"Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency" review/randomness
Whenever I finish watching a really good film or TV show I always want to shout my views from the roof tops and make other people watch it, probably in the hope that they will watch it and also love it...maybe even love it for the same reasons.
This is even more true after watching a show on my own, as usually me and the Hubby watch things together but he has been working late this last week, so I decided to start a show which didn't immediately appeal to him (or maybe a show which I know I won't mind re-watching? ha!). It has Elijah Wood as the main character, therefore it got my attention immediately and honestly that is all I really knew about this show before hitting play, but hell I enjoyed it (more so after the first two episodes... though that could partly be because I watched them at 2am in the morning). Yes, I know I need to go to sleep at more reasonable hours, but then I would miss out on valuable viewing time and that is most certainly a valid reason for nearly falling asleep at work, or not?
This blog post is a review of sorts, a vague attempt at reviewing "Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency" - Season 1, though it might just be me rambling on about why I liked it, most likely. My apologies, but I simply want everyone to watch good shit instead of brain numbing reality shows.
Many people might not know this about me, but I like to write (or talk...no, people DO know that), I often start stories of my own or shall I say I write random scenes and subsequently get nowhere with an actual plot and give up rather quickly. The main problem I have is my lack of practice, or possibly lack of patience. I am planning to do a few review style blog posts in the hope I can improve my writing skills a little, possibly give me the confidence to write more and create my own loopy story lines. So yes, this already lame and near non-existent blog will now not only involve photography and veganism but also my crappy writing skills, as though it was not random enough? Not sure I care though, as I feel these posts are mostly for myself and my sanity more than anything else.
So as I sit here in our downstairs office listening to Don Broco on my big headphones and trying to drown out the sound of my Husband pretending he is a John Wick badass on PUBG, I will attempt to write a kind of review about this cool Netflix show, or at least a draft of some kind.
The show starts with Todd (Elijah's character) who seems desperately miserable with life, he wears a strangely adorable yet laughable uniform whilst working as a hotel bell boy. All of a sudden he starts to notice weird things and before you know it he has walked right into a murder scene and things start to get even weirder...kittens, blood, lottery tickets, more blood, large fur coats and more.
Shortly after Todd gets sent home from the murder scene, Dirk Gently breaks into Todd's apartment and asks Todd to be his detective assistant, at first Todd is very resistant to helping this lunatic who appears in his home and rambles nonsense in an English accent, yet somehow unbeknown to Todd the lonesome two start their investigation the following day. At first Dirk the detective comes across as a strangely quirky Sherlock but he quickly becomes his own kind of lovable if sometimes slightly annoying character. Dirk is curiously aware of things, he knows more than he should, he knows that Todd has nothing in his life, apart from his disastrous sister who is unable to leave her house in fear of her peculiar made up disease taking control, so when Todd's apartment gets destroyed, becomes the suspect for a number of crimes, deaths and freakish events he has nothing much better to do than help Dirk, and so off they go into their mad mission to find out who killed the pent house millionaire and kidnapped his daughter.
I suppose this show is a detective, mystery drama with a clever dosing of comedy and science fiction? I'm not sure, but what I am sure of is that the characters make the show, or should I say the weird relationships between the characters. Todd and his sisters relationship brings a kind of normality and a relatability into the story and I feel without this there would be something missing. They are close siblings and through out the season Amanda (the sister) is the most important thing to Todd, I liked how they entwined the brother and sister story in amongst the rest of the plot, it adds extra depth and purpose.
Dirk and Todd are really good on screen together, I think their personalities bounced off each other extremely well. As mentioned above I did find Dirks character slightly annoying and a little un-funny on a couple of occasions, nevertheless all is forgiven as he is more than amusing all the rest of the time. However, I must admit I thought he shined the most when he was being the sensitive and honest type, a few of the scenes between Dirk and Todd had me a little teary eyed!
