Teatime of the soul.

azith28

Hi,

I have read the hell out of the Hitchhikers series when i was younger, and I have known for a long time about the Dirk Gently series, but for some reason it never was on my list of things to read. Yesterday I happen across a british show that was done at the end of 2010 called Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective agency. It was a one shot but apparently they are going to make 3 more episodes which is how i learned of it. I decided to watch the first one and see if it would make me want to read the book.

I was expecting a 'Sherlock' like detective series when i heard about his 'connectivity' theory but the tv show, dispite having pretty good reviews of people saying it captured the book pretty well, was somewhat dissapointing. The story was predictable (forgivable considering when it was written compared to most sci-fi), but the main character seemed less a brilliant detective then a con-artist who is applying logic that while may be logically correct, its so broad a conclusion to be boring.

Was the book like this? Or has the TV show just taken alot more liberties then it should have in the characterization?

SightTDW

I had no idea there was a show made out of that. Personally I loved the Dirk Gently books, possibly more than the Hitchhikers series, though the only one I've read remotely recently was the excerpt of an unfinished one in The Salmon of Doubt. I only glazed over some of the IMBD reviews, but it doesn't sound like it followed the books much.

As for Gently's logic, the connectivity bits always seemed to be pretty far away from any Sherlock-esque logic, and more of a fancy way of him saying that things just work out sometimes in a way that makes you wonder if he's just lazy or not quite right. Only way I can think to put it is that everything Dirk says seems to make sense to him.

If you liked Hitchhikers I really can't imagine you not liking these.

Quoth

There is absolutely nothing Sherlock-like about Dirk Gently. You can read the beginning on Amazon: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Dirk-Gentlys-Holistic-Detective-Agency/dp/0330301624

Golem

Quoth is right, this series is absolutely nothing to do with your traditional mystery type stories. Long Dark Tea Time of the Soul, the second book, Is one of my favorite books of all time.

azith28

Thanks for the comments, I'll get to it one of these days

JonBob

I'm really impressed with the lead in this adaptation. He manages to take what could be pretty broad physical comedy and make it feel subtle and natural. The camerawork certainly helps there too.

I'm sold, and surprised I hadn't heard of this earlier.