Dirk Gently season 2, supreme randomness

[random11]

I enjoyed the firs season very much.
It did not try to follow the book, but I thought it managed to capture at least some of the heart and humor of it.

I also enjoy the second season so far, but there are two glaring flaws that did not exist before and that I can't just ignore:

1) No one is normal.
In the previous season, there were enough characters that were at least mostly normal people in both terms of abilities and reaction to the weirdness around them.
In this season everyone is insane.

2) While things were weird in the first season, there was a feeling that the characters are always TRYING to do something about it.
Trying to solve a mystery even if they use crooked logic to do so, investigating the events, following clues.
In the current season, the mantra of "everything is connected" takes the lead over the actions.
It doesn't feel like the characters are actually DOING something as much as passively waiting for the universe to bring the answer to them.


It's still good, I enjoy watching it.
But I don't feel like it's following the heart of the source material anymore as much as trying to imitate it by taking only the "cool" stuff.

[Reddish Mage]

I enjoyed the firs season very much.
It did not try to follow the book, but I thought it managed to capture at least some of the heart and humor of it.

I also enjoy the second season so far, but there are two glaring flaws that did not exist before and that I can't just ignore:

1) No one is normal.
In the previous season, there were enough characters that were at least mostly normal people in both terms of abilities and reaction to the weirdness around them.
In this season everyone is insane.

2) While things were weird in the first season, there was a feeling that the characters are always TRYING to do something about it.
Trying to solve a mystery even if they use crooked logic to do so, investigating the events, following clues.
In the current season, the mantra of "everything is connected" takes the lead over the actions.
It doesn't feel like the characters are actually DOING something as much as passively waiting for the universe to bring the answer to them.


It's still good, I enjoy watching it.
But I don't feel like it's following the heart of the source material anymore as much as trying to imitate it by taking only the "cool" stuff.

I have to agree. I love this show, and I thought season one was the greatest adaption of a Douglas Adams novel ever (possibly not including the HGTTG radio programs, but they came before the novels). Season Two is getting a liiiit-tle too crazy. Everything really should be interconnected, but now the nonsense seems a little bit too nonsensical and there seems to be too much going on now that we are getting a good look inside Blackwing in addition to dealing with multiple Wendimor related happenings (this time the prophecy is too vague to make everything seem connected, and the holistic assassin just wandered into the plot rather than having a purpose). Also, I dislike that Dirk Gently is now questioning himself and his holistic philosophy. Although it gives the other characters, who now believe in holism more than Dirk does, the chance to lead.

I think they might have purposely made this one a bit more difficult too relate to the action, or perhaps in season one it was just easier to "just go with it" when all the absurd strangeness happened.

I think gay queer Dirk Gently is a great interpretation of the character. I vaguely recall Douglas Adams was questioned on this interpretation early on when the books were published and may have said something along the lines of "I didn't think of him as gay but its a great interpretation and the text is more than author's intent." Dirk Gently's yellow jacket is straight (no pun intended) out of the novels together and he is also described as alternatively socially awkward and abrasive in much the way he is played on screen (and it makes perfect sense once given a fairy affect).

I'm not sure Blackwing adds enough to the show to warrant their inclusion. I believe there was a throwaway line in Long Dark Tea Time of the Soul that Dirk was once an assassin for the CIA, or said he was (reminder - the book takes place in England and Dirk is English). The notion that Dirk Gently has psychic, or any other special powers, also seems to me to contradict the source material. I like that they leave it ambiguous this season.

It seems right to me that Dirk Gently is simply a guy who perceives the interconnectedness of all things, and thus the universe simply shows its weirdness him. I would say the weirdness is sheer coincidence but of course, the whole point of holism is that coincidence is not an actual thing in the world.

[Delicious Taffy]

I think I'm coming away from this show with a slightly different reading.

This season's plot isn't wrapped quite as tightly as Season 1's, but that's mostly due to the increased cast size. The only people in Season 1 with explicitly supernatural powers were the Rowdy Three, with Dirk and Bart mostly just winding up where they needed to be at any given time. The villains were using borderline-magical machines, sure, but there were scenes dedicated to showing just how the machines came to be. By the end of the season, there were hardly any loose ends, and they managed to add hooks for another season, without those being intrusive.

In Season 2, they've kept the main protagonists from Season 1 (Dirk, Todd, and Farah), as well as some of the supporting cast (Bart, Ken, Amanda, Vogel, and Friedkin) in the spotlight. Any character growth and bonding they went through in Season 1 was retained, leaving the writers plenty of room to explore new branches of those things. Now, though, everything is converging on Bergsberg, which brings in our new supporting cast (Hobbes, Tina, Suzie, and Panto) and antagonists (Mr. Priest and the Mage). There's also the supplementary characters in Bergsberg and Wendimoor. Things are starting to get a little bit crowded, is the point to all that. With so many characters in play, each with their own roles and backstories, it's going to wind up being a looser story.

The thing is, I don't think this one was meant to be as tight, or at least not the same sort of tightness. It's partially a fantasy story, with all the magic and supernatural shenanigans that come with the packaging. Things are going to wind up seeming a little more complicated and unrelated, now that there's more in play than a time machine. Before, we could say that everyone knew about Dirk because of Patrick Spring and the time loop. Now, there's an entire prophecy surrounding him, and we're not sure where it came from. My current theory is that the Mage knows about Dirk somehow, possibly in the same way Bart knew about him before she ever met him, and he's the one who started the prophecy. Or maybe the water-teleporting girl is behind a lot of it.

