DVD Corner

Dirk Gently DVD Review

“Dirk Gently” is a poor adaptation of Douglas Adams’ novels.

Based on author Douglas Adams’ two books “Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency” and “The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul,” this 4 episode BBC series revolves around the broke, eccentric, confident, talkative, sly, and unusual holistic detective Dirk Gently who firmly believes in coincidences and the world being interconnected. His unorthodox and sometimes absurd methods can be problematic (especially when he encounters the police). The bulk of the series revolves around Dirk and his college pal/partner in crime Richard MacDuff getting involved with cases about a missing cat, a missing billionaire, a computer programmer possibly being tracked by pentagon, murders, a killer, and a stolen robot.

Between the massively disappointing film version of “The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy” and now “Dirk Gently,” it seems that Douglas Adams’ unique brand of humor is much better suited to the page than the screen. The only time Adams vision worked on screen is when HE wrote “Doctor Who” episodes back in the 70’s and 80’s.

Anyway, the biggest issue with ‘Gently’ is that it feels like it’s less about Adams’ story and more about trying to capitalize on the success of “Sherlock.” In fact, the entire series feels like one big mash-up of “Sherlock” and “Twin Peaks.” This is especially evident with the quirky characters, the distracting and irritating music cues that desperately try to mimic both shows, the poor attempts at humor, and the wannabe Sherlock and Watson team-up of Dirk and Richard. Alas, “Dirk Gently” doesn’t hold a candle to both of the shows it is so clearly influenced by. Simply put, “Dirk Gently” is neither funny nor engaging. Stephen Mangan and Darren Boyd are incredibly bland leads who try way too hard to make the material work. It’s not entirely their fault though as the scripts written by Howard Overman, Matt Jones and Jamie Mathiesson are filled with clichés and a TV detective gimmick that now feels like old hat in this modern TV landscape.

Video/Audio:

The series, which is presented in widescreen, is certainly well shot, but the colors often appear a bit murky in standard definition.

The Dolby Digital Stereo track is flat out, well, flat.

The only extras are Acorn trailers.

Summary: Stick with the “Dirk Gently” books by Douglas Adams and skip this show.

April 10, 2013 - Posted by nicklyons1 | DVD review | Dirk Gently DVD Review, Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency, Douglas Adams, Stephen Mangan, The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy