I found this series by accident when looking for a new action series to watch and I was totally surprised how good it was although short lived.The choice of actors and quality of acting is great. The writing is fantastic and far fresher than much newer shows. The editing and choice of music are superb. A great director/creator put this together for sure.I can't believe that they had canceled it. I loved it but had a hard time finding the episodes.The stories are not very big but they are sharp and edgier than usual and surprises are introduced that add dept and humor.

Network: Fox; Genre: Crime/Mystery, Comedy; Content Rating: TV-PG (for some violence); Available: reruns on Sleuth; Perspective: Contemporary (star range: 1 - 4); Seasons Reviewed: Complete Series (1 season)Having the unfortunate luck to debut on Fox during the reality series craze/ quality TV massacre that occurred under Gail Berman's watch during the early 00s, can't quite explain "Keen Eddie's" short life. This is one of those shows that wouldn't have made it anyway. It's too original, too different, too quirky, too oddball to ever catch fire with a TV audience. It's something of a minor miracle that "Keen Eddie" snuck past the stick-in-the-mud network and got on the air to begin with.When a drug bust goes horribly wrong under the eye of New York cop Eddie Arlette (Mark Valley, "Boston Legal", though perfectly cast here), he is sent to follow the drugs across the pond, where he takes a detective job at Scotland Yard. Eddie takes up residence in a flat and quickly finds himself at bickering odds with Fiona (Sienna Miller) who hates Eddie and is convinced the flat belongs to her. And get this, they actually don't get together. Eddie has a playboy partner played like the gullible dweeb you wouldn't expect to be the playboy partner in Pippin (Julian Rind-Tutt). In true cop series fashion, Eddie has a tough captain (Colin Salmon, Resident Evil) and his pension for cigars is a quirk like everyone's on the show. "Keen Eddie" is a crime series with an uncommon attention to character.Eddie's London experience is filled with colorful characters from two guys who have divided their pub in half arguing over whether it should be Irish or American or a mob boss who bases the actions of himself and his henchmen on a complete faith in astrology. Then there is the matter of the captain's secretary, whom Eddie calls Miss Moneypenny (a smoking Rachael Buckley) who may or may not be hitting on Eddie in the show's weirdest and funniest running gag. I love the women on the show. Fiona has her own life with her own story lines. Moneypenny is a sex joke that is actually funny. They aren't just around to prop up the guys.The mysteries are clever. Not knock-you-out clever. No big twists. But also, thank God, no "CSI" pretension. Plus, to be perfectly honest here, unlike with any character on the "CSI" and "Law & Order" franchises, I watch "Keen Eddie" and actually get a warm, comforting sense from this character. There is crime in the world, theft, kidnapping, murder, but there is also this hard-boiled dogged cop who acts like a goof and spouts a readily quotable catch phrase who will chase down the bad guys and bring them to justice. And we'd better be glad he's out there. Damn glad. He's Eddie, how do you like him now? There are a few uneven tonal shifts in the show, many times getting too dramatic when it plays best as a wacky screwball ensemble. It feels too long at an hour, often loosing steam in the final act when it should really be going for zany broke. The pilot tries to hard to impress, but if TV has taught me anything it's that a Pilot (if not written by Bryan Fuller) is no sign of future quality. The 2nd to last episode, "Keeping up Appearances" is quite funny. In it, Eddie inherits a Bentley and a live-in driver but the car keeps getting stolen by the same guy. As is common, the show gets better the more it loosens up.It should also be mentioned how overdirected and hyper-stylized "Keen" is. In an effort to look like a Guy Ritchie movie (it did debut pre-Edgar Wright) the show is chopped up with unnecessary fast forwards, flashbacks, quick cuts, top-down tilt shots and just about every other goofy film school trick you can imagine.In one episode Eddie is egged on by the cops at Scotland Yard to get in there with a perp and give him a good old fashioned American interrogation - clearly inspired by Vic Mackey and Jack Bauer. I kind of wish "Keen Eddie" delved a bit into that more: the British perception of Americans by American pop culture. Because the show itself is something of a funhouse mirror of how American view the Brits. What a fun extra layer this had been to an already full series."Keen Eddie" is a fun, likable show with a cast of characters unlike any on American television. Worth a watch if you can find it.* * ½ / 4

