(no subject)
I watched the first episode of Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency. As with many retellings of old favorites, I approached it with a fair dose of skepticism.
First off, let me start by saying that the actor who plays Dirk looks more like the lead singer of a boy band than my mental image of Dirk Gently. And ever since the Lord of the Rings days I've had a knee-jerk discomfort with Elijah Wood (I know, this puts me in the minority here, but so be it). But I must say, he finally seems to have grown into himself and apparently I've finally forgiven him for being absolutely nothing like what I wanted Frodo to be. In Dirk Gently, he plays Todd, a fairly hapless young man who finds himself carried away by a bizarre series of events that seemingly have nothing to do with him, except that somehow he's right in the thick of things. There's a missing woman, her dead and horribly butchered father, a random corgi (I think it's a corgi), a tiny black kitten, a holistic assassin out to kill Dirk Gently, a terrified woman chained to a bed in a red room, Dirk Gently himself, a homicidal landlord, various members of sundry federal law enforcement agencies, a time-traveled version of Todd, but sadly, no horse in any of the bathrooms. It's not a remake of the books, but rather a new story in the world of Dirk Gently.
This particular version of the holistic detective was filmed in Vancouver and set somewhere generically North American, but I'll try not to hold that against it. By the end of the first episode, I have to admit, it felt like a Dirk Gently story - madcap, borderline incoherent, funny in ways that make you feel a bit wrong in the head, over-the-top gory, and generally leaving you feeling a bit off-balance but eager to find out what happens next. It completely charmed me and won me over by the end of the first episode.
Now all I have to do is remember to watch episode two next week.
First off, let me start by saying that the actor who plays Dirk looks more like the lead singer of a boy band than my mental image of Dirk Gently. And ever since the Lord of the Rings days I've had a knee-jerk discomfort with Elijah Wood (I know, this puts me in the minority here, but so be it). But I must say, he finally seems to have grown into himself and apparently I've finally forgiven him for being absolutely nothing like what I wanted Frodo to be. In Dirk Gently, he plays Todd, a fairly hapless young man who finds himself carried away by a bizarre series of events that seemingly have nothing to do with him, except that somehow he's right in the thick of things. There's a missing woman, her dead and horribly butchered father, a random corgi (I think it's a corgi), a tiny black kitten, a holistic assassin out to kill Dirk Gently, a terrified woman chained to a bed in a red room, Dirk Gently himself, a homicidal landlord, various members of sundry federal law enforcement agencies, a time-traveled version of Todd, but sadly, no horse in any of the bathrooms. It's not a remake of the books, but rather a new story in the world of Dirk Gently.
This particular version of the holistic detective was filmed in Vancouver and set somewhere generically North American, but I'll try not to hold that against it. By the end of the first episode, I have to admit, it felt like a Dirk Gently story - madcap, borderline incoherent, funny in ways that make you feel a bit wrong in the head, over-the-top gory, and generally leaving you feeling a bit off-balance but eager to find out what happens next. It completely charmed me and won me over by the end of the first episode.
Now all I have to do is remember to watch episode two next week.