Dirk Gently - So Long, And Thanks For All The Fish

I for one am a huge fan of niche television.
I'm love dry humour and witty dialogue.
If you put both of these things together, you will love Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency.
In saying that, it's a rather peculiar show for several reasons.

BBC are well known for producing programs like Doctor Who, Orphan Black and Sherlock, which receive worldwide critical acclaim.
So it seems like a natural step for the Beeb to produce a program like this.
I was expecting something more of the earlier adaptation of Douglas Adams' book, but I soon realised that Director Max Landis was capable of creating whole new beasts of film and TV.

One of the things that puzzles me about Dirk Gently is that it feels like such an underground show that was yet to reach a high climate of fan appreciation, when I thought anything with the name Douglas Adams attached to it would have book worms and Hitchhiker lovers all over it, which I expect there were at some point.
I feel like with it being exclusively on BBC America prior to Netflix made it feel very exclusive and unearthed as well.
Also having a big Hollywood name like Elijah Wood helps strongly in the show's favour when everybody realises it's the Frodo guy.
Sure, Netflix has a lot more merit when shows like Stranger Things stay put on the said platform, but this totally deserves to be on the Saturday evening slot when Doctor Who is off air.
It's pretty much like Who but on heavy, heavy steroids.

(Peter Capaldi as Doctor Who)

The foundation for the show is about an unearthly detective landing himself in America into the life of Todd (Wood) who ruins his day even more after losing his job.
The two very quickly become a satirical version of modern day Holmes and Watson and go on wacky ventures together to solve a case about a homicide and a missing girl.
There's a lot of things to love about this show.
Firstly being Landis' deviation from the original novel story.
It's a season story that feels like it could have carried on from the books and doesn't necessarily ruin the canon of the previous plots, so both stories could take place in the same universe.

Without giving too much away, the whole case carries across a season, which I was fairly wary of.
Despite this, every episode was more than capable of delivering something new each time which left me very satisfied.
The overall pace and rhythm of the first season is great and I really love what it has going for it.
It had the ability to reach higher and higher up until the climax of the finale, which went out with a tremendous bang.
The same happened with the following season, but I would argue doubly so.

I was curious if Season 2 would contain much similarities to Season 1, but it turns out that it is a completely different beast all together. 

We are introduced to an ensemble of new characters, who feel like they have a natural flow into the narrative, all of them embodying fantastic ideas.

Overall, it's a really good show that missed really being discovered properly.

It kind of flew under the radar with other big names like Stranger Things or Doctor Who going on at the same time.

But if you want to watch a shorter running show with a bit of a different flavour, I would highly recommend this.

It's one that I will be going back to revisit a few times here and there. 

If you haven't had any exposure to Dirk before, here's a trailer.