What has this got to do with the book? Douglas Adams must be spinning - Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency (2016) Discussion

[–] kay_rock 8 years ago

There were two books. Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency and Long Dark Teatime of the Soul.

Imagine DA wrote more DG books and this is one of them. Rather than trying (and failing) to bring the first novel to the screen, they've made a DA-style series based on the character. And they've done it really, really well.

If you really enjoy Douglas Adams, you should dig this. Adams' fans usually have great imaginations. Apply that wonderful imagination of yours to this. Accept it as the homage that it is. It's JUST crazy enough to be excellent. If Adams is spinning in his grave, it's only because he's dancing with delight.

Movies are IQ tests; the IMDB boards are how people broadcast their score.

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[–] therefdotcom 8 years ago

sorry, but that's nonsense.

the 2012 series had almost completely new storylines and were in canon. are you maybe mistaking the two?

this has absolutely nothing to do with the satiristic style that adams created.

i am glad that you enjoy this, but there is no common ground between adams and this series.

"Accept it as the homage that it is. "

it's not even that.

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[–] 8 years ago

[deleted]

[–] therefdotcom 8 years ago

it does not have to be set in the same continuity to be "in canon", see sherlock (BBC) for example, which is praised for exactly the same things that made the 2012 DG great. plus, the fact that they nailed the characters (except for slimming down dirk) did not hurt, either. apart from that, parts of the books were incorporated into the series. not everything was original material.

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[–] MoviemanCin 8 years ago

I don't really care. It's a GREAT series, and I can hardly wait for Season 2 in 2017!
And I bet Douglas Adams is smiling somewhere because he would enjoy it also even if it does stray from his original story.

Schrodinger's cat walks into a bar and doesn't.

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[–] razar-34595 8 years ago

i couldnt disagree more pj, i read both of the original Dirk books, and this follows very much in suit with the insanity that they exhibited. as another commenter wrote, only two books were published but the whole "interconnectedness of it all, where there is this infinitely large tangled skein of events jumping backwards forwards and sideways is exactly the kind of story dirk would be involved in.

personally this is my favorite show on TV, always a great cliffhanger at the end of every episode making the viewer (well at least me) dying to see what happens in the next episode.

I hope they go another season with another whole tale in this vein... it would be very sad if this only lasts long enough to complete this one story.

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[–] split-infinitive 8 years ago

Douglas Adams must be spinning in his grave. This is absolute crap! WTF?!

You know, that's exactly what I thought of the the HHGTTG movie....

But... we miss the work of our late friend and thanks to some dedicated authors and film makers, we are given a chance to fill some of the empty void that he left behind.

Authors Gareth Roberts and James Goss brought the Dr Who stories Shada and City of Death back to life as novellas from the original screenplays if that interests anyone.

(Douglas wrote for Dr Who and Dirk Gently shares a universe with Dr Who number 4 (Tom Baker))

So really, he'd be honoured and spinning with glee.

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[–] therefdotcom 8 years ago

"You know, that's exactly what I thought of the the HHGTTG movie.... "

while that's true, at least they somewhat tried. this series does everything wrong, that the movie did wrong, just 1000x worse, while doing nothing right, that the film did right.

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[–] Alondro 8 years ago

I agree, this series was just another convoluted time travel loop story which should have destroyed the universe with how many paradoxes it would have created.

Compared to this, even "Terminator: Genisys" made sense.

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[–] !!!deleted!!! (4524359) 8 years ago

Douglas Adams was not the kind of guy that would mind AT ALL.

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[–] rapadake 8 years ago

its not crap. its very watchable, but its not dirk you are right about that. Dirk wasn't a Matt Smith clone.

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[–] Neuronhead 8 years ago

Gotta say he reads better than these adaptions watch. I'm seeing it through though. It's certainly not utter crap. There's a lot of good stuff in there.

I choose to believe what I was programmed to believe

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[–] nhungeberg 8 years ago

I'm honestly happy to hear that the show doesn't follow the books. Beacuse that means I can read and enjoy the books without feeling that the show have spoiled me! WIN/WIN

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[–] jonathan-641 8 years ago

The show badly needs a sense of humour, and hasn't got it.

The guy playing Dirk has no comic ability. You either have it or you don't, and he doesn't have it. Elijah Wood obviously doesn't have it and has never had it. As anyone who has watched 10 hours of him in Lord of the Rings already knows, he has one mode: leaden seriousness. The two of them have no chemistry.

But it's not just a casting problem. Worse, there is no wit in the script. The writer has mistaken zaniness and unpredictability for wit. That is something Douglas Adams never did. Even his worst books and scripts were still witty and therefore extremely funny.

This isn't.

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[–] chibistevo-478-46753 8 years ago

Are you for real? The wit is totally in the script. This series is incredibly quotable and I wouldn't be surprised if it becomes quite cult because of it.

The comedy isn't flat out laughs per minute, but that works for the best. Rather than adapt that British, slapstick kind of humour, they've just put in a very subtle one-liner approach that you just have to be quick to grasp.

People are just too hooked up on DA and Hitchikers. Get over it. This is still damn clever, and more to the point, the story is far more complex and entertaining than anything DA wrote.

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[–] rapadake 8 years ago

its fun, but to class the quickfire random blurting as clever, naa mate, that's not clever. Its "pop" humour, you throw it away once its used.

Dougie was about wry observations connecting science and supernatural with everyday hoi polloi. Its not DA as you say, its kinda a weak copy.

But it is fun, you've hit it on the head there, and we shouldn't rule it out just because its never going to win awards.

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[–] therefdotcom 8 years ago

this series is much closer to the cartoonish stuff that mel brooks did than it is with adam's work.

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