For anyone who knows me, they will know I cry at most things! I often rate a film, book or even music on its ability to make me cry my eyes out, or at the very least make me feel an ounce of sadness or raw emotion of some sort. Without tears and/or laughter what is the point of a story?
I am probably biased towards Todd's character (being an Elijah Wood fan), yet I think he was fab as always, he came across sincere and believable and worked out great as the "average guy" center point of the show. Honestly though, I loved the bizarre mix of characters, with strong females, strange weaponed gangs, unusual future folk, funny cop couples, a courageous corgi and one dumb-ass sniper.
One of the other relationships which really stands out is that of Bart and Ken. I love their little tale which runs along side the main thread of the story. Bart ends up taking Ken hostage after nearly killing him, then somehow they end up going on mini adventure together with many hilarious interactions and red-tinged shoot outs.
This show certainly gets a big thumbs up from me. I would recommend anyone to watch it! Although, it is not really for the younger audience, it contains rather a lot of swearing and some good doses of blood and violence. If you are looking for something quirky, clever, funny and simply enjoyable then look no further.
I can't wait to watch S2 of Dirk Gently, I hope it is as good as S1. A re-watch of the first series wouldn't be out of the question either, as I think I could easily enjoy it as much the second time round. It is only 8 episodes long and it is quite fast paced, although it makes you use your head, it is not so mind boggling that you can't sit back and relax a little. Plus the soundtrack is pretty awesome too, a wide variety of weird and wonderful tracks, I am not embarrassed to say I am listening to the play list as I type this.
The show manages to combine the bland with the completely insane, whilst creating real emotions within uncanny and eccentric characters, thus giving the viewer something different and hilarious to watch yet enabling us to connect and care about the strangers on the screen.
To me this show is inevitably about loneliness and finding friendships. However, this is what is so great about stories/films, they can mean different things to everyone, each of us feels something unique to us. Others might say the plot is all about our destiny and fate, or maybe it is just a bunch of crazy, lonely, messed up people in a world where nothing makes sense...yet is all connected.
Everything is connected.
This is even more true after watching a show on my own, as usually me and the Hubby watch things together but he has been working late this last week, so I decided to start a show which didn't immediately appeal to him (or maybe a show which I know I won't mind re-watching? ha!). It has Elijah Wood as the main character, therefore it got my attention immediately and honestly that is all I really knew about this show before hitting play, but hell I enjoyed it (more so after the first two episodes... though that could partly be because I watched them at 2am in the morning). Yes, I know I need to go to sleep at more reasonable hours, but then I would miss out on valuable viewing time and that is most certainly a valid reason for nearly falling asleep at work, or not?
This blog post is a review of sorts, a vague attempt at reviewing "Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency" - Season 1, though it might just be me rambling on about why I liked it, most likely. My apologies, but I simply want everyone to watch good shit instead of brain numbing reality shows.
Many people might not know this about me, but I like to write (or talk...no, people DO know that), I often start stories of my own or shall I say I write random scenes and subsequently get nowhere with an actual plot and give up rather quickly. The main problem I have is my lack of practice, or possibly lack of patience. I am planning to do a few review style blog posts in the hope I can improve my writing skills a little, possibly give me the confidence to write more and create my own loopy story lines. So yes, this already lame and near non-existent blog will now not only involve photography and veganism but also my crappy writing skills, as though it was not random enough? Not sure I care though, as I feel these posts are mostly for myself and my sanity more than anything else.
So as I sit here in our downstairs office listening to Don Broco on my big headphones and trying to drown out the sound of my Husband pretending he is a John Wick badass on PUBG, I will attempt to write a kind of review about this cool Netflix show, or at least a draft of some kind.
Firstly, I have not read the Dirk Gently Novels, nor do I know much about them, so I am unsure if they are similar or not but either way this show is all kinds of crazy. Crazy in the best way.
(Oh yeah SPOILERS! Sorry!
