Review: Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency, Season Two

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As you may recall, I initially had a hard time getting into the Netflix/BBC adaptation of Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency. It was a strange, seemingly obtuse show with little connection to its source material. But by the end of season one, I’d been converted.

The logo for Netflix's adaptation of Dirk Gently's Holistic AgencyA year later, season two has appeared on Netflix, and I’ve been more than converted. I’ve been absolutely floored.

Compared to season one, season two’s plot is a fair bit more straightforward, but I use the term loosely. It’s still so bizarre and complex that I’d have a hard time knowing where to begin summarizing.

I can say it involves magic, scissor-wielding knights, pocket dimensions, a holistic method actress, a boat that fell from the sky, a purple people-eater, an epic gay love story, and the best worst cops ever.

Oh, and you might just learn the how and why of Dirk Gently’s existence along the way. Before, I disliked the attempt to provide an explanation for Dirk’s abilities, but seeing how it now fits into a greater mythology, I’ve come to appreciate the idea.

Much of season two deals with events in an alternate reality, a fairytale kingdom called Wendimoor. A surreal place of rainbow colours and childish ideas, Wendimoor initially seems like a place of utter silliness and absurdity, but I guarantee you that by the end of the season, you’ll be taking events in Wendimoor very, very seriously.

That said, while the show can still go to some fairly dark places, season two does have a lot more levity than season one. There’s more jokes, more humour, and a more whimsical tone in general, as well as some genuinely heartwarming moments.

Sherlock Hobbes and Tina Tevetino in season two of Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective AgencyA real highlight of season two comes in the form of two new characters, Tina Tevetino and Sherlock Hobbes, the only two cops in a tiny Montana town that lies at the heart of Dirk’s latest “case.” Bored out of their minds from their life in a town where absolutely nothing ever happens, Tina and Hobbes become almost frighteningly eager to assist Dirk’s friends on their exciting adventure.

They’re the worst cops ever, breathtakingly undisciplined and unprofessional, and yet almost overwhelmingly lovable and entertaining. They’re the best part of season two, and that’s saying something in a season that’s virtually flawless from top to bottom.

And truly, this is a season of television that has it all. Humour, drama, action, mystery, suspense, shock, horror… Name an emotion, and season two of Dirk Gently will make you feel it.

As before, the season begins seeming like chaos, like nonsense. Weirdness will be thrown at you hard at fast, and none of it will make any sense. But with each passing episode, more pieces will fall together. Everything will come together, and (nearly) every question will be answered. Anarchy becomes a symphony.

These are the kind of stories that both inspire and depress me, because I want so badly to be able to write like this, but I know I’m just not that good. Maybe one day I’ll become a good story-teller, but I’ll never be this good.

If I have one small complaint, it’s that Dirk himself takes something of a dark turn this season. He spends much of it in a state of depression, his confidence shattered and his sense of wonder replaced by cynicism. Now, this makes perfect sense given all that’s happened in his life, but it just doesn’t feel the same without Dirk’s usual manic enthusiasm.

A shot from season two of Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective AgencyIn every other way, this is about as good as TV gets.

In researching this post, I was very saddened to discover that the BBC has cancelled the show. My hope is that Netflix may pick it up for a third season themselves, because this is definitely a show that deserves to continue, but if not, the silver lining is that season two does have a mostly conclusive ending, so it’s not like we’ll be left with an unfinished cliffhanger at least.

Regardless of what the future holds, Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency is a show that has now earned my unequivocal recommendation. Season one took some getting used to but was worth it in the end.

Season two, on the other hand, is a masterpiece.

Overall rating: 9.6/10 Whether you know it or not, you need this show in your life.

Review: Star Trek: Discovery, “The Wolf Inside”

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Well, this is better than last week’s disaster, even if that’s not a high bar to clear.

The official logo for Star Trek: Discovery“The Wolf Inside” sees Burnham continue to struggle to maintain her cover in the Mirror Universe. When she’s ordered to massacre a group of rebels, she seeks alternate solutions, seeing the multi-racial insurgents as a pale shadow of the Federation of her own reality.

I really enjoyed this hopeful, idealistic Burnham. I wonder if she’s met the Michael Burnham who started a war with the Klingons out of blind racism.

This is another episode that hearkens back to Star Trek’s traditional identity — full of adherence to an idealistic morality — and it’s nice to see, but it’s starting to just feel like paying lip service. It’s like every few episodes the writers are like, “Oh, right, this is a Star Trek show. Better throw in a couple quick lines of moral pontificating.”

Because there isn’t a whole lot of depth here. The Mirror Universe is too much a cartoon parody of evil for this philosophizing about the potential for darkness within us to have any real resonance. One or two instances of the protagonists demonstrating basic decency does not a profound message make. Any claims to diversity or inclusiveness have been rendered moot by Discovery’s consistently shabby treatment of anyone who isn’t white or Burnham.

Also, the Tyler/Voq arc is still a mess. They’ve really painted themselves into a corner here. They can’t wrap it up too fast because it’s too integral to the both the main plot and the character arcs, but I really find nothing at all appealing about it, for all the reasons mentioned in my last review.

The titular ship in Star Trek: DiscoveryA betrayal story works best when the traitor is someone who should know better. Someone who was once good, or appeared that way, but fell from grace. Their bonds with the other characters need to be real for severing those bonds to mean anything.

There was never anything decent in Voq. It was all just smoke and mirrors. The stolen memories of a dead man. He’s just a monster. He can’t truly betray the Discovery crew because he was never really one of them. Emotionally, it all falls flat.

Once again, the highlight comes from Tilly. Oh, her story is boring and predictable in the extreme, but Mary Wiseman plays it so well.

She is too good for this show.

It occurs to me this reads as another very critical review, despite the fact “The Wolf Inside” was really a pretty decent episode. But that’s the risk in an arc-based series like this. If the entire arc is based on fundamentally weak premises, it kind of sucks the fun out of everything.

Other Star Trek shows had rocky first seasons, too, but in those cases you could just shrug and move on after every bad episode. Each week brought a fresh start.

Cadet Tilly's Mirror Universe counterpart, "Captain Killy"Discovery doesn’t have that luxury. Its stumbles just keep accruing, threatening to sabotage the whole series. To paraphrase the great Sir William Talent, Discovery dug a hole so deep it’s going to drown in its mistakes.

Overall rating: 7/10