I'm slightly rambling, so I'll change gears a bit and address something specific from this thread. From what I've seen of the show (never read the book), Dirk Gently is absolutely not a psychic. He's affected and directed by the universe, but any attempt to intentionally steer him or "get him to work" only results in delaying him from being where he's meant to be. That's why it was such a waste of time for Friedkin to experiment on him, and the water girl had to come get him and take him to the others. As far as I can tell, the only character whose state of being has shifted from "normal...ish" to "definitely magical" is Amanda, which I'm assuming is because of what I'm guessing is the nature of Wendimoor.

At any rate, I'm glad there's a thread for this show.

[random11]

My theory:
Someone that was in this research facility with Dirk as a kid dreamed this world and created it from his power.
The world is an intentionally childish and sort of cliched-fantasy place because it was created by a kid, and Dirk is in the prophecy just because he knew him.

[Future Sword]

Too bad they plan on killing Bart.

[Pronounceable]

The first season was awesome in every possible way. I bailed on 2nd episode this time around cause this **** needs to be binged. I'll watch it all in one sitting again when the time comes.

Did the time come yet?

How about now?




And now?


Damn.

[random11]

Well, season ended.

My criticism from the beginning of the thread are still valid, but I think it got a little better in the last 2-3 episodes.

I'm not sure I like where the next season is going, but I'll gladly give it a chance assuming it will exist.

[Delicious Taffy]

Well, that's one hell of a way to wrap up a season. I wasn't expecting most of it, and I'm super interested in seeing where they might go with it all.

I'm also really worried about Ken, especially after what Bart said to him.

[Reddish Mage]

I am trying to figure out whether this show is the only one to truly capture Douglas Adam’s books or if Max Landis is very much doing his own thing now.

I think it might depend how much of a factor Blackwing remains.

Whether the show gets a third season is very much in doubt unfortunately.

[random11]

I am trying to figure out whether this show is the only one to truly capture Douglas Adam’s books or if Max Landis is very much doing his own thing now.

I would say both.
It's not an exact capture of Douglas Adams.
A lot of his humor was directed at the absurdities of the mundane, when the weird stuff was used only as a tool.
Also, I doubt Douglas Adams would create a tool like Blackwing to explain the weird stuff, he would probably just keep it strange and go on with it.

Still, the show did catch the humor and sense of randomness in a good way, and what he added did not disrupt the flow or turn the story into a copy of other shows (I can easily see how season one could have been a "cop plus one" show in the hands of someone else).

So it was a show by Max Landis, who managed to show understanding of the source material, and tried his best to be both faithful and original.

[FreddyNoNose]

Love this show and am sad that we aren't getting season 3.

[Reddish Mage]

I see it's official. Its been fun, looking forward to the next project.

[Delicious Taffy]

Damn. Now all BBCA has to offer is incessant Star Trek reruns, with the occasional episode of Doctor Who at like 3:45 AM.

[Algeh]

Damn. Now all BBCA has to offer is incessant Star Trek reruns, with the occasional episode of Doctor Who at like 3:45 AM.

Yeah, it feels like they've just decided to become the Star Trek Nostalgia Network. Back before DVD box sets were a thing, I would have found that delightful, but I am pretty much able to supply my own needs for old Star Trek episodes without their help now that it's not the 90s.

BBC America used to be one of my "default" networks, where I'd see what they were airing that week to look for new shows to give a chance to, and I'd regularly find new shows to try by seeing promos during shows I was already watching so it was kind of a TV "home base" for me. At this point, the only still-airing show they seem to have that I have any interest in is Doctor Who, and I've been kind of burned out on that for a few years now anyway. It seems like they don't air very many actual BBC shows anymore, which was kind of the point of the network.

All of TV is kind of in a lull for me right now for some reason. I'm watching a few things on actual broadcast networks, but the only pay-tv-only things I seem to still be following are Doctor Who and a few shows on the Food Network that appear for a limited series every now and then but aren't in regular rotation. I'm in the process of moving and figuring out what I need in terms of TV/Internet/Phone (since those have all somehow become the same company in the past few years), and I'm not seeing the point of having TV anymore at this rate.

(I used to watch a lot of Teen Nick/The N when it used to show a lot of foreign half hour dramas, but it all seems to be mainline Nickelodeon reruns now too. I'm not sure where all of the imported shows have gone - probably scattered between a bunch of streaming services.)

[Reddish Mage]

I'm wondering what else Max Landis is coming up with and if there's anything remotely like Dirk Gently.

I know he was reportedly paid $3.5 million for the script of Bright but supposedly David Ayer took the script and heavily edited it and now Max Landis is the only one out of the sequel project. So I'm not sure how much that movie reflects Max Landis (maybe the basic concepts crossing fantasy creatures with modern LA) or just David Ayer and his style of cop movie.

[FreddyNoNose]

BBCA’s ‘Dirk Gently’ Grabs Most Attention in 4Q: Study

http://www.broadcastingcable.com/new...q-study/171819

[Reddish Mage]

This tells you how important it is to have a show that actually grabs the audiences attention.

I did notice a change.org petition to get the show back. It's up to 86k signatures.

The article that linked to the petition noted that even if the TV show gets picked up again by someone that Max Landis might not be in it, largely because of the sexual assault allegations.

I actually can't seem to find any first-hand accounts of sexual assault by him, although there are plenty of statements from him directly that are quite misogynist. It seems quite a lot of celebrities are willing to tweet about him being a sexual predator.

[Algeh]

It might be more that trying to watch Dirk Gently WITHOUT paying much attention to it wouldn't work well at all, because it's not the kind of show that works well as "background noise". The only people tuned to it are people who are actively watching (which seems to be what that metric is measuring).

The opposite would be something like soccer, which I am definitely prone to having on in the background while I do other things and then using the DVR to back up if something actually happens. (Particularly if it's some kind of group stage match that I only care about because of standings or something.)