Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency
Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency
8.185%94%
Centers on the titular holistic detective who investigates cases involving the supernatural. Based on the "Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency" novel series, written by Douglas Adams and published by Simon and Schuster in 1987.
jwpi0 reviewedApril 19, 2025
Are we supposed to put up with this garbage for a certain number of episodes before it starts performing?
It is SO awful that it's difficult to pinpoint what is so bad, but I'll try.
Having different things going on, different narratives the relationship between which may only be revealed as a series unfolds is fine, great, and can actually work really well.
But not in this series.
Frankly it's embarrassing for Elijah Wood to be cast in such garbage.
All the ridiculous violence and killing is completely out of place. Violence can get a bit much especially when it's depicted as though someone is just chopping up some salad. The antithesis to this is, say, Bourne, the violence in which, like it or not, happens for a reason and fits well (perfectly) with the narrative.
Which in Dirk, does not.
Dirk is supposed to be a story set in the world as we know it, but with some really strange stuff going on. Fine.
But in the world as we know it, this amount of absurd (salad chopping) violence would not go unseen or unchecked by the authorities, or at least by SOMEONE.
I'm not saying that they have to be 100% real life - it's fiction - so if course there's loads of room for artistic licence.
But the sheer stupidity and fragmented nature of the happenings is just poor production, whatever the genre might be. Just because the description says something about "supernatural" does not give the creators of this garbage licence to produce poorly rendered supercrap (and pass it off under the guise of "oh it's all supernatural").
It's possible that this is a case of "should never have left the pages of the book". Also Douglas Adams was writing quite a while ago, and, as we know, the Hitch Hikers film was poor. I read all the books and loved them. Funnily enough the series back in the (80s?) on BBC? was quite fun, not as good as reading the book, but I think they had a better feel for what it was all about, as well as being contemporary at the time. The Ford prefect character came off really well and held the series together. Young children could watch it but unfortunately we have this awful trend of normalising violence so this "Dirk" series either won't be seen by younger children or will be, and will further mash down their already undeveloped conscience.
A final note on all the ridiculous "9" & "10" ratings.....
How many productions are truly a 10? Surely 10 should be reserved for those films and series which are deserving of it? Although what's great for someone is not necessarily going to float someone else's boat, some series stand out in a unique way which - did whatever reason - is unparalleled. I'll give you an example; Friends was a seminal series, something amazing that holds a place in millions (possibly billions) of people's hearts.
But not mine, I liked it, watched a few episodes. But it never really floated my boat. However if it was rated 10, I would completely understand and not have a problem with that because it is a truly Hall of Fame level series. I'm more of a Seinfeld guy anyway (which I would give a 10+1 to any day). But my point is that the ratings for Dirk (and so many other garbage series) are completely misleading. Probably just stoners or shillers hittin that "10" button cos it just feels so good, and probably makes them feel important 🤣... What a waste of time and money.