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Ron Miller's DARK CORRIDORS VOL. 4, No. 19 |
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KEEN EDDIE |
 MARK VALLEY AS EDDIE |
A yankee detective turns
the heat on in England
By DONNA J. PLESH
of TheColumnists.com
For all of you who moan and groan that there¹s
never anything new on TV in the summer other than unsold pilots,
reruns and reality shows, I have two words: 'Keen Eddie.'
Airing Tuesday nights at 9 on Fox (in the '24' timeslot),
Eddie is a new scripted series about a New York City cop (Mark
Valley) exiled to London after botching up a big drug bust. He
goes to London, reluctantly, to find the drugs and the mystery
woman who set him up to take the fall for the failed bust.
I saw the pilot episode a year ago and loved it. Alas, Fox didn¹t
have a one-hour timeslot for the show on its 2002-2003 schedule.
So 'Eddie' waited. There were rumors the show
would be a mid-season replacement. Never happened. Then it was
supposed to get a spring slot. Never happened.
Finally, Fox decided to give it a summer run (13 episodes have
been completed) starting June 3. If this is the first you are
hearing about the show, you must not watch Fox. The network promoted
'Eddie' during breaks in other Fox series--including its
monster hit 'American
Idol,' and during Fox
Sports broadcasts.
'Keen Eddie' has a great pedigree. It's from Warren
Littlefield's production company. (He used to run NBC.) Simon
West, who's one of the executive producers and directors on the
series, has a big screen background with such hits as 'Con Air' and 'Lara
Croft: Tomb Raider.' 'Eddie' was created and written by J.R. Wyman, who worte
the Brad Pitt-Julia Roberts big screener 'The Mexican.'
Shot entirely in London, 'Keen
Eddie' features flashbacks
and jump cuts in telling Eddie¹s fish-out-of-water story.
Valley is probably best remembered for his roles on Fox's short-lived
'Pasadena.' The rest of the cast are Brits--with
Colin Salmon ('Prime Suspect
2,' 'Die Another Day')playing
Eddie's boss, the ambitious Scotland Yard
Superintendent Johnson; Julian Rhind-Tutt is Eddie¹s police
partner, Monty Pippin; Rachael (spelling correct) Buckley plays
Supt. Johnson's assistant, Carol, who Eddie calls Miss Moneypenny
and who is the object of Eddie¹s fantasies; and Sienna Miller
is Finoa, Eddie¹s attractive, sharp-tongued roommate. And
last, but certainly not least, is Eddie¹s dog Pete, who
growls a lot and whose favorite chew toy is a TV remote!
Besides the eye-catching London scenery, it's fun to watch Eddie
find his way around the city as he hunts down the bad guys, be
it in a fish market or trendy nightclub. Eddie doesn't seem to
fit in, but he gets the job done with dogged determination, guts,
and a sense of humor.
And about the series title--'Keen
Eddie.' In the pilot,
Eddie opens a fortune cookie and reads the fortune: 'Even in
darkness, a keen spirit discovers light.' Eddie gives the fortune
to the mystery woman in New York City--and he later finds it
pasted to the window of a London apartment Eddie and his team
raid. The occupants are gone--but the fortune remains. A reminder,
perhaps, from the mystery woman to Eddie?
Writing makes a TV show
great. So far in the episodes I have previewed, the writing is
very good. Not police procedural-- ala 'NYPD Blue,'
but a little more loose. It compares to the best of the early
years of 'Moonlighting' in my book. And Eddie and Fiona's
repartee is fun to watch. She skewers him with a smile and a
vitriolic one-liner and believes she wins every one of their
verbal skirmishes. But does she? Tune in to find out.
© 2003 by Donna J.
Plesh. The photo is courtesy of Fox Broadcasting.
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