Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency: Rogue Wall Enthusiasts Show Only

November 6, 2016 9:45 AM - Season 1, Episode 3

Farah and Dirk follow clues in a message from Patrick Spring. Elsewhere: Todd learns he has no safe harbor after trying to go to the police and Amanda encounters a looming presence.

AV Club recap - Dirk Gently finds a magic light bulb, and leaves some other mysteries unresolved

posted by oh yeah! (11 comments total)

I liked the pilot enough to buy the series on Amazon, but three episodes in and I'm starting to hate it already. I'm irritated by Dirk's manic pixie Doctor Who shtick, I am tired of the hobbit's whining about how he doesn't want to be on this adventure, and I wish the assassin would develop into her own character rather than being a second-rate Helena imitation.

More than anything, the Helena knock-off is killing the show for me.

The pieces are all in place for a really good show. I really want this to be better.
posted by kanewai at 2:50 PM on November 6, 2016

Who's Helena?
posted by oh yeah! at 5:32 PM on November 6, 2016 [1 favorite]

Sorry, I over-edited and deleted part of the reference. Helena is a character in Orphan Black, and the assassin on Dirk Gently is almost a one-to-one copy - the accent, the hair, the stooped posture, the mannerisms, & the patterns of her speech are all too similar.
posted by kanewai at 5:42 PM on November 6, 2016 [1 favorite]

I found the comedy in this episode particularly weak, and overall it's more frustrating than entertaining.

It would make a good netflix show, I forget too much of the previous episodes. I'd like to watch it in two five-hour binges rather than spread over ten weeks.


P.S. I think Todd didn't have the disease, he was faking to get money from his parents. This will be revealed for some sibling drama within a few episodes.
posted by FallowKing at 7:26 PM on November 6, 2016 [4 favorites]

I must be in the minority because I'm having a great time watching this!

I'm a big Orphan Black fan and the similarities between Helena and the holistic assassin didn't bother me. Maybe it's because I don't find the mannerisms and accent to be a one-on-one copy. Helena has much more pronounced ukrainian accent. Also Helena doesn't act as erratic as the assassin.
posted by Pendragon at 5:49 AM on November 7, 2016 [1 favorite]

The Ken/Bart the assassin scenes are probably my favorite part of the show. I loved Ken's acceptance of this new bizarro life at the end of this episode, though I agree with the AV Club that the parallel dialogue between Dirk & Todd doesn't carry the same oomph.

I did like Dirk's scene with the Colonel - probably the first time I've felt any real empathy for Dirk, his emotion seemed genuine rather than his usual manic-pixie mode. I'm still not feeling much of any connection to Todd though.
posted by oh yeah! at 7:54 AM on November 7, 2016 [1 favorite]

Yeah, I do actually find myself rather enjoying this show overall. It's more "inspired by" than "based on" w/r/t the source material, but at least it's not the Hitchhiker's Guide movie.
posted by DoctorFedora at 9:58 PM on November 7, 2016 [2 favorites]

Honestly I'm torn between the idea that Todd didn't have the disease and was faking for attention/money or the idea that he never really recovered and just learned to ignore the symptoms to stop draining the family funds. That would also explain his guilt over reassuring his sister that she'll recover and also his habit of witnessing weird things and waiting for confirmation before he commits to them. His hesitance to describe anything to the police in the first episode could be trying to cover for not knowing what part of what he witnessed was real.
posted by Karmakaze at 9:45 AM on November 9, 2016 [4 favorites]

I'm enjoying this and I actually think part of the reason I am enjoying it is because the way parts of it are put together just don't make much sense. It seems like there's either way too much going on or not enough going on and that works for a show about the inconnectedness of things, I guess.

I still find the assassin hilarious - I've never watched Orphan Black so I just don't make the connections other people are making there. (Orphan Black is on a list of things to watch - I just haven't gotten to it yet.)

Not sure if Todd never had the disease and that'll cause drama OR if they're just setting him up to be a person who tries to do his best but there's always bigger circumstances at play.
posted by fluffy battle kitten at 9:24 PM on November 12, 2016 [3 favorites]

Watching these much delayed, caught up to episode 3. Honestly, I'm kind of disappointed at this point, because the show doesn't have the *feel* of the books. Someone got it right in the first thread of manic pixie Torchwood Doctor Who X Files. I'll probably watch the rest of season 1, since I bought the pass, but I'm kind of bummed and feel like I need to reread the whole Adams ouvre as a palate cleanser.
posted by instamatic at 3:59 PM on November 25, 2016

To those of you reading this after watching Episode 3, I suggest you keep watching. The show gets much better towards the end, and it makes the previous episodes seem better in retrospect. At the moment I'm impatiently waiting for season 2.
I intend to wait until it's finished to binge-watch season 2.
posted by FallowKing at 4:34 PM on January 11, 2017 [3 favorites]