Season 2 of Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency premiered this weekend and there is this absolutely perfect moment near the end of the episode that sums up how I felt about it. Todd (Elijah Woods) is at his arguably at his absolute lowest point in the episode and then something happens, something that gives him a sign that he is on the right track and that the interconnectedness of all things is leading him in the right direction… The look on his face is AMAZING. It is the goofiest look of joy I have ever seen on Elijah Woods’ face and it is a hilarious moment. That’s probably what my face looked like when I began watching season 2. I have been waiting for season 2 for almost a year and now I finally have some Dirk Gently back in my life.
If you’re not familiar with the show, this first episode will probably make little sense. In fact, even if you are familiar with the show, it still probably makes little sense. But that’s a good thing.
The series (both the books and the television show) revolve around the idea of the interconnectedness of all things. So basically, at the beginning of any Dirk Gently story there will be a bunch of loose threads of plot that don’t seem to go together, but by the end of the story everything becomes perfectly interwoven and everything actually makes sense. Season 2 of Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency really seems to be playing with that idea because of the way the characters have all been split up. Things did not necessarily end well for the main characters at the end of season 1 so by the beginning of season 2 they are all a bunch of loose individuals (threads / story lines) trying to come together. The Rowdy 3 is, for now, only made up of Amanda (Hannah Marks) and Vogle (Osric Chau) – which led to the use of the hilarious line “Shut up math!”; Dirk (Samuel Barnett), Ken (Mpho Koaho), Rapunzel The Corgi (Bentley), and Sgt. Friedkin (Dustin Milligan) are all in the same building but are, for the most part, separated by the walls within the building; Bart (Fiona Dourif) is on the move and looking for a new friend; and there is a whole mess of brand new characters in between, including John Hannah as Mage.
Farah (Jade Eshete) and Todd are also separated from the main cast as they are trying desperately to find Dirk. There is a bit of a role reversal here as Todd’s behaviour is reminiscent of Dirk’s in season 1, so the interactions between him and Farah are reminiscent of the early interactions between him and Dirk. The only problem is that Todd does not have Dirk’s gift for stumbling into the right situations at the right time when it comes to the interconnectedness of all things. Todd just wants everything to come together but, as this is too soon in the story, nothing can come together yet – especially not while Dirk’s exact whereabouts are still unknown.
What’s nice for me as a fan of the books is that it looks like Dirk Gently will finally be visiting another dimension in this season. The opening scene took place in said dimension and was so wonderfully strange that I can’t wait to see what happens and how weird it’s going to get. Also, the Thor name drop in Dirk’s dream was a delightful nod to a character who is prominent in the books. I hope that one day we will get to see Thor appear as a character in the show.
Overall, the episode went by too quickly. Episode 1 was just the set up – we were reminded of who they key players are and were introduced to some interesting new characters. It’s much too soon to really know what’s going on so I can’t really critique the plot this early on, but from the sneak peek of things to come this season it looks like it’s definitely going to be a wild ride. I can’t wait to see how everything is going to be connected this season!
