Keen Eddie

KEEN EDDIE is a delightful series, filled with excellent writing, tongue

in cheek editing, brisk directing and, most of all, terric characters

all excellently played.

In this one Mark Valley is a disgraced New York cop who is reassigned to

London. Valley is a wonderful, naturalistic actor who should be a much

bigger name than he is. Here he plays the part of a tough guy cop with a

humanistic twinkle giving the series, populated with eccentic British

characters, its center. It's a terrifuc star turn, one I wish had been

seen more and appreciated.

KEEN EDDIE, originally cancelled by FOX after only a few episodes, (but

what do you expect from them-they also cancelled BOSTON PUBLIC!), has

been picked up by Bravo. Try to catch this terrific underrated show

before it disappears altogther. Believe me, if you see it, you will

always remember it fo

KEEN EDDIE, as initially mounted on Fox network, was a recipe for disaster. Flip, sophisticated writing and polished international acting on a network known for trash. A series pushing the boundaries of tightly plotted modern mysteries with intriguingly interlocking characters - with nearly every episode directed by a different hand and the "creator" handing off the majority of the writing during the first season to six OTHER hands as if he couldn't be bothered with his creation (oh, for an Aaron Sorkin when one needs one - though the near perfect SPORTS NIGHT, dumped so he could concentrate on the perfect WEST WING, might not agree).

Dazzling though most of the 13 existing episodes are, the creation is not perfect: J.H. Wyman (the credited creator) packed the series with all the stock elements a "quality" show could expect to drag in audiences - "cute" feuding leads, a "fish out of water" male, stylish "out there" sex referred to titillatingly but not really shown, an odd-ball dog with quirky idiosyncrasies that only the master understands, semi-exotic locales (London) - but had so many of them and so many writers that none of them are allowed to be developed in as much detail as a better produced show might have. It's all the more impressive that the series that resulted is among the best series we have ever seen come and go in a single season.

Mark Valley (awful name for someone who *should* be a star - but then the writers never fully took advantage of or explained the SERIES title either) heads a brilliant cast of largely - and undeservedly - unknown actors who banter and bicker like a 21st Century version of Dashiel Hammett's Nick and Nora Charles & co. The commentator who said it was the perfect show for those old enough to appreciate the witty banter and young enough not to be put off by the kinetic editing and camera tricks was dead on.

MTV has a lot to answer for in headache inducing perspective changes and self important, attention getting crosscuts and flashbacks. These stylistic filigrees may have driven away some first time viewers who would have otherwise loved this series which was good enough on its own merits not to need attention grabbing tricks.

I first discovered KEEN EDDIE midway through the secondary run on the Bravo cable network (largely because the lead - Valley - looked so much like one of the miscast leads in the American version of COUPLING - Colin Ferguson, who has since found a deserved hit in U.S.A. network's EUReKA) and was totally won over in two episodes.

Another broadcast network a decade or so ago (let's not forget that most of them have had their well written and dropped "quality" shows too from TOPPER to HE & SHE and the original STAR TREK to FOLEY SQUARE) MIGHT have developed KEEN EDDIE into a hit of MAGNUM level hit status and made a true star out of Mark Valley. Perhaps if the writing had stooped to pandering ala many a network hit and stripped Valley down to his boxer shorts occasionally (as it did co-star Julian Rhind-Tutt in the first episode - but jokes about British bodies are not totally without foundation) Bravo might have extended the run, but at least we have the delightful 13 episode initial run on a solid (if "extra" free) DVD box set which deserves to be discovered and cherished by devoted fans for years to come.

Last summer I lucked into a new show that was a true rarity; funny, sharp, cleverly written, with engaging characters that were well cast and played off one another perfectly. It took me almost no time at all to get hooked on Keen Eddie, and it only took them seven weeks to yank it off the air. Now, there have been a lot of bad decisions made in the history of television, many, many good shows struck down before their time only so we could suffer through crap like The O.C. and the Swan. But after viewing the Keen Eddie boxed set, I'm convinced of two things: one, that never has anyone showed such poor judgment in canceling a show before, and two, whomever decided to release the series in a boxed set deserves sainthood right now.

