Keen Eddie

Thank God for the Bravo, which has just picked up Keen Eddie. I had seen previews for it when it was on Fox, but never got around to watching it. Now that it's on Bravo, I've had the chance, and I'm glad I did. It's funny, and clever. (Also, Moneypenny is a very cute bit character. Makes me think of Bond, of course.)

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+)

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.