Do not read blog if you want to watch this show without any prior info)
The show starts with Todd (Elijah's character) who seems desperately miserable with life, he wears a strangely adorable yet laughable uniform whilst working as a hotel bell boy. All of a sudden he starts to notice weird things and before you know it he has walked right into a murder scene and things start to get even weirder...kittens, blood, lottery tickets, more blood, large fur coats and more.
Shortly after Todd gets sent home from the murder scene, Dirk Gently breaks into Todd's apartment and asks Todd to be his detective assistant, at first Todd is very resistant to helping this lunatic who appears in his home and rambles nonsense in an English accent, yet somehow unbeknown to Todd the lonesome two start their investigation the following day. At first Dirk the detective comes across as a strangely quirky Sherlock but he quickly becomes his own kind of lovable if sometimes slightly annoying character. Dirk is curiously aware of things, he knows more than he should, he knows that Todd has nothing in his life, apart from his disastrous sister who is unable to leave her house in fear of her peculiar made up disease taking control, so when Todd's apartment gets destroyed, becomes the suspect for a number of crimes, deaths and freakish events he has nothing much better to do than help Dirk, and so off they go into their mad mission to find out who killed the pent house millionaire and kidnapped his daughter.
I suppose this show is a detective, mystery drama with a clever dosing of comedy and science fiction? I'm not sure, but what I am sure of is that the characters make the show, or should I say the weird relationships between the characters. Todd and his sisters relationship brings a kind of normality and a relatability into the story and I feel without this there would be something missing. They are close siblings and through out the season Amanda (the sister) is the most important thing to Todd, I liked how they entwined the brother and sister story in amongst the rest of the plot, it adds extra depth and purpose.
 |
| Dirk: I mainly attract people in positions of absolute hopelessness so I think you fit into that quite nicely. No offense. |
Dirk and Todd are really good on screen together, I think their personalities bounced off each other extremely well. As mentioned above I did find Dirks character slightly annoying and a little un-funny on a couple of occasions, nevertheless all is forgiven as he is more than amusing all the rest of the time. However, I must admit I thought he shined the most when he was being the sensitive and honest type, a few of the scenes between Dirk and Todd had me a little teary eyed!
For anyone who knows me, they will know I cry at most things! I often rate a film, book or even music on its ability to make me cry my eyes out, or at the very least make me feel an ounce of sadness or raw emotion of some sort. Without tears and/or laughter what is the point of a story?
One of the other relationships which really stands out is that of Bart and Ken. I love their little tale which runs along side the main thread of the story. Bart ends up taking Ken hostage after nearly killing him, then somehow they end up going on mini adventure together with many hilarious interactions and red-tinged shoot outs.
 |
| The universe will lead me where I need to go. I am like a leaf in the stream of creation |
This show certainly gets a big thumbs up from me. I would recommend anyone to watch it! Although, it is not really for the younger audience, it contains rather a lot of swearing and some good doses of blood and violence. If you are looking for something quirky, clever, funny and simply enjoyable then look no further.
I can't wait to watch S2 of Dirk Gently, I hope it is as good as S1. A re-watch of the first series wouldn't be out of the question either, as I think I could easily enjoy it as much the second time round. It is only 8 episodes long and it is quite fast paced, although it makes you use your head, it is not so mind boggling that you can't sit back and relax a little. Plus the soundtrack is pretty awesome too, a wide variety of weird and wonderful tracks, I am not embarrassed to say I am listening to the play list as I type this.
The show manages to combine the bland with the completely insane, whilst creating real emotions within uncanny and eccentric characters, thus giving the viewer something different and hilarious to watch yet enabling us to connect and care about the strangers on the screen.
To me this show is inevitably about loneliness and finding friendships. However, this is what is so great about stories/films, they can mean different things to everyone, each of us feels something unique to us. Others might say the plot is all about our destiny and fate, or maybe it is just a bunch of crazy, lonely, messed up people in a world where nothing makes sense...yet is all connected.
Everything is connected.
 |
| Both Seasons are on Netflix, go check them out! I will be watching S2 shortly. |
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