Keen Eddie



""Even in darkness, a keen spirit discovers light.""

- Eddie's fortune.

Keen Eddie was a short lived cop show from the early noughties starring Mark Valley, Sienna Miller and Julian Rhind-Tutt. Eddie Arlette, a detective from Manhattan, is taken in when he develops feelings for a duplicitous informant. She, along with a convincing co-star, tricks him into planning a drug-bust for the wrong warehouse, and as a result of his mistake, inadvertently supplies London's drug lords with a year's worth of oxycodone. But Eddie's the only one who can ID the chemist, so he's forced to follow them off to merry old England and atone for the mess he made. He arrives to discover that Fiona Bickerton, the beautiful but prickly daughter of the people he's subletting his flat from, is still living there while she's supposed to be at university, and due to their circumstances, the two become unwilling roommates.

Fiona despises Eddie, and that seems to be a sentiment shared by the rest of London, give or take, including the criminal element and the Metropolitan Police Department (Scotland Yard). Eddie's boss, superintendent Nathaniel Johnson, is a stoic hardass with an over-developed ambition for career advancement, who doesn't seem amused by Eddie's American ways. Even Eddie's dog, Pete, bites him regularly. About the only person in town who doesn't want Eddie's head on a plate is his partner, Inspector Monty Pippin, a deceptively spiffy mod with a wild private life. He makes Eddie seem like a prude in comparison, and has little interest in controlling himself, but Eddie sees the good in him, and they still manage to get along fine. Together they take down the oxycodone ring and manage to do a lonely man a good turn.

Somewhere between Moonlighting and Starsky and Hutch in tone, this isn't exactly a Fish Out of Water show so much as a They Fight Crime situation. In the first few episodes, the show tends to be more in the Guy Ritchie line than anything else, with blingy editing, techno music, outlandish fight scenes, glamor and sex-appeal riding the surface, desperately trying to look cool. But beneath all the flash is a story about a man who clings to his belief in humanity and gravitates toward lost souls, risking life and limb to bring them back from the edge. He does everything he can to help people -- not just the victims of crime, but criminals as well. Even his friends aren't safe from the Care Bear Stare that is Eddie Arlette. All of this becomes obvious within a few episodes, but by the time the show hit it's stride, it was too late. Only thirteen episodes were made and, due to being yanked around the schedule and buried, only a handful aired on FOX before it was unceremoniously canceled. Many people who saw the show caught it on the Bravo airings. It was last seen on the "Sleuth" channel.

The last few episodes of Keen Eddie make the relationship arcs apparent and give the viewer an idea of what they could have expected in the second season: Eddie's only mechanism for coping with change is to force his surroundings to adapt to him, but London actually seems to be warming to the idea. His dog still bites him, though.

This series provides examples of:

"Fiona: "Your dog is using my cat as a shag toy!""
 * Adrenaline Time
 * Adventure Duo: Eddie and Monty
 * Agent Peacock: Monty.
 * Assimilation Academy: Ollerton, Monty's alma mater, seems to be a Boarding School of Horrors complete with a Dean Bitterman-style Headmaster and evil alums. Given their connections, they assume they are above the law and let the new student Initiation Ceremony in their most elite house become extremely dangerous, all the while pressuring victims to keep quiet. They even try to scare Monty into hushing everything up by not only threatening him, but his brother and mother as well. Their school motto is "Audi, Vide, Tace".
 * Aw, Look -- They Really Do Love Each Other: Several times with Eddie and Fiona, and on occasion Eddie and Monty. Once with Eddie and Nathaniel.
 * Being Good Sucks
 * Belligerent Sexual Tension: "I! Hate! You!"
 * Catch Phrase: "I'm Eddie. How do you like me so far?" There's also Nigel's tiny bladder mantra. ("Loo!") and Monty's affinity for the word "dude".
 * Dramedy
 * Da Chief: An impressively suave example.
 * Deadpan Snarker: Everyone, but especially Nathaniel.
 * Defrosting Ice Queen: The last episode holds out hope for some closure to Eddie and Fiona.
 * The Dulcinea Effect: Eddie is prone to this.
 * Friendship Moment: Eddie gets a couple of these in the last episode, as it's seems clear to Nathaniel and Monty that he's about to get himself killed.
 * The Fatalist: Anton Levy -- he turns out to be right.
 * Even the Guys Want Him: Eddie
 * Freudian Slip: Three good ones, including Fiona telling Eddie the secret ingredient in the soup she made him was "Love," Eddie accidently calling Carol "Ms. Hornypenny," and Monty telling Eddie "I love you," instead of "I'll leave you."
 * Gay Bravado: Monty to Eddie a few times, and Eddie to Monty once.
 * Good Cop Bad Cop: Done to Jimmy Fishkin by the cops and his criminal bosses.
 * Hello Nurse: Carol Ross, aka "Ms. Moneypenny"
 * Heterosexual Life Partners
 * I Need to Go Iron My Dog: Monty tends to pull this as a means of escape when Eddie and Nathaniel are fighting, but is usually thwarted when one of them makes him stay.
 * Insistent Terminology: The forty year-old dirty slut, who will do anything... for money!
 * "A blood feud."
 * Interspecies Romance: Eddie's dog, Pete. Well, sort of:


