Dirk Gently

This series is amazingly bizarre, Amazingly Funny and leaves you guessing where the story is going often leading you down a rabbit hole that only concludes when you've looked at the most improbable solution to the problem possible. Dirk Gently is a detective who solves cases Holistically believing every thing is interconnected in the universe and that by pursuing every solution for one case he will often solve other cases, while this often appears to his partner McDuff like he is doing nothing on one he has a way of one thing from one case coming back and helping him work the other cases. His cases aren't always simple cases with obvious clues though as they often result in super science and solutions that push improbability to the limits.

The two lead characters personalities play off each other well and the actors do a good job establishing these traits.

Stephen Mangan is a riot as Dirk Gently, who runs a "holistic detective agency." Gently believes in the interconnectedness of all things and that the universe will solve his cases. The universe might, but they won't pay his bills or clean his office. Darren Boyd is sort of his partner, MacDuff, and Gently drives him nuts.

This is a wildly funny show, with one client paying Gently to find out who is stalking him, which turns out to be Gently himself, in another case he works on finding a cat and uses time travel, that sort of thing.

Mangan is intense and outrageous as Gently, with wild hair and a declamatory voice. Everyone around him looks fairly discouraged. Unfortunately this series only lasted one season, but I notice there's a TV movie made in 2015. Maybe it will be back.

How can you not admit the brilliance of stealing a character from an extremely popular show such as "Orphan Black" three years in the future? It doesn't get any more holistic than that. Beyond that playful jab at Siren555, this is typical British inanity. Enjoyable but not memorable. I am about to watch the second episode about a month after I'd seen the first and must admit I recall very little from the pilot. Yet I'm sure I will smile often, chuckle occasionally and potentially laugh out loud once or twice. It is what it is, you get what you pay for and caveat emptor.

Ps. Apparently the first episode was not the pilot. I'll have to try and find it.

Wellalright... found the pilot. Excellent! I gave it a 9. Amidst all the silliness was actually an imaginative mystery. Mysteries I should say. The twists at the end were Hitchcockian/Serlingesque. Very entertaining and worth every minute.

Addendum: The way I rate shows... I don't usually review anything less than a 7 because 6 would be a failing grade and I won't waste my time watching it. I'm old; I don't know how much time I've got left. Since I probably turned it off before getting even halfway through, it wouldn't be fair to rate or review it. 7 is watchable but I may go a while between episodes since, though somewhat entertaining, there are other shows more interesting or compelling. 8 would be a regular in my lineup. 9 is a must see and probably bingeable. 10 is just the epitome of superbity and headed for my all-time favorites list. I'm adding this to my reviews because it seems there are a lot of binary reactions to pretty much everything these days. I am not a like/unlike kind of guy. I see a lot of grays so if I give something a 10 it doesn't mean the only alternative is a 1.

Not familiar with the book series. Reminds me of a cult film like Buckaroo Bonsai

The best thing about this series is the casting. Stephen Mangan makes for a nearly pitch perfect Dirk Gently and Darren Boyd is a suitably bland (not in a bad way) and dry-witted Richard MacDuff.

The worst thing, unfortunately, is the writing. There are many references to-and direct lifts from-the novels (especially the first one), but they are often handled in an inartful manner and are frequently devoid of the full context that made them funny and/or poignant. More significantly, this show made the bizarre decision to excise most of the characteristic pulpy weirdness of the novels. Mostly gone are the ghosts, aliens, alien robots, ancient gods, et al. Of the books. There are only really two notable sci-fi nods in this series and both are fairly unsatisfying, instead this show seems to have strangely made the decision to position itself as simply a less deductive version of Sherlock.