‘Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency’ Season 2: Alan Tudyk and Tyler Labine Interview

Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency with Tyler Labine
Tyler Labine in ‘Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency.’

Season two of BBC America’s quirky, captivating, and original series Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency will premiere on October 14, 2017. The surviving players from season one return for more incredible adventures, with Alan Tudyk and Tyler Labine joining the series for the new season. Tudyk is playing Mr. Priest, a character described as a “bizarre person with a twist of maniacal derangement. He’s also a ruthless, dangerous and violent bounty hunter working for Blackwing who gets a real thrill from the chase. He is an overwhelming presence, but unlike other ruthless characters, he has a real sense of fun and adventure.”

Tyler Labine plays Sherlock Hobbs, “an under-stimulated, but overly enthusiastic small town sheriff. Despite the strange circumstances, he encounters with increasing frequency following the arrival of Dirk and his crew, Sheriff Hobbs, with his easy-going nature, is eager to help them solve their new mystery.”

Teamed up for interviews to discuss Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency season two at the San Diego Comic Con, Labine and Tudyk provided details on their characters along with why they wanted to be part of season two.


What can you say about your characters in Dirk Gently? We never know who these guys are anyway until the last episode of the season when you finally figure everything out.

Tyler Labine: “Right. I’m literally so uncertain of what we’re allowed to say and what we’re not. It’s such a confusing (thing).”

Alan Tudyk: “You can say the word umm… I can say everything’s connected, and so you’re part of that connection.”

Tyler Labine: “Yeah, everything is connected. We’re living within the sort of connectedness. My character is Sheriff Hobbes and if I had to make one sort of direct correlation to season one, me and Izzie Steele, she’s playing Tina Tevetino, we’re like the new detectives this season. We’re the cops this season. It’s a fictitious town called Burgsburg, Montana.”

Alan Tudyk: “Best burgers in Montana! Burgsburg Burger!”

Tyler Labine: “Burgsburg Burger. We are sort of there to go along on the ride with the heroes, if I had to call them anything.”

Alan Tudyk: “You’re like on the good or the evil side of things.”

Tyler Labine: “I’m on the good side, but I also may dabble into the evil side a little bit.”

Alan Tudyk: “Only in intimate settings.”

Tyler Labine: “Me and Tina Tevetino, we inexplicably go along with whatever crazy oddball stuff is happening in their world, even though for all intents and purposes we should probably arrest everybody the moment they walk into our sheriff station. I just kind of go, ‘Oh, sure, yeah, time travel. That’s pretty much a standard deal.’ We just go along for the ride and we end up sort of becoming their new aides, I guess.”

It’s a really quirky show. What about that appeals to you?

Tyler Labine: “The quirk.”

Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency star Alan Tudyk
Alan Tudyk in ‘Dirk Gently’ season 2.

Alan Tudyk: “The originality. We don’t get that a lot. I feel like a lot of shows that are successful right now or that people tune into are ones that have originality. It’s not the same old thing. This comes from the mind of Max Landis and that’s an original mind.”

Tyler Labine: “That man is something else.”

Alan Tudyk: “It’s very appealing to be part of that. It’s a ride from script to script. My character, Priest, Mr. Priest…”

Tyler Labine: “If you want to get formal about it, yeah.”

Alan Tudyk: “Well, that’s what they call him, Mr. Priest. I have guns. I’m supposed to be intimidating. I don’t know that I’m pulling if off although Max says I am. I have guns. I have a machine gun. I’m on track to hunt down these people. It says in something that I’m a good sort of bounty hunter and I’m after the project people. I’m very good at it. I’ve been good at it for a long time. That’s my piece of the story that is ultimately connected; you see it converging now.”

Tyler Labine: “I do want to say something about commenting on the feel of the show and the quirk element. I’ve been remarking to my wife almost every night when I come home that it feels like we’re shooting a live-action cartoon. Because the stakes are so ridiculous and things don’t make sense but they do. And as an actor you really get to swing for the fences every time.

I don’t know if you’re having the same experience, but I feel like there’s a definite sky’s the limit kind of vibe on this show. And it’s so fun to do. It’s so much fun. It’s almost like that adage: there is no wrong answer. There is no dumb question. That definitely goes on this show.”

Alan Tudyk: “There are stupid questions. That should be said.”

Comic Con must feel like a second home to you two.

Tyler Labine: “Well, this guy, for sure.”

Alan Tudyk: “It’s my guest house. It’s a very large guest house.”

Tyler Labine: “I’m staying at his guest house’s guest house.”

Alan Tudyk: “It’s a shed.”

Tyler Labine: “It’s a towel warmer, actually. I live in his towel warmer.”

Alan Tudyk: “It seems to be a yearly event. I mean, it’s obviously a yearly event, but it’s a yearly pilgrimage to come here. And, it’s great to see people. This is a place where you see people that you wish you hung out with all year, but it’s here that you run into them and say, ‘You’ve aged one whole year.’ That’s mainly what I say.”

Does it serve to remind you why you do it, to see the joy on the faces of fans who recognize you from all your different projects?

Alan Tudyk: “Certainly, although I go to a lot of different cons around the world. You mentioned Con Man – I built that show from my experiences. And some of those more intimate ones you really get a one-on-one situation. It’s really the only place where you get that, at Cons. When you’re signing. If you’re at a premiere, you sign just a handful. Like, ‘I’m sorry, I’ve got to go in.’ At the airport you go, ‘How did you know I was on this plane? This is weird I’m uncomfortable.’”

Tyler Labine: “At Cons you dedicate hours of tiny, very, very unique, specific conversations. You know what I mean? Everybody who comes up you have like a really small, but kind of like very fulfilling conversation with them.”

Alan Tudyk: “Some can be moving as hell.”

Tyler Labine: “Some people don’t say anything, which is pretty awkward. That’s when I speak too much and try and fill in the blanks.”

More on Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency Season 2:
Samuel Barnett and Elijah Wood Interview
Hannah Marks and Jade Eshete Interview
Fiona Dourif and Mpho Koaho Interview