Good TV shows come and go but it is very seldom, that a programme comes along and delivers something truly original. Or not simply original but rather unexplainable and non-predictable. ‘American Gods’ is a good example. Most people know of Gaiman and his creation but the adaption to TV, whilst faithful, opens up a whole new host of styles and approaches to the story. When you have two zany, quirky and visionary talents i.e. The original author and show creator, it creates a mix that is beautiful and bizarre.
Having read the original books, I can clearly identify how similar or dissimilar the show is from the source material. Personally, I feel that the core tone, pace and pervading humour is very true to Douglas Adams’ distinctive writing. Yet the setting, the characters and the backstory of ‘Dirk Gently’ are very much a reimaging. Many may feel that this is not acceptable. That if you are adapting something then you should stick to the original material. But I think it reinforces the point of Gently and its author.
People were drawn to these stories in the first place because they were so bizarre, out there and ludicrous but somehow relatable. To do a carbon copy of this would sully that. By taking the core aspects of the character and the tone but tweaking it and adding new material, it allows for more input of the unknown and unexplained. Which is the sort of the point of the character and the story in the first place.
Season 2 is set a few months after the finale of season 1. Dirk has been captured by the experimental clinic Blackwing, where he was imprisoned as a child. Here, they are trying to decipher his holistic powers through a series of tests. Meanwhile, Todd and Farah have been searching for Dirk, whilst trying to avoid capture from the Government. Then finally you have Todd’s sister Amanda. We last saw her running off with the punk rocker soul suckers, The Rowdy Three. After three of them got captured by the clinic, she and the only remaining soul member are also on the run. Then finally you have Bart, the assassin who cannot die, her hacker friend Ken and his dog. The latter of the two are at Blackwing like Dirk and Bart’s whereabouts unknown.
Now it would be a simple enough plan to just continue the various story arcs, but this is ‘Dirk Gently’, where the weird and the wonderful are commonplace. The embodiment of this takes place in the opening two minutes. Panto, a warrior with pink hair and a giant pair of scissor swords is being chased through a fantasy forest. It is a hilariously bizarre sequence, where we see gay lovers, a kingdom on the verge of a civil war and a prophecy about a mage and a boy. It feels like a send up of something like ‘Once Open A Time’ with its ridiculous and entertaining parody of fantasy. The icing on the cake however is the end of the sequence where Panto mentions ‘Dirk Gently’ as being part of the prophecy.
Opening credits roll and already I am wondering just how weird this season is going to be. Things return to the modern, present world and we are reintroduced to all the main players. However, it is some of the new characters that I find myself enticed by. The show focuses on people with abnormal qualities. Not just Dirk and the other test subjects with powers. But also, the everyday minor characters with their strange offbeat personalities. The aspect that made the first show and the original books for that matter so fascinating, was how at odds everything initially seems. Random, unexplainable events that are simply downright bizarre. Yet, as the episodes unfold, a universal connection bring them together.
The second season continues in this fashion. Todd and Farah stumble upon an old house, sealed off by the Government. It seems totally unrelated to what else is going on. There is a man stuck in a tree and a car with a dead body falls out of another tree. Add to this what Dirk and Panto are up to and already it seems so unconnected, trying to figure out the link is both puzzling and the charm of the show. The house that Todd and Farah find themselves is in a small town in Montana. This seems unimportant but when Dirk suddenly emerges from the boot of the car in the tree, things start to slowly come together. This is where we are introduced to two new characters, police officer Sherlock Hobbs and Tina. These additions make the season for me.
They are both your classic clumsy backwater cops, which although being a cliché, is performed so well by the two stars, it is hard to find fault. It also fits in perfectly with the show’s tone and style. As with the first season, it seems that everyone apart from Farah is sort of useless. This is important in a way though, as it allows her character to step up and take charge. Something she has been denied in the past. Through a series of revelations and lack of police procedure, Hobbs and Tina allow Dirk and company out of their cells to assist in the investigation. The motley crew and the case they are involved in, remind me heavily of a classic ‘Scooby Doo’ caper.
What is particularly interesting about this season is that the villains or antagonists of the piece aren’t the final enemies. The season sets it up like they are but then throws in the twist that they aren’t as the episodes further develop. For example, the leader of Blackwing Friedkin, has no idea what he is doing and so gets Ken to help him out. Ken then uses his intelligence and cunning to steal the position as head honcho himself. Likewise, Susie, who I will explain more about later starts off as an apparently meek and innocent character. The mage convinces her to assist him on his conquest of power but when he loses his nerve, she quickly supplements herself as the new power to be feared. This idea of the little, unnoticed character subtly manoeuvring themselves into a position of power is one that is accomplished very well throughout the season.
