Dirk Gently’s Holisitic Detective Agency
based on Douglas Adams’ books of the same name, this show was most introduced at SDCC this year. But after we all sat down and the emcee chatted us up a bit, they dimmed the lights and showed up the premiere of Dirk Gently. All I can say is that at 10am you probably don’t want to watch this show, but at its airtime of Saturdays at 9/8c it will shine. The show is violent, in the Kill Bill kind of way, and incredibly zany. It’s not easy to follow, but also not hard to follow. You basically ought to strap in and ride along. Eventually everything will make sense, I imagine. Maybe not. Anyway, it’s not as strewn about as something like Sense 8.
More importantly, the editing is sooooo good. I know that sounds dorky, but it’s edited like a high budget indie film. It’s really, really good. Elijah Wood plays our most main protagonist, Todd Brotzman, who will be your main avenue into the story. Dirk Gently is a holistic detective played by adorkable Samuel Barnett. What is a holistic detective, you might ask, to which I would reply: it’s a person solving a case who relies on the interconnection of seemingly random, unrelated events. It’s Douglas Adams. Just… go with it. Written by Max Landis, who you either love or hate, the script is a piece of brilliance. The actors do it complete justice, too. The audience was laughing and crying throughout. Every emotion is experienced in this pilot. Nothing makes total sense. Everything is connected. I think. I mean, that’s what Dirk Gently keeps saying.
If you need something different from the Arrows and the Scandals and the No Tomorrows — TUNE IN TOMORROW NIGHT. Dirk Gently is simply not to be missed.
Class
If you’ve ever seen a panel for an all teenage cast (not twenty somethings playing teens, but actual teens), then you’ve seen the Class panel. They gave some sneak peeks for the season, including a full scene from the first episode. It’s a Doctor Who spin off series and a little darker than I expected from such a young cast. Set at Coal Hill Academy in London, the school where the original companions, Barbara and Ian, taught the Doctor’s granddaughter Susan, the teens are used to dealing with the fact that people sometimes disappear and no one ever mentions it. Monsters are real. And there was once a Caretaker who knew how to battle aliens, because he was one–a Time Lord.
A cute panel, the cast and showrunner talked up the season and the characters, and also explained how they got the parts. In fact, Vivian Oparah said this is her first real role. Can you imagine Doctor Who spinoff being your first real role?! Insanity. All in all the show sounds fun and the actors are over the moon to be part of it. It’ll be worth a gander, I think. Class comes to BBCA in spring 2017, but if you live where BBC Three is, it starts tomorrow, Oct 22!
Doctor Who
Of course I was super duper excited for the Doctor Who panel! After seeing Matt Smith, Jenna Coleman, and Alex Kingston on Thursday, I couldn’t wait for the current Doctor, Peter Capaldi! Also in attendance was Steven Moffat, who comes off condescending at some point of every panel always, even though I don’t think he means to do so. Matt Lucas was there too, cracking jokes every chance he got, and keeping the audience rolling. His comedic timing is simply genius. He was in the Christmas Special last year, but apparently is going to be a somewhat regular in the 2017 season.
But of most note and excitement: Pearl Mackie!!! She’s gonna kill it as Bill. I can already tell. She felt so in the swing of the Doctor Who promotional monster at this panel, I can’t even explain it. But she’s stunning and lively and had the coolest suit on. I am girl crushing her. They’ve already begun filming and she seemed to enjoying all the challenges of the show, explaining her favorite scene so far was her and Peter and green screen. She felt major accomplishment after completing that scene, given it was first all-green screen one, ever. Ah, science fiction shows… pushing everyone to their limit.
We filmed some of this panel, but they didn’t have close up press seating, so the visuals are a bit “shot from the audience”. But the audio content is all there and a fun time…
