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Keen about Eddie
Jun. 25th, 2003 12:15 pmSo we just got our fourth episode of Keen Eddie and I'm waiting for the axe to come down -- it's usually in the 4-7 ep range wherein I lose my shows; Firefly held out for a valiant ten so we'll have to see. I am just really liking this peculiar, often annoying show. It gives me something else to really look forward to on what was TV night for so long; now that Buffy's gone and 24's in hiatus, it makes Tuesdays a bit more enjoyable, especially followed immediately by Lucky on FX.
A lot of the stylistic quirks on Keen Eddie should annoy me enough to stop watching, but it's just so funny and odd and filled with British actors I love that all the rough spots are smoothed out. And it's hard not to love a show that features a "40-year-old filthy slut who'll do anything" who's hired to jack off a horse for its prize-winning sperm and everyone subsequently refers to her that way, even her boyfriend/pimp. It's also impossible for me not to love a show that uses Madness's One Step Beyond as chase music, or puts Ian Dury and the Blockheads on the soundtrack. And Monty Pippin may just be the best British TV character ever -- he is, as Eddie pegged him, a walking shell game. It's fun watching him adopt looser mannerisms as his contact with Eddie increases, becoming sort of Americanized in some ways, with his "dude"s and his sense of humor coming out. I loved the slashy little bit with him and Eddie in the opera star episode last week; this week I adored him being annoyed with Eddie over missing his "sex lunch." He's just so very, very odd, and I adore him.
They've also done a really good job of taking fairly familiar plots and tweaking them just a bit for a little more zest; I especially admired how they handled the randy opera star with her crush on Eddie. When she climbs into his bed to seduce him and he tries to get her out, her long monologue about how she acts the parts of women who get love and experience great passion seemed like yet another setup for a joke. I was waiting for the punch line, but then it turned out to be serious, and Eddie kindly slips into bed to hold her and she's content with that. A nice surprise -- which is what I think they do best on this show. People act like people. Very weird and quirky people, but they do things that real folks do. They make bad judgments, make mistakes, are stupid and funny and stubborn and foolish, rise above it, everything we all do every day. Eddie himself is frequently wrong and has made a blowhard ass of himself in being wrong, but he admits it and moves on. It's refreshing to get people like the character in last night's ep, who just don't always know what the right thing to do is, and who stumble through life till they figure it out (and it didn't hurt that I love the actor, either, most recently seen as Jules's dad in Bend it Like Beckham).
And Keen Eddie makes a nice lead-in to Lucky, which I'm sorry to see will be ending its first season next Tuesday, and there's no certainty whether it will come back. I've really enjoyed watching these people try to get their lives in order. A few clunker episodes like the one where Lucky gets amnesia and thinks he's dead or the one with the duelling dates, but overall it's been a zippy mix of comedy and drama, and made it fun getting to know these people. Lucky's moronic friends Mutha and Vinnie are adorable, total low-lifes and losers but of course have hearts of... well, maybe nickel, and the guest stars have been incredible, especially Giancarlo Esposito as a flaming and vicious hairdresser with the hots for Lucky, and Dan Hedaya, who is always wonderful and strange.
I remember way back when, all the networks were putting out dramedies, and they all failed miserably, too (my favorite was probably Days and Nights of Molly Dodd). No one seemed to know what to do with comedies sans laugh tracks, or dramas with humor. It feels like cable drama viewers are more sophisticated these days, but if enough people haven't watched Lucky for FX to bring it back, maybe there really isn't a lot of hope for that style. The show's veered wonderfully back and forth between pathos and laughter, and it's honest to how people in Las Vegas would act and talk (FX being the only cable network that lets people actually swear and stuff), but maybe they just haven't found the right way to get viewers into the show. I don't know.
Out of the whole cast, Lucky's girlfriend Theresa stands out (played by Ever Carradine)-- a really broken spirit who just can't quite get a handle on her addiction to gambling and in last night's succumbed to temptation again. Which Lucky ought to answer for, since he "sponsored" her in GA by lying and telling her he was trying to go straight himself. When she found out that he was still gambling and had been lying, instead of the usual result of fighting and losing faith and all kinds of melodrama, it actually brought them closer together and they began their romantic relationship instead. A very nice twist on the expected story.
Both shows (along with the adorable Monk, now back for the summer) are a lovely change of pace from all the angst and drama I'm usually drawn to. They're odd and filled with unusual characters, and while the stories and styles are often fairly derivative, they put a good spin on them anyway, and bring something fresh and lively to the screen. Considering how much of a loss I've felt without Buffy, that's saying a lot. Now if we can just get all the eps of Keen Eddie that were filmed, I'll be happy.
A lot of the stylistic quirks on Keen Eddie should annoy me enough to stop watching, but it's just so funny and odd and filled with British actors I love that all the rough spots are smoothed out. And it's hard not to love a show that features a "40-year-old filthy slut who'll do anything" who's hired to jack off a horse for its prize-winning sperm and everyone subsequently refers to her that way, even her boyfriend/pimp. It's also impossible for me not to love a show that uses Madness's One Step Beyond as chase music, or puts Ian Dury and the Blockheads on the soundtrack. And Monty Pippin may just be the best British TV character ever -- he is, as Eddie pegged him, a walking shell game. It's fun watching him adopt looser mannerisms as his contact with Eddie increases, becoming sort of Americanized in some ways, with his "dude"s and his sense of humor coming out. I loved the slashy little bit with him and Eddie in the opera star episode last week; this week I adored him being annoyed with Eddie over missing his "sex lunch." He's just so very, very odd, and I adore him.
They've also done a really good job of taking fairly familiar plots and tweaking them just a bit for a little more zest; I especially admired how they handled the randy opera star with her crush on Eddie. When she climbs into his bed to seduce him and he tries to get her out, her long monologue about how she acts the parts of women who get love and experience great passion seemed like yet another setup for a joke. I was waiting for the punch line, but then it turned out to be serious, and Eddie kindly slips into bed to hold her and she's content with that. A nice surprise -- which is what I think they do best on this show. People act like people. Very weird and quirky people, but they do things that real folks do. They make bad judgments, make mistakes, are stupid and funny and stubborn and foolish, rise above it, everything we all do every day. Eddie himself is frequently wrong and has made a blowhard ass of himself in being wrong, but he admits it and moves on. It's refreshing to get people like the character in last night's ep, who just don't always know what the right thing to do is, and who stumble through life till they figure it out (and it didn't hurt that I love the actor, either, most recently seen as Jules's dad in Bend it Like Beckham).
And Keen Eddie makes a nice lead-in to Lucky, which I'm sorry to see will be ending its first season next Tuesday, and there's no certainty whether it will come back. I've really enjoyed watching these people try to get their lives in order. A few clunker episodes like the one where Lucky gets amnesia and thinks he's dead or the one with the duelling dates, but overall it's been a zippy mix of comedy and drama, and made it fun getting to know these people. Lucky's moronic friends Mutha and Vinnie are adorable, total low-lifes and losers but of course have hearts of... well, maybe nickel, and the guest stars have been incredible, especially Giancarlo Esposito as a flaming and vicious hairdresser with the hots for Lucky, and Dan Hedaya, who is always wonderful and strange.
I remember way back when, all the networks were putting out dramedies, and they all failed miserably, too (my favorite was probably Days and Nights of Molly Dodd). No one seemed to know what to do with comedies sans laugh tracks, or dramas with humor. It feels like cable drama viewers are more sophisticated these days, but if enough people haven't watched Lucky for FX to bring it back, maybe there really isn't a lot of hope for that style. The show's veered wonderfully back and forth between pathos and laughter, and it's honest to how people in Las Vegas would act and talk (FX being the only cable network that lets people actually swear and stuff), but maybe they just haven't found the right way to get viewers into the show. I don't know.
Out of the whole cast, Lucky's girlfriend Theresa stands out (played by Ever Carradine)-- a really broken spirit who just can't quite get a handle on her addiction to gambling and in last night's succumbed to temptation again. Which Lucky ought to answer for, since he "sponsored" her in GA by lying and telling her he was trying to go straight himself. When she found out that he was still gambling and had been lying, instead of the usual result of fighting and losing faith and all kinds of melodrama, it actually brought them closer together and they began their romantic relationship instead. A very nice twist on the expected story.
Both shows (along with the adorable Monk, now back for the summer) are a lovely change of pace from all the angst and drama I'm usually drawn to. They're odd and filled with unusual characters, and while the stories and styles are often fairly derivative, they put a good spin on them anyway, and bring something fresh and lively to the screen. Considering how much of a loss I've felt without Buffy, that's saying a lot. Now if we can just get all the eps of Keen Eddie that were filmed, I'll be happy.