Susie and Ken’s characters are interesting. In the previous season we saw Ken as a weedy, slightly cowardly hacker, who through his fast thinking and negotiation techniques manages to convince Bart not to kill him. Now captured and being tortured in Blackwing, we start the second season knowing a bit about his character and personality. Susie on the other hand is a brand-new character. From the start of her introduction, you can’t help but feel sorry for her. Her husband is a jerk, her son a punk and her boss a bully. She is meek, shy and sensitive. We are then made to feel totally at odds, when the mage arrives and brutally kills her boss, as despite her being scared, there is part of her that enjoys it. She happens across the mage’s wand and spell book and soon learn she has the power to do well pretty much anything. At first, she uses this to make herself feel better but soon it takes a dark turn. Up until the mid-point of the season, I felt conflicted feelings. On the one hand, I could see that her actions were a result of the way she had been treated. Yet at the same time, her crimes were very sadistic and cruel. This was balanced well with the focus on her husband, that she turned into a zombie. The occasional cuts back to him and the things that she is making him do, highlight just how horrible she has become. However, by the tail end of the season, I felt that Susie was beyond redemption. Whilst this is the point that the power she holds consumes her, I found it becoming a bit wearisome. The internal struggle which we saw earlier in the season was gone and now her character just seemed like a typical over the top, inherently evil villain.
Ken’s transition, whilst a good plot device both in terms of the hidden villain behind a villain and to create a rift between him and Bart, seemed a little bit of a jump. It was evident in the first season, that his morals were slightly in question but for him to suddenly become so evil, didn’t entirely add up. In my opinion, it would have made more sense for him to use that as a cover to dethrone the previous Friedkin and help Bart. But then I guess they needed a catalyst for the third season. Funnily enough, the other character I felt was a little weak was Dirk himself. Good, as the season was, I felt it tried to bite off more then it could chew. It has countless characters, inhabiting two worlds simultaneously but the main character of the show gets overlooked. Todd, Amanda, Farah, Ken, Barb and Susie are all developed in depth. Their internal struggles, moral decisions and growth as characters are ripe for the picking. But Dirk seems very much the same as he did in season 1. Admittedly, this was the attraction of the character in the first place, but it would have been nice to see more of a development of him, as an individual. Todd is still erratic and slightly deluded but later in the season, he seems more comfortable and accepting of himself. Dirk, on the other hand seems worse then to begin with. Whilst this sort of makes sense, considering his experiences with Blackwing, it also makes for a less then exciting watch. His mood changes, over the top freak outs and moments of self – pity just irritated me.
Although I said earlier, how I liked the fact that the show is its own interpretation of ‘Dirk Gently’, I must stress one point. Whilst the introduction of the magical kingdom of Wendimoor made for some great entertainment, I do feel it was a tad overused. The first season worked well in my opinion because it mixed the everyday with the downright bizarre. The first half of the second season continues in that fashion. The house within a house sequence with its creepy parallel version of the Cardenas’ house was elegantly done. But the last few episodes seemed primarily focused in Wendimoor and that’s when I began to lose interest. For me, I found the setting of Montana, the epitome of what ‘Dirk Gently’ is all about. A town where nothing happens but underneath everything is surreal and unexplainable. This is what the books were good at. Throwing in little oddities and surrealist moments amidst a normal setting. The inclusion of Wendimoor was a good idea but the over play of it seems too blatant. I feel that the creators got too caught up in the creation of Wendimoor and Blackwing, that it pulls away from the focus of the show. Dirk and Todd.
At the close of the season, I had mixed feelings. Case closed, Dirk and Todd can be seen officially setting up the Holistic Agency. After the over use of Blackwing and Wendimoor, I was glad to see this, as I felt that it was hinting that season 3 will be more about the agency itself, which is where I feel my interest drawn to. The cliff hanger of Blackwing itself whilst good, felt like it would be better suited in its own separate show. I liked the inclusion of it in the first season, as it didn’t overshadow Dirk and Todd’s story arc. But in season 2, I felt it was becoming a bit too integral to the show. It is interesting, but I want more of Dirk and Todd solving crimes not fighting against a clinic who study mutants. It all just seems a bit too ‘X-Men’ for my liking and draws away from the focus of Dirk and Todd solving crimes. To make matters worse, they have announced that the show won’t be returning for a third season, so my dream of them becoming a proper agency may never come to pass anyway.
Season 2 of Dirk Gently is a mixed bag of fruit for me. On the one hand, the randomness of events, scenarios and situations Dirk and company find themselves in, is achieved well. The interconnectedness of everything is so vague, that you will be scratching your head to try to figure out the answers. This is what ‘Dirk Gently’ should be. The characters, both old and new are developed well and their struggles, conflicts and decisions are all focused upon with great deal, so there is enough drama to balance out the comedy well. Blackwing and Wendimoor start of as being cool storylines to focus on, as there are more narratives and characters to follow but I feel near the tail end, they become far too much of the focus. This draws attention away from both Dirk and Montana, the two aspects of the show I was intrigued in the most. The original villains that begin to question themselves are done well, allowing for the new antagonists to steal their spot. Initially, both these characters are developed well but I felt in the tail end of the season, their development and transitioning sort of fell short of the mark. It is well worth a watch to enjoy the bizarre storyline, strange characters and how the two start off being so far apart but somehow, inexplicably interlocked together. It is a strong season in its own right, I just feel that a little more time dedicated to Dirk himself and less time given to new complicated concepts would have made it follow on better from the first season.
© [Daniel Ashby] and [Ashby Reel], [2018]. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to [Daniel Ashby] and [Ashby Reel] with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.
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