Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency (TV series)

Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency is a comic science fiction detective television series created and primarily written by Max Landis. The two seasons are inspired by the novel series of the same name by Douglas Adams. The series is co-produced and distributed by BBC America and Netflix, along with AMC Studios, Ideate Media and IDW Entertainment. Filming primarily took place in Vancouver, British Columbia.
The series features an ensemble cast, including Samuel Barnett as the "holistic detective" Dirk Gently, and Elijah Wood as his reluctant sidekick Todd. Other main cast members include Hannah Marks as Todd's sister Amanda, Jade Eshete as security officer Farah Black, Fiona Dourif as "holistic assassin" Bart, and Mpho Koaho as computer technician Ken. The first season is set in Seattle, Washington and the second season is set in the fictional town of Bergsberg, Montana.
The eight-episode first season premiered on BBC America on October 22, 2016, to positive reviews, before concluding on December 10, 2016. All episodes were made available on Netflix (outside of the United States) on December 11, 2016. On November 21, 2016, BBC America renewed the series for a 10-episode second season which premiered on October 14, 2017. Following the broadcast of the second-season finale, the show was cancelled.
The show is based around the eccentric Dirk Gently (Samuel Barnett) who claims to be a "holistic detective", investigating obscure cases based on the inter-connectivity of all things. During the first season he befriends Todd Brotzman (Elijah Wood) and Farah Black (Jade Eshete) who help him with his cases. Dirk's past is linked with "Project Blackwing", a secret CIA project to evaluate subjects with strange abilities. Dirk is not only followed by agents of Blackwing trying to recapture him but also by Bart Curlish (Fiona Dourif), another Blackwing subject who considers herself a "holistic assassin" and believes she is destined to kill Dirk.
The Rowdy 3 is a hedonist group first introduced as a group of four. (In season 2, it is revealed that they were initially three.) At the end of season 1, Amanda joins their ranks, making them five. The Rowdy 3 are among the people studied by the government organization tracking Dirk. They were originally classified as vampires because they survive by consuming people's emotional energy. At the end of season 2, the Rowdy 3 gain yet another member, The Beast.
The first season received a favorable response from critics. On Rotten Tomatoes, it has a 71% approval rating based on 28 reviews, with an average rating of 6.54/10. The site's consensus reads "Odd and ambitious, Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency sometimes overdoses on pure weirdness but offers absurdist rewards to those who stick with it." On Metacritic, the first season has a score of 62 out of 100 based on 14 reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews".
The second season was also received favorably. On Rotten Tomatoes, it has a 100% approval rating based on 13 reviews, with an average rating of 7.33/10. However, its viewership was down from the first season, averaging fewer than 250,000 views per episode compared to 287,000 per episode from Season 1. It is believed these numbers, which were slightly lower than fellow BBC America program Orphan Black, led the choice for the network to cancel the show. Following the broadcast of the second-season finale, BBC America announced the show's cancellation. The decision to cancel the series sparked outrage among fans of the show, and a petition was started to renew the series. As of March 2018, the petition had received over 100,000 signatures.