"Dirk Gently" First Impressions *No Spoiler*

[Bonnie]

{Pokes head up, looks around}

I read The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy back in the day because it seemed like something you needed to know for cultural reference. The humor left me cold though, generally. So if you look at my personal GR-SFFBC spreadsheet, Dirk Gently is down there, way down there like bottom five, Doctor Who: The Coming of the Terraphiles territory.

However. it's short, it's available at the library, and it's Official Re-read - so I am going to give it a shot.

[Ellen]

Just read through the previous posts in this thread. I'm 5 chapters in and I have to agree with the descriptions of weird and confusing. I find it very humorous in some places. Will just have to see how it goes. Weird and confusing is not necessarily a badd thing.

[Margaret]

When I first read the Hitchhiker's Guide books, I remember thinking that Douglas Adams might do a good job at writing a mystery, since he had a knack for tossing off what seemed like careless references and seemingly unimportant details that would turn up later and be significant.

Then Dirk Gently came along and proved me right!

[Bonnie]

Last night I watched the first episode of Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency, American version. Found it loud and annoying. WHIMSY! MYSTERIOUS CHARACTERS SHOWING UP AND DOING ZANY, INEXPLICABLE THINGS!

Looked for some TV reviews to see if got better, should I should keep watching... https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-ra...
In the comments to the Guardian review, people referred to an earlier adaptation, 2010 BBC miniseries Dirk Gently:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01d...

Couldn't get it to play on BBC iPlayer but found it on YouTube. Watched the first episode of that: at least has Richard MacDuff and a detective agency. Dirk Gently was played by Stephen Mangan, one of the Brit married screenwriter couple in the show Episodes (good show). Today while reading I kind of pictured him as Dirk Gently.

(PS many people said the American version captures the sprit of the book, even if does not use same plot or characters.)