Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency

The tone bounces cannily from humor to pathos to suspense. The one knock against “Gently”? So much is going on here, the plot is so dense, this is a show that might be better off binged in a marathon. Just one more thing to look forward to, then.

Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency” may start in an oddly untethered state, but it is marvelously strange and entertaining enough to warrant sticking around as its heroes and writers connect the dots.

It's dark and funny and appalling and sad and silly, and very much its own thing.

These first three episodes present a compelling--if overstuffed and often inelegant--mystery.

The first two episodes of Dirk Gently will be an easy litmus test for fans of this kind of show, because it's all over the map (intentionally) and veers wildly in tone.

At times Dirk Gently feels like one long, never-ending tease but the show is so strange and consistently surprising and unpredictable it seems likely to find some sort of a cult audience.

What the show brings though is off-kilter energy, which is at times exhausting, but occasionally entertaining.

Those who have devoured the swervy, same-named Douglas Adams books could very well find themselves immensely entertained. Those who haven’t--guilty as charged--at least can admire the energy, cheekiness and slick production values without caring all that much how everything comes out.

The series' attempts at cleverness come off as a screechy homage to Adams rather than channeling his wit and the big, silly heart hidden inside. [21/28 Oct 2016, p.95]

The problem here is the writing, which consistently feels belabored and overtly complicated while the show itself remains largely just about Dirk and Todd and their adventures.

Unfortunately, cooked-up and glommed together is what Dirk Gently seems to be serving up. It’s a big dumpster full of ideas and images, some intriguing, others baffling, most rather meh.

To the uninitiated, though, Dirk Gently feels pretty near impenetrable -- an opaque fever dream that careens along almost drunkenly. Many literary properties face a similar challenge, especially when they enjoy strong cultish devotion, raising the bar in terms of satisfying the faithful without excluding others. Dirk Gently ultimately fails that test.