3 out of 5

Created by: Max Landis

Much like some of the characters in the show, I tolerate Dirk Gently.  I tolerated it through eight episodes, and just at those times where I felt like I was finally coming to terms with Max Landis’ “hip” version of the character, he’d do something overly giddy and quirky again and totally lose me.

Yes, fine, my tastes run much more toward the first TV attempt of this character: Older, less cute, more of a detective.  And given how producer Arvind Ethan David wrote his recent entertaining comic book take on Dirk, I’d think he does as well.  Its been a while since I’ve read the books, but I think it’s valuable that the vague mental picture I retained of Mr. Gently aligned pretty well with those two iterations.  But Max Landis is gangly modern cool, and so he wants to re-cast this show in a gangly modern cool model.

Which, in itself, is fine, but he ends up sort of scuffing the whole holistic detecting aspect – detection, essentially, by providence – by involving time travel and government agencies and a lot of excess plot noise.  Again, there are times when it comes together, the heart and soul of Douglas Adams’ creation peeking around the corner, and there are enough of those times to keep you playing.  But it’s a hiccupy process, with at least an equal amount of times that don’t work, mistaking – as many Hitchhikers fans have done and will continue to do – weird, intelligent humor for simple randomness, and thus assuming that Adamsy hijinks can be replicated just by smashing wild ideas together.

Dirk Gently works as the odd man in the crowd, oblivious, somewhat, to his own oddness, or at least willing to not care about others’ responses to it in pursuit of whatever he’s holistically pursuing.  (That is to say: Adamantly not pursuing.)

Dirk Gently 2016 is just one odd man amongst many odd people and things.  He is no longer the odd man out, and by extension, no longer really Dirk Gently.  So perhaps it’s better to evaluate the show apart from its source material.

…Which is a shame, because if you’re going to revamp this as this youthly, slick version of DG, Elijah Wood was perfectly cast as out-of-sorts straight man Todd, and there are some good additions besides, like sorta’ client / security guard Farah Black (Jade Eshete), and the trying-to-make-sense-of-it-all detectives Estevez and Zimmerfield (Neil Brown Jr. and Richard Schiff, although some of their stage-like banter is a little forced).  Even the core twisty plot concerning a machine and a girl who barks like a dog has some punchy Adams zip.  Recognizable pieces are there.  And when it comes together – somewhere in the middle – it’s a particularly delightful romp.

To harp on the theme, though, it’s good with the bad: Lead Samuel Barnett as Dirk, apparently interpreted eccentric bumbling as giggly and annoying, and while he commits to the bit, his acting style is a bit too self aware to pull it off.  Encouraged by this, two other actors with important roles – Fiona Dourif and Aaron Black –  affect horribly annoying tics and voices that make their presence on screen undesirable and breaking of any immersion.  And that core plot has to he slathered with about 8 subplots too many.  While some of these subplots support a theme, and give us a direction for a next season, none were really necessary at this point, or at least could have been handled in a less distracting fashion.

Repeat ad nauseam.

The newest take of Dirk Gently scores on some integral elements while fussing with everything else to up the quirk factor.  It misses both the dark humor and weird humor mark, but manages to find a stumbling groove for a few episodes.  If you liked the books, if you liked the Stephen Mangan series, this one might annoy.  If you can approach it as a wholly new and different Dirk Gently, it annoys less.  And is sometimes even fun.