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Most people who know Douglas Adams know him because of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. Well, he also wrote other books, turns out. And one of them is being made into an eight-episode series for BBC America.

Yes, Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency. A property I never thought I would see adapted to the screen, and now kind of wish I never would have.

See, the book follows Dirk Gently, an impossibly intelligent and flippant man who runs a detective agency based on holistic philosophies: everything is connected, therefore to solve anything you have to solve everything. The main story concerns the modern day but stretches from the past to the distant future (with robots and stuff) and a big part of the plot even involves a ghost trying to solve his own death. Point is, Dirk Gently is weird. Very weird.

But this series seems to have taken weird to mean twee and quirky. Samuel Barnett seems to simply be channeling Matt Smith’s Eleventh Doctor more than anything else. Series writer Max Landis states:

“I decided I’m going to make my own thing using his thing.”

Darn it…

The series is a co-production with AMC, which should have me excited. But it has Elijah Wood, which has my attention just enough to give it a chance. Wood has a predilection to work on interesting and/or unorthodox projects. If he’s not making something good, he’s making something at least worth watching.

I’m pinning this on you, Elijah. Do not lead me astray!

Via Deadline

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Andrew Walsh

Andrew Walsh is an independent filmmaker and freelance writer based in LA. He co-directed his first feature in high school, is an avid juggler, and is a descendant of director Raoul Walsh. One of those might not be true.

Follow him on Twitter if that's your deal @AndrewKWalsh