Keen Eddie follows the story of Eddie Arlett (Mark Valley), a detective on the NYPD who botches a case and is sent to London to follow it up. There he is teamed up with the slightly neurotic but highly intelligent Inspector Monty Pippin (Julian Rhind-Tutt), and, under the direction of Superintendent Nathaniel Johnson (the always excellent Colin Salmon), he is turned loose on the greater London area, where his fish-out-of-water status actually becomes a strength. His home life is equally complicated; he is renting a flat from a woman whose daughter Fiona (Sienna Miller) is supposed to be at college but isn't; she and Eddie get on like oil and water.

But Keen Eddie is far from just another cop show; the humor is as important as the suspense, and both are executed flawlessly. Eddie's American ways sometimes cause friction with the English, but they also lead to his having excellent chemistry with each of the other people in his life. He and Pippin are opposites who work together flawlessly; he constantly irritates his boss, but also pleases the man because he's good at getting results; and he and Fiona verge on all-out roommate war, but you know underneath it they are simply made for one another.

The plots are heinously clever; Ediie must break up a fight-club type ring with the help of a well meaning but dim-witted young boxer and his white trash clan; Eddie must help the son of a famous pick-pocket stay out of much deeper trouble than his old man ever got in; he must enlist the aid of a former child prodigy who has fallen on hard times to help him nab a skilled safecracker; and so on. All of the plots have unexpected twists and turns, and all of them make deft use of humor. There are even tiny little devices in each show for the sharp-eyed; in one, Fiona and a co-worker square off, and at the party at the end of the show, Fiona wears a halo and her enemy a set of devil's horns as part of the celebration. In the episode with the child prodigy, who used to be on TV, every time he does something good, we hear a faint ripple of applause from a studio audience, and every time he does something bad, there is the faint hint of booing. One of the series best running gags involves Eddie and the Superintendent's secretary, Carol (Rachel Buckley); each time he greets her, she says something salacious to him that only he hears, and it throws him for a loop every time. Since no one else ever hears it, Eddie can't be sure if he's imagining it or not.

Every episode except one is very well done; the only less than exemplary one involves Eddie inheriting a Bentley, because it never really comes together. But the thirteen episode set is very impressive, and I found myself unable to stop watching them (I purchased the set two weeks ago and forced myself to watch one a day so I wouldn't cycle through them too quickly). Though it's hard to judge a show's overall impact on just thirteen episodes, I'd say that we really lost something by not having two or three seasons of Keen Eddie. It's possible that the high level of creativity would have been lost after a certain period of time, and all shows eventually run out of steam; but Keen Eddie had so much going on and was so cleverly done that it seems almost criminal that it was cut short so early in its run. At least we have the boxed set, which is a lot better than relying on third-generation VHS, but watching this show and seeing how artfully it was done, and then thinking about all the crap that's on TV now, it's hard not to feel cheated that we have only thirteen episodes instead of sixty or a hundred. Once in a great while a show comes along that's a little bit different, very clever, and almost flawlessly executed. So naturally it has to get cancelled early. But don't take my word for it; rent Keen Eddie, if you can, and see what you very likely missed the first time around.

Yes, Fox execs are stupid. Yes they are tasteless. Yes, all they care about is saving money and shocking people with talentless personalities (kind of an oxymoron, huh?). This had to be one of the best shows put on television in a long time. It was part "Moonlighting", part "Threes Company", with funny dialogue, incredible photography direction, and with a bunch of likable (lovable) characters played with wit, charm and intelligence by its actors. But I'm not surprised it's gone. I'm just surprised lame Fox didn't pull it after just one episode. Should we give them credit for that? I miss Eddie and Pip.

"Keen Eddie" is a thoroughly enjoyable sitcom cops & capers TV series about a square jawed NYC detective who is sent/banished to London to fight crime where he wrestles with his beautiful flat mate in a love/hate relationship and busts crooks with his sexaholic male partner while announcing..."Hi, I'm Eddie. How do you like me so far?". A fun, fresh, fast paced comedy cop romp with ample talent on both sides of the lens and punched up with Guy Ritchiesque A/V effects, this all too short lived TV series should make for an enjoyable DVD watch for anyone old enough for a little risqué humor and young enough to not be annoyed by the constant kinetics. (B+)