Last summer I lucked into a new show that was a true rarity; funny, sharp, cleverly written, with engaging characters that were well cast and played off one another perfectly. It took me almost no time at all to get hooked on Keen Eddie, and it only took them seven weeks to yank it off the air. Now, there have been a lot of bad decisions made in the history of television, many, many good shows struck down before their time only so we could suffer through crap like The O.C. and the Swan. But after viewing the Keen Eddie boxed set, I'm convinced of two things: one, that never has anyone showed such poor judgment in canceling a show before, and two, whomever decided to release the series in a boxed set deserves sainthood right now.Keen Eddie follows the story of Eddie Arlett (Mark Valley), a detective on the NYPD who botches a case and is sent to London to follow it up. There he is teamed up with the slightly neurotic but highly intelligent Inspector Monty Pippin (Julian Rhind-Tutt), and, under the direction of Superintendent Nathaniel Johnson (the always excellent Colin Salmon), he is turned loose on the greater London area, where his fish-out-of-water status actually becomes a strength. His home life is equally complicated; he is renting a flat from a woman whose daughter Fiona (Sienna Miller) is supposed to be at college but isn't; she and Eddie get on like oil and water.But Keen Eddie is far from just another cop show; the humor is as important as the suspense, and both are executed flawlessly. Eddie's American ways sometimes cause friction with the English, but they also lead to his having excellent chemistry with each of the other people in his life. He and Pippin are opposites who work together flawlessly; he constantly irritates his boss, but also pleases the man because he's good at getting results; and he and Fiona verge on all-out roommate war, but you know underneath it they are simply made for one another. The plots are heinously clever; Ediie must break up a fight-club type ring with the help of a well meaning but dim-witted young boxer and his white trash clan; Eddie must help the son of a famous pick-pocket stay out of much deeper trouble than his old man ever got in; he must enlist the aid of a former child prodigy who has fallen on hard times to help him nab a skilled safecracker; and so on. All of the plots have unexpected twists and turns, and all of them make deft use of humor. There are even tiny little devices in each show for the sharp-eyed; in one, Fiona and a co-worker square off, and at the party at the end of the show, Fiona wears a halo and her enemy a set of devil's horns as part of the celebration. In the episode with the child prodigy, who used to be on TV, every time he does something good, we hear a faint ripple of applause from a studio audience, and every time he does something bad, there is the faint hint of booing. One of the series best running gags involves Eddie and the Superintendent's secretary, Carol (Rachel Buckley); each time he greets her, she says something salacious to him that only he hears, and it throws him for a loop every time. Since no one else ever hears it, Eddie can't be sure if he's imagining it or not.Every episode except one is very well done; the only less than exemplary one involves Eddie inheriting a Bentley, because it never really comes together. But the thirteen episode set is very impressive, and I found myself unable to stop watching them (I purchased the set two weeks ago and forced myself to watch one a day so I wouldn't cycle through them too quickly). Though it's hard to judge a show's overall impact on just thirteen episodes, I'd say that we really lost something by not having two or three seasons of Keen Eddie. It's possible that the high level of creativity would have been lost after a certain period of time, and all shows eventually run out of steam; but Keen Eddie had so much going on and was so cleverly done that it seems almost criminal that it was cut short so early in its run. At least we have the boxed set, which is a lot better than relying on third-generation VHS, but watching this show and seeing how artfully it was done, and then thinking about all the crap that's on TV now, it's hard not to feel cheated that we have only thirteen episodes instead of sixty or a hundred. Once in a great while a show comes along that's a little bit different, very clever, and almost flawlessly executed. So naturally it has to get cancelled early. But don't take my word for it; rent Keen Eddie, if you can, and see what you very likely missed the first time around.

This program is the best on Television.. It's Guy Ritchie meets Damon Runyon.. I have waited a very long time for something this good.. It's inspiring and always leaves you wanting more. The ensemble cast is profound.. The writing is genius! If Bravo chooses not to film NEW episodes of Keen Eddie, Shame on them!! Watch it and spread the word! We do not want to lose this gem!! "So how are you liking me so far"? I am liking you just fine, Eddie..