When we talk about streaming culture, we’re usually enthusing about what’s new, but one of the best things about streaming is how it’s made old and obscure cult hits available to a new generation. Presenting Cult Corner: your weekly look into hidden gems and long-lost curiosities that you can find on streaming.

There are two ways to introduce a weird show. You can either slowly sink into oddity, explaining your show’s abnormalities one by one like Futurama or Star Trek did, or you can dive headfirst into the vortex of weird. BBC America’s newest show Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency gleefully takes the latter approach, and the result is delightful.

Based on the Douglas Adams (The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy) series of the same name, Dirk Gently follows a time-traveling detective and his unwilling sidekick as he attempts to solve the mysteries of the universe. There is no typical detective work performed in Dirk Gently. Rather, the series’ protagonist relies on the confusing ebbs and flows of the universe itself to find cases, solve them, and live. It’s a bizarre premise that would run the risk of being too high concept and self important if it wasn’t anchored to such a delightful duo.

From the beginning, the sci-fi series focuses on the unlikely friendship and partnership between Dirk Gently (Samuel Barnett) and Todd Brotzman (Elijah Wood), and it’s a dynamic that immediately works. The series allows Wood to channel the same sense of put-upon, overwhelmed exhaustion that made his performance on Wilfred such a treasure, but instead of reacting to a vulgar dog, he’s reacting to the most excitable and upbeat man on television. Remember the manic energy David Tennant would sometimes give the 10th Doctor, especially right before the Doctor was minutes away from vanquishing a Doctor Who villain? Under Barnett, Dirk Gently is always at that level of excitement. He’s obnoxious and over-the-top, but Wood plays such an amazing straight man, the combination works. It’s because this main oppositional relationship clicks so well that the freshman series is able to expand its bizarre wings as quickly as it does.

During the show’s first episode, an unknown, hyper British man appears out of nowhere, the concept of holistic detective work is introduced, a crazed assassin murders one stranger and pressures another into friendship, a fake disease is introduced, an angry neighbor destroys a car, there’s a murder investigation, and multiple characters run for their lives. That’s a lot of plot in one hour, but under Max Landis’ (Chronicle, American Ultra) guiding hand, it all oddly works. Dirk Gently appears from minute one as unapologetically its own thing, and it refuses to let up. That sort of commitment is rare for any show, let alone a freshman series. However, the fast-paced series we’re left with is a gripping, fun, and funny adventure. Plus, the show is packed with Corgis. Who doesn’t love an epic and innovative sci-fi Corgi odyssey?

You can watch the first episode of Dirk Gently for free on Amazon Video.

[Where to watch Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency]