# Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency (2016)

> An eccentric self-styled holistic detective and his reluctant assistant chase connected, bizarre murder cases that turn out to be tied together by a hidden cosmic web.

Canonical page: https://ember.film/tv/59567

## Facts

- Seasons: 2
- Episodes: 18
- Episode runtime: 42 min
- Status: Canceled
- Genres: comedy, science fiction, mystery
- Created by: Max Landis
- Network: BBC America
- Cast: Samuel Barnett, Elijah Wood, Hannah Marks, Jade Eshete, Fiona Dourif, Amanda Walsh, Mpho Koaho, Dustin Milligan
- TMDB rating: 8.1/10
- IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4047038/

## Ember's analysis

- Pacing: brisk
- Intensity: mild
- Complexity: layered
- Violence: mild
- Tone: absurdist, witty, deadpan, whimsical, breezy

## What critics say

Audiences praise the engaging, funny plot and characters of the first season, while the second season is rated noticeably lower.

## Synopsis

Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency (2016-2017) is an American sci-fi comedy mystery series created by Max Landis for BBC America, adapted from Douglas Adams' comic novels. Samuel Barnett plays the eccentric self-proclaimed holistic detective Dirk Gently, who takes on a string of bizarre murder investigations and insists that everything in the world is connected. Elijah Wood plays his reluctant assistant Todd Brotzman, a man dragged into increasingly strange cases alongside Hannah Marks as his sister Amanda and Jade Eshete as Farah Black. The engine of the series is Dirk's stubborn faith in his unorthodox intuition pitted against ordinary police logic, with each episode built from a seemingly unrelated mystery that gradually reveals hidden links across time, luck and the supernatural. The show runs for two seasons, a serialized comic thriller with a running mystery thread. Its tone is absurdist, breezy and sardonic, with deadpan banter and whimsical, bizarre set pieces layered over a thriller plot. Fans of Sherlock and Legion will find resonance in its quirky detective pairing and cosmic puzzle structure, and admirers of Douglas Adams will recognize its wit.

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