The TV Column

New Detective Agency opening on BBC America

BBC America’s Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency, starring Elijah Wood (left) and Samuel Barnett, is a wild, dark ride. The series debuts Saturday.
BBC America’s Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency, starring Elijah Wood (left) and Samuel Barnett, is a wild, dark ride. The series debuts Saturday.

The Vampire Diaries and Crazy Ex-Girlfriend return to The CW on Friday, and BBC America introduces a highly anticipated new series this weekend. Let's begin with that.

Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency, 8 p.m. Saturday, BBC America. I mentioned this briefly in last Sunday's column, but now we have more room to tout the wackiness. TV wackiness is to be encouraged wherever we find it.

This new series is a little bit science fiction, a little detecting, a touch of time travel and a whole lot of dark comedic fun.

The series is based on the Douglas Adams novels of the same name. Adams, who died in 2001, is also the author of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.

Amazon quotes Adams as describing Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency as "a thumping good detective-ghost-horror-whodunnit-time-travel-romantic-musical-comedy epic."

The series stars Samuel Barnett as the sleuthing title character, and Elijah Wood as his reluctant sidekick Todd Brotzman.

Sidekick? "I am not your Watson!" Todd blurts out, although that's exactly what he turns out to be. One critic labeled the series as "Sherlock on psilocybin." That's the psychedelic stuff in 'shrooms.

Viewers will know Barnett from Showtime's Penny Dreadful and Wood, for the rest of his life, will be known as Frodo Baggins from The Lord of the Rings trilogy.

Frequently absurd, Dirk Gently's asks the viewer to just relax and go with the flow as Dirk and Todd worm their way through a sprawlingly bizarre mystery while crossing paths with a gaggle of weird and occasionally dangerous characters. Each episode lands them a few steps closer to uncovering the truth.

The novels have become cult favorites and I fully expect the series to be in the same league. It has been pitched as a companion piece to Doctor Who.

In the first episode, "Horizons," Todd stumbles upon a murder scene where he meets Gently and gets sucked into the case involving the death of reclusive millionaire Patrick Spring and the kidnapping of his daughter Lydia.

There are multiple story lines and characters endlessly tangling and all moving toward a convergence. It quickly becomes obvious to Todd that his life will never be the same.

Also in the cast are Hannah Marks as Todd's spunky younger sister, Amanda Brotzman, who suffers from pararibulitis (not a real condition); Jade Eshete as neurotic security officer Farah Black; Fiona Dourif as Bart Curlish, a deranged, homicidal assassin; and Mpho Koaho as Ken, a nerdy hacker "trapped in increasingly difficult and bloody circumstances."

Oh, yeah. There's also a corgi.

There will be eight episodes in the first season.

If you don't get BBC America, never fear. The series is a co-production between BBC America and Netflix and all episodes will be available on the streaming service in December.

The Vampire Diaries, 7 p.m. Friday, The CW. This will be the eighth and final season for the series that was the most-watched on the network until Arrow came along. There will be 16 episodes before the curtain falls.

Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, 8 p.m. Friday, The CW. I'm glad there is one place on TV that has made room for a romantic musical comedy, even if it's The CW, where your show can rank No. 195, manage only 820,000 viewers and still get renewed.

The series was originally developed as a half-hour on Showtime, which eventually opted not to proceed. When The CW snatched it up, the series had to be extensively reworked -- adult content toned down -- for network television.

With so few viewers, I'm going to assume you haven't seen the show or are even aware it's on the air.

The series was created by and stars 29-year-old Rachel Bloom, who won a Golden Globe playing the title role.

Bloom plays Rebecca Bunch, a depressed New York lawyer who moves to suburban California to win back her ex-boyfriend, Josh Chan (Filipino-American actor Vincent Rodriguez III).

That's about all you really need to know. That, and they break into song two or three times each hourlong episode.

Rats, 8 p.m. Saturday, Discovery. In keeping with Halloween, Discovery is rolling out an original "horrormentary" by Morgan Spurlock (Super Size Me) that deals with rats. Yes, rats. Nasty, filthy, creepy rats. It's everything you'd ever want to know about the vermin. It will give you the willies.

Spurlock told Discovery the film is "dark, strange and incredible." I've seen it and I agree.

The TV Column appears Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday. Email:

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Weekend on 10/20/2016

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