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KEEN EDDIE: WORTH A LOOK
By Donna J. Plesh

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 that it would 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 (he
used o run NBC) production company. An executive producer, and sometimes series director, Simon West 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 playing Eddie's boss, the ambitious Scotland Yard Superintendent Johnson; Julian Rhind-Tutt is Eddie's police partner, Monty Pippin; Rachael Buckley plays Supt. Johnson's assistant, Carol, who Eddie calls Miss Moneypenny and who is the object of Eddie's fantasies; and Sienna Miller is Finoa, Eddie's attractive, sharp-tongued roommate. And last, but certainly not least, is Eddie's 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 doesn¹t 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 -- a la "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.

Donna J. Plesh is a freelance writer based in Southern California.

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