Call Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency the cure for the common cop show.
Based on the 1987 novel by Douglas Adams — the same guy who brought you The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy — this cheeky dramedy stars Wood (Wilfred) as lovable loser Todd Brotzman, a bellman who lands in the middle of a bizarre murder investigation helmed by the highly unusual titular character, played by Penny Dreadful’s Samuel Barnett.
Blessed with psychic abilities that make him suspect everything is connected — and the people skills of a hyperactive first-grader — Gently also believes he and Brotzman were cosmically destined to solve the crime.
Blessed with psychic abilities that make him suspect everything is connected — and the people skills of a hyperactive first-grader — Gently also believes he and Brotzman were cosmically destined to solve the crime.
It all begins on what amounts to the worst day of Todd’s life, including a series of unfortunate events leading into a bad workday for the ages. And thus, his partnership with the kooky, but well-intentioned Dirk. Far from the city, professional hacker Ken (Mpho Koaho) is also having a really bad day. Bumbling assassin Bartine “Bart” Curlish (Fiona Dourif) — believing she’s obeying the universe’s command — targets him, thinking he is Dirk. And she’s not the only one on the trail of Mr. Gently, complicating Todd’s life something awful and requiring him to come to Dirk’s aid time and again.
“Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency is a blast of fresh, cosmically weird air,” says Sarah Barnett, President, BBC AMERICA. “Fans of Doctor Who, Monty Python, Sherlock and Barton Fink will find things to love in this sharply original, yet reverent, gigantic puzzle, at the heart of which are funny messed up people you really care about. … And there’s a kitten/shark.”
Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency airs Saturdays at 9/8CT on BBC America.
