Round 2 Strangers: Keen Eddie (original) (raw)

I'm back! Special thanks to chickwithmonkey for bailing me out when I ended up at a convention with no internet access. o.O

Keen Eddie

Vid Used

- "Too Bad" by Gwyneth (gwynethr@gmail.com)
http://www.gwynethr.net/
recommended by mlyn and sdwolfpup

Gwyneth has a password-protected vid website, but she has kindly authorized me to give you the password to ease your downloading experience. I'm putting it behind a cut to help ward off evil robots.

Gwyneth: (http://www.gwynethr.net/)
username: gwyn
password: cymruGrokker Synopsis

Keen Eddie, a hilarious and witty "fish out of water"-themed detective show, aired briefly in 2003 and produced 13 episodes before its untimely demise. It uses unusual effects and edits at a breakneck pace, employing such techniques as zooms, fast-forward, slow-motion, flashbacks, the occasional voiceover, and a hyperactive techno soundtrack to drive the action forward and add to the quirky tone of the show.

The story is thus. Eddie Arlette, a smart-mouthed but genuinely likeable New York cop, is working on one of the most important cases of his career. He's in the process of busting a drug ring that smuggles oxycodone in tiny replicas of Big Ben. The NYPD is poised to take down the ring, but unfortunately, Eddie takes a bad tip from a hot brunette – the big-eyed woman with the fortune-cookie messages – and the subsequent drug bust is – well – a bust. Eddie-the-screwup, rather than being fired, is exiled to London to pursue another lead in the case. He shows up at Scotland Yard is assigned a partner: Inspector Monty Pippin, a strange, floppy-haired man whose strange sexual habits become readily apparent when he takes Eddie to a series of nightclubs and swinger parties in a search for leads. Oddly enough, despite their wariness of each other, Eddie and Pippin make a good team, and soon manage to hunt down the rest of the drug dealers. After solving the case, Eddie is offered a job at Scotland Yard and the series continues from there, as Eddie and Pippin soon find themselves dealing with one wacky case after another.

Some other things you might see in the vid include Eddie's dog Pete (a horrid raging beast of a bull terrier that Eddie attempts to leave in Customs, until animal-lover Pippin finds out); Eddie's wall of matchbooks, one matchbook representing each solved case (the New York incarnation burns up, but Eddie starts afresh in London); a blonde girl, Fiona, who is Eddie's accidental roommate (neither of them can stand each other, but their animosity probably just disguises their secret desire for one another); Superintendent Johnson, Eddie's new boss at Scotland Yard; and a cast of various criminals, informants, and ordinary citizens whom Eddie and Pippin encounter while fighting crime.

Stranger Synopses

Stranger 1

All I knew about this fandom was:

Nothing, nada, zilch. The name led me to believe that it would be some sort of Cartoon Network exclusive about a keen lad called Eddie and his amusing antics. (It wasn’t.)

Here's what this fandom is really about:

This is actually Due South: the sequel, but with a marked lack of mounties. Also, instead of a half-wolf, Eddie’s got a half-dog/half-rat and instead of being slashy with a Chicago flat-foot with experimental hair, he’s slashy with a London copper with experimental hair. Oh, and instead of being haunted by his father’s ghost, Eddie is haunted by the ghost of some sultry brunette.

The story: Eddie, who is indeed a keen (and hunky) lad, works for the NYPD. He’s good at his job and enjoys doing it, despite his boss being an asshole. One faithful day, during a raid on an abandoned warehouse, Eddie finds a souvenir replica of the Big Ben broken in half on the floor. Since he apparently has more brawns than brains, he picks up the pieces -on a crime scene and not wearing gloves - and tries to put them together. But GASP, the pieces don’t fit together! And double-GASP, someone sees him mess around with the evidence, takes a picture of it and tells asshole-boss about it. He tells Eddie in no uncertain terms that he’ll never work in that town again. However, asshole-boss says, there’s this position with our colleagues in London you’d be perfect for. How about it, Eddie? Eddie says, fine, but you can forget about me sending you a postcard.

And that is how Eddie comes to work for the Scotland Yard where he is partnered with a fugly guy in desperate need of a haircut. Together they share many madcap adventures and eventually a bed. Fugly Guy is obviously desperately in love with Eddie from the start, and who can blame him? At first, Eddie is uncertain about his feelings for Fugly Guy, but after seeing him naked, he decides to take a walk on the wild side. He never regrets that decision, because no matter how much all other aspects of his life suck, at the end of the day, Fugly Guy is there to snuggle with and with Fugly Guy’s long orange hair tickling his nose and the scent of burning electrical appliances in the background it doesn’t matter that the rest of London hates him (because it does - the people hate him, the buildings hate him, the buses hate him. Hell, even the Thames hates him.).

