th doctor, and a DVD where Tom Baker talks to the audience and try to explain what happened in the missing scenes.

    The plot of this series will turn out to revolve around time travel as well.
     
  3. marvel b

    marvel b Bearer of the Matrix of Smash

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    i'm sorry to derali this.....but when i read the topic title, my mind went bad....
     
  4. Fuzz

    Fuzz Garbage Pail Kid

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    Yeah, that's pretty much revealed in the first episode.
     
  5. ClunkerSlim

    ClunkerSlim Well-Known Member

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    I just watched this on Hulu and it's AMAZING. You really have to push past the first and maybe second episode. But once you get into it, it's great. I will say that they stray pretty far from the book and even Shada. Usually, I'm not a fan of that, but damn it works well here. I've always said that the Hitchhiker movie did lackluster at the box office because it tried to remain too faithful to the books and just repeat the same jokes and story beats that you've already heard ten times before from better adaptations. Luckily that's not the case here and the story seems really fresh. It's also nice that the end actually does deliver... although I'm not 100% sure the chronology of the device works out exactly right but I enjoyed the series so much that I'm not even going to bother to check
     
  6. Tekkaman Blade

    Tekkaman Blade Professor of Animation

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  7. SouthtownKid

    SouthtownKid Headmaster

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    I kept waiting for the first season to turn into something and it never did. Other than a lazy time loop story, which I thought all non-hack writers had long ago come together and agreed to not do anymore.

    Also, it's kind of misleading to blame this series on Adams. The Netflix story (such as it was) was completely... well for a second, I was about to say "completely original", but you know... time loop. But what I mean is that the Nextflix story was not based on anything Adams wrote. Nor does the main character of Dirk even resemble the character Adams created and wrote.

    Anyway, I stuck with it until the end. Now I wish I hadn't. Won't make the same mistake again.
     
  8. Tekkaman Blade

    Tekkaman Blade Professor of Animation

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    ...Okay so now we have alternate realities and magic thrown into the mix. Plus scissor swords....and project Blackwing is now run by an idiot.
    Not sure what I watched, but they have my curiosity for what will happen next episode.
     
  9. Tekkaman Blade

    Tekkaman Blade Professor of Animation

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  10. SaberPrime

    SaberPrime Banned

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    What are you talking about? The movie wasn't faithful AT ALL to the books. It didn't just repeat the same story or the same jokes. Humma Kavula, that character was only in the movie, he doesn't exist in any other adaption and half of the movie's plot was driven by the existence of this character.

    In the books and in the TV series they pretty much went straight to Magrathea, there was no pit stop to visit Humma Kavula, Zaphod never got his second head removed, there was no side quest to find any Point of View gun which also doesn't exist in any adaptation of the story. They also never had to make a pit stop to rescue Trillian from the Vulgons.

    Aside from that, in the book and in the old series Zaphod's heads were side by side, he didn't have that nasty flip up gimmick to reveal a second face under his chin. One of the heads wore an eye patch. The costume party he went to on Earth where he picked up trillion he was suppose to be dressed as a pirate and have a bird cage with a cloth over it to hide the second head. The movie never explains why Towels are important which makes Ford look crazy obsessed about towels for no good reason. The movie has Arthur and Trillian hook up in the end when in the books they actually NEVER become a couple. They do have a daughter together but she was conceived by artificial insemination. Even the ending where they set up the sequel which never happened is completely different from the book.

    The Restaurant at the End of the Universe, otherwise known as Miliways, in the book the End of the Universe is the Gnab Gib, Big Bang backwards. Where the Big Bang is the beginning or creation of the universe, the Gnab Gib is the end or destruction of the universe. Miliways exists inside of a time bubble in the future which allows you to observe the ending of the universe without being destroyed along with it. In the movie that make that joke about going to wrong way because the Restaurant is at the other end of the universe implying a point of distance rather than a point of time. Never mind the fact that the universe has no ends. Another huge change from the book is the fact that the Restaurant is actually on Magrathea. In the book they never left the planet, they simply went to the future but never left that location. In the movie they leave Magrathea in order to fly to a different location in the same time.

    Seriously 90% of the movie has nothing to do with the source material. The most faithful adaption of the books is actually the radio series, it's the only adaptation to actually do all five books by Douglas Adams and the only major change is in the fourth book where some scenes were removed because... well they were sex scenes... basically they got censored and they weren't allowed to do the sex scenes on the radio but everything else stayed intact.

    As for Dirk Gently, it's not even intended to be an adaption of the books. This is an entirely new story featuring that character. The character is a really terrible adaptation because Dirk Gently in the books was described as an over weight smoker who always wore a hat. To be fair this is the second adaption of the character into a television series and neither one of them has gotten that right. However this series has made some direct references to the book suggesting that some version of those events have occurred in this Dirk's past. Though considering he spends a large portion of the second book just trying to pick up a pack of cigarettes and this Dirk doesn't smoke, I have no idea how he was able to push the story along without that. Also I think this version of Dirk is better than the books because he actually solves his cases. Dirk in the books is the most incompetent detective ever. Some how even more incompetent than in the series where he even admits that he has no idea what he's doing. Mainly because the books just end without Dirk ever solving anything. Everything comes together for the reader but there's no moment for the character where he's figures out how everything ties together.

    The first book is actually a little bit better cause he actually does stuff besides trying to get cigarettes. But the second book is literally just he's out of cigarettes, has no money, and is trying to figure out how to get a smoke pretty much the entire book.

    I also like the TV series portrayal better because as you pointed out the Shada connection, he was originally suppose to be the Doctor and I could totally picture these actors playing that role. I don't think I could picture someone who fits the book's description as the Doctor. There is a fan video on YouTube where they recreated a scene from the book with an actor who perfectly fits the description of Dirk from the book, but I can not picture him as also being the Doctor. I kinda like the idea that Dirk Gently actors could also end up being future Doctor Who actors which would just be amazing if that went full circle with the 4th Doctor becoming the inspiration for Dirk Gently and then for a Dirk Gently actor to also be cast as a future incarnation of the Doctor.
     
  11. WishfulThinking

    WishfulThinking The world has moved on...we've always said.

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    Bought Series One during the 60% off sale at Barnes & noble. 4 episodes in.

    I agree that this Dirk Gently is only Dirk in name...the character is radically different from the books, although those do get a shout-out.

    But, it is somewhat entertaining in a Doctor Who meets The Tick (2017) kind of way. As such, I'm going to finish it up sometime this holiday. Maybe Friday...