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» Hatrack River Forum » Active Forums » Books, Films, Food and Culture » BBC 4's, Douglas Adams' Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency.

   
Author Topic: BBC 4's, Douglas Adams' Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency.
Orincoro
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This is the first I've hear of this. Here's the trailer.

While I've always thought Adams's sleuth would be a god subject for a short tv series, I have my reservations about it being produced at all. As Adams himself constantly reminded people, the stories didn't *really* work most of the time. The way Dirk solves the cases never really ads up in a satisfying way- it's more about the journey. If this is going to be an actual detective show, and not just a comedy, that's going to be hard to maintain.

Also, a few comments on the look of the pilot. It looks very British, that's cool with me. However, Svad Chelly, aka Dirk Gently, is supposed to be fat, and is supposed to wear a ridiculous hat most of the time. He is also a chain smoker and a poor housekeeper. Those are not traits most of these recent "weirdly brilliant anti-hero" detective dramas are prepared to deal with for anything more than the briefest laughs. I'll definitely watch- but so far nothing Adams has ever written adapted well at all to the screen. I'm not sanguine that this will either.

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Bella Bee
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quote:
so far nothing Adams has ever written adapted well at all to the screen.
This, along with the fact that BBC 4 is a digital channel with such a tiny budget that it rarely even makes dramas, leads me to think that the only thing that could save this would be a fantastic script and the pure charisma of the actors, but I have no idea what any of these guys are like.

It's a shame they couldn't have made it a crossover with the Doctor Who universe shows - after all, the first DG book was based on an unused DW script and featured a (sort of) Timelord. That way they'd have got a lot more finance for this project.

I'll watch it, anyway.

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Orincoro
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More financing perhaps, but I would be dissapointed if it got crossed over with something in that world. I'm not a fan, and I *am* a much bigger fan of DG, which I think is what Dr. Who should be, but can't live up to. There's a lot in these novels that, unlike in H2G2, really get very deeply at the the human experience. That's tough to do with comedy, but Adams used the ridiculousness of his characters and situations to disarm the reader and deal with really serious issues of our place in the universe, our self identity, and the nature of our most basic beliefs.
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Shanna
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I'm not opposed to the idea in general, low budget or not, but the trailer shows no sign of the humor or absurdity that makes Dirk Gently so unique.
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Teshi
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When does it air for you? I watched half of it last night and half of it this morning via the BBC iplayer ( [Big Grin] ).

I don't know the book. As a TV episode, it was solid, although not brilliant. I found it bizarre and a bit funny. It did come together at the end.

It lacked wallop, though. If what Orincoro said is true (about the human experience), it was missing the cutting commentary that could have made it screamingly funny. I felt that it should have been more painful in order to be more funny, if you know what I mean. The story had to be a tragedy in order to truly be a comedy-- and it didn't quite get there.

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Bella Bee
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It airs for me when I hopefully get back to England some time next week *please, weather gods, don't let it snow too much* (and watch it on iPlayer!).

Good to know it does not completely suck.

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Orincoro
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The trick though with DG and with Adams generally is that though it does deal with some rather deep human drama, it does so in a very circumspect way- almost like the drama is happening below a surface we as the reader don't access to directly. He paints poignant pictures of people and their lives, but he avoids explicating the things that happen to them- most of the big stuff happens out of frame, so to speak. We are only acquainted with their tragedies after the fact- we only come to sympathize with them in retrospect.

Particularly I am thinking of the character of Michael Wenton-Weakes, who *SPOILER ALERT* leads the spoiled lifestyle of apassive dilitante, until he is influenced by a ghost to become a murderer, and then is totally possessed by that ghost. It's fairly poignant- but most of the action is not narrated, only implied. So much of the plot of these books is implied, rather than explicated.

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