Stranger 2

All I knew about this fandom was:

I think it's British. Is it British?

Here's what this fandom is really about:

Gay, gay lovers. I mean, I've seen gayness before, but this show could be created entirely of cut scenes from Queer as Folk. I'm not even kidding. These two very homosexual men are SPCA agents who find and arrest owners of puppy mills and fast food companies that don't kill cows humanely. The butch guy, whose name is obviously Eddie, is keen on the girlish-looking one, who we will call The Girlish-Looking One. The men are proud of their gayness and membership in the SPCA, but they don't like women, especially ones with oddly big lips or ones that grope their arses. Sometimes Eddie uses his powers of Freeze-All-The-Bad-Guys or Auto-Football-Narrating to make his life more interesting, but he and The Girlish-Looking One are mostly happy in their gay gay lives, what with all the throwing of fruit and sitting in ice-cream trucks and eating biscuits (that what the British call "cookies") and playing Rock 'Em Sock 'Em and petting their dog, who we will call Spuds Mackenzie.

Sometimes Eddie and The Girlish-Looking One are hunted by some anti-SPCA agents (also known as the SPCA: Society to Promote Cruelty to Animals) who want to yank our heroes back to his home in a much gayer section of London, but the boys like their little flat near the SPCA headquarters. So there they will stay. The end.

Stranger 3

All I knew about this fandom was:

Website where I downloaded the video said it was about an American cop in Britain. I'd never even heard the name of the show before.

Here's what this fandom is really about:

Characters:
Eddie the red-blooded American
Fruity British Cop Partner
JFK the dog
Disapproving bosses of various nationalities
Sundry football fans

Setting:
Every tourist attraction in London

Plot:
Eddie first came to London on the trail of an international pewter knick-knack smuggling ring, and for reasons involving his rather poor hand-eye coordination and a cabbage, he has remained. So has his dog, JFK. JFK makes a lot of new friends, but everyone hates Eddie. His boss in New York hates him for failing to capture the American contact in an international pewter knick-knack smuggling ring. His new boss in London hates him for dumping a pewter knick-knack smuggling ring case on Scotland Yard. JFK hates him for refusing to watch I Love Lucy reruns and instead playing with matches. And Londoners hate him for being American. He tells himself that they're just jealous of his manly haircut.

First on the list of people who hate Eddie is Fruity British Cop Partner, who doesn't appreciate getting saddled with the American klutz. It's very tedious keeping an eye on the foreigner so he doesn't get hit by a double-decker cultural symbol. And he is weirdly uptight about alcohol consumption — Fruity British Cop Partner can't take him anywhere! Meanwhile, Eddie isn't too pleased to be working with a long-haired metrosexual guy who has no concept of personal boundaries, but he tries to be tolerant. Eventually, they bond over their mutual love of "football," even if they can't agree on what the game is called.

When he's not fighting JFK for the TV remote, Eddie is on the lookout for Clues in the ongoing pewter knick-knack smuggling ring case. (For reasons that don't need exploring at this juncture, he believes that the most useful Clues are the matchbooks collected from London pubs.) Unfortunately, cultural differences make the interpretation of these Clues difficult. Example: A beautiful woman gives him the fortune from her fortune cookie. Is she flirting with him, or is she a member of the international pewter knick-knack smuggling ring? Eddie is keen to find out. He invites Fruity British Cop Partner over to his new "flat" for a perfectly innocent sleepover so they can go over the evidence, but when the partner takes his own pants off, Eddie wonders if he missed another Clue.

Stranger 4

All I knew about this fandom was:

Nothing

Here's what this fandom is really about:

So this guy in the apron is the main character who likes to takle people and cause a ruckus.....and...is that other guy Julian Rhind-Tutt? Oh my goodness, it is Julian!!!

Okay, so this is a cop show that takes place in present day England. The guy in the apron is the main character and his partner is Julian. The guy was on the NYPD and since he apparently wasn't too bright they sent him to the UK? Uh...

The brunette girl might be a love interest....and his flat has no furniture but a bull terrier who likes chocolate. Julian apparently likes taking off his pants and partying. This seems like a comedy. Our protagonist is always getting into trouble, it seems, and Julian rushes to the rescue and takes naps on his shoulder.

The show is a comedy cop show about a yank in Scotland Yard and the antics he and his partner get into.

Stranger 5

All I knