I just started seeing commercials for this via BBC America. I’ve always loved the books but I’m not sure how this will translate to a series. It does say that it’s an adaptation of the books but there appear to be new characters. The cast list looks interesting, I think Elijah Wood can do a good job but Samuel Barnett isn’t what I’d pictured for Dirk.
Likewise. Dirk (in the novels) is overweight, fairly unattractive and generally looks like a schlump with a stupid hat. I guess that doesn’t make for good television.
This doesn’t mean that I don’t wish well for the series. I’ll commit heresy by saying I enjoyed the Gently books more than the Guide books (although that’s probably because of the unfortunate later additions). In any event, I’m all for good things to come from them.
My understanding is that they were well reviewed but got killed as a bureaucratic decision by the BBC to run more overseas programming on that particular station.
Watched the first episode. Definitely need to watch the second to decide whether I’ll stay with it or not since so much of the first was introducing a dozen characters and general weirdness. It’s very much just “inspired by” the novels – aside from a few Easter Egg style remarks, there’s precious little connecting it to the books. In a sense, that’s fine with me since it’s almost better than feeling like “Well, THAT’S all wrong… and that ain’t right”. Adams’ stuff doesn’t seem to translate well into film in my opinion so not even trying for a direct conversion is probably the right choice.
My wife is into the BBC Sherlock & Dr Who stuff and watched it with me with largely the same reaction; not instantly hooked but willing to give it another episode and see if it’ll be something we follow.
Too soon to tell. When I was first introduced to Gently’s “fundamental interconnectedness of everything” I welcomed it as a fun way to explain some seeming chaos in my life, and have stolen it for when I want to mess with a co-worker. This Gently is less serious and more insane than the one I imagined; Steve Magnan’s Dirk was closer, and I am a bit afraid to give a listen to Harry Enfield’s interpretation.
Yes. Each episode airs on BBC America at 9pm on Saturdays. The first episode was on Saturday, October 22 and the next episode is on Saturday, October 29.
Edited to add that this is actually a BBC America original production, in cooperation with Netflix. It’s not a UK import.
In fact, the show is set in the US (Seattle, I believe) and Gentley is the only character from the UK. No explanation made (yet) for why he’s in the United States.
I enjoyed the first episode. It was definitely a bit… hyperkinetic. But I enjoyed the introduction of the interconnectedness of all things and how Dirk’s job is basically to do whatever he wants, but be aware of how things are linked. So we’ll see how it follows. Elijah Wood was pretty good as Todd.
Oh, and I really (REALLY) want Dirk’s yellow leather jacket.