 * Anything That Moves: Although the moving part isn't a requirement. Pete's seen "dating" Fiona's fur coat.
 * Loveable Sex Maniac: We get hints of this from Monty when he starts chatting about his esteem for porn (internet porn, 70s porn, etc.) Given some of his behavior, though, he's edging toward Anything That Moves.
 * Meaningful Echo: "What is wrong? Nothing."
 * The Messiah: Although he's all snark with his Badass facade, Eddie is all about doing the right thing, and will go to impossible ends just to redeem someone who doesn't want or deserve it.
 * Mistaken for Gay: Nathaniel by Eddie, Eddie and Monty by a random hobo.
 * Moe Couplet: Eddie and Monty. Usually, Eddie is judgmental and non-social, and Monty is selfish and craven, but Eddie's influence often causes Monty to behave in a more heroic manner, while Eddie's loftiness is undermined by his affection for Monty. They're effortlessly sincere with each other and very dynamic as a team team, and seem to be the opposite when apart.
 * Odd Friendship
 * Pet the Dog: Criminals regularly have these moments on Keen Eddie. As does Nathaniel, despite already being a good guy.
 * The Pornomancer: Monty, by way of the shotgun effect.
 * Red Oni, Blue Oni
 * Running Gag: There are several, one being Eddie's fantasies about Carol coming on to him, which he assumes are really happening. Usually results in him mentally checking out until Monty snaps him out of it.
 * A more subtle running gag happens several times when Nathaniel insults Eddie. Eddie gets Nathaniel back, but his insults usually go too far and are always completely serious. Nathaniel tends to take this in his stride, but Monty -- who's more-or-less terrified of Nathaniel -- has a silent meltdown.
 * There's a few from "Horse Heir": The euphemisms used by anyone attempting to describe the "event" surrounding the extraction of a racehorse's seed, and the reaction people have to the manual's instructions on how to do it being "unnatural" followed by someone pointing out that the manual says otherwise.
 * Sad Clown: Monty. He even admits as much in the last episode, during a rare and brief moment of sincerity.
 * Ship Tease: Ever so much. Most of the main characters and a ton of reoccurring characters have had romantic moments with Eddie, but it's made pretty clear who he's destined to end up with.
 * Sleep Cute: Eddie and Monty
 * Stupid Sexy Flanders: Almost everyone is impressed with Eddie, but Monty kinda takes it to the next level.
 * They Fight Crime
 * Tropaholics Anonymous: Eddie sends Monty to "Emotional Connections," a sex-a-holics group.
 * Tsundere: Fiona
 * Well, Excuse Me, Princess! Eddie and Fiona
 * Will They or Won't They?
 * You Watch Too Much X: Eddie's co-workers watch so much American cop shows/movies, they think Eddie's going to beat up a suspect.