There is always a danger when adapting
a television show or film from another authors work, especially from
the more detailed and in depth pages of a book. There is a real peril
in trying to capture the essence and feel of the source material and
success is not always a given.
For every well done adaption there are
countless utter failures and there is even more risk when you are
trying to recreate something from a popular writer who has a great
number of critical followers.
Dirk Gently's debut did not fall into
any of these pitfalls, with Howard Overman doing a simply remarkable
job of conveying an atmosphere worthy of Douglas Adams and making a
grand impression that somewhere, someplace, Douglas is smiling in
amusement, that is if they get BBC Four in the afterlife.
Dirk Gently, as played by Stephen
Mangan, also seems to channel Adams spirit as well, as an almost
Earth bound Ford Prefect. He is mad, in your face and a wonderful
addition to the halls of the British detective. His boundless energy
and passion are almost at the same level of interest to the viewer as
his lack of funds and shoddy, broken down office.
Every Sherlock Holmes of course needs a
Doctor Watson and Dirk seemingly has his in Richard MacDuff, a simple
soul who seems to be easily lead and also vulnerable to ridicule as
much Dirk himself. But they also seem to have a bond with each other,
despite being complete opposites The trio that makes up the main cast
is rounded out by MacDuff's girlfriend Susan, who distrusts Dirk's
methods and his legitimacy as a proper detective.
Of course a great detective is measured
by the mystery or case he sets out to solve and here too the script
goes all out as we are faced with a series of seemingly random events
such as a missing cat, a exploding warehouse and East 17 topping the
music charts in 1994.
All of these scattered events are
connected in Dirk Gently's method of interconnectedness that creates
a solution that is sure to bring a smile when all is said and done
and a bit of serious head scratching before the big reveal.
Science fiction elements are not as
prominent as in Adams' take, but there are indeed parts of the
storyline that have a taste of the speculative, but not so much so
that it takes away from what this programme is meant to be, a
detective show much in the vein of Monk, with a lead that although a
genius in his own way, also is miles away from the usual hard nose
private eye.
Truly there is not enough praise I can
dish out for this hour long television event, it was smart, funny,
true to it's source material and the brilliance of it's original
creator while forging a new mold of the concept for television.
Hopefully the ratings and the critical and audience response is such
that it gets to be a full series as it has all the right elements to
be a hit, no sleuthing necessary.
-Thomas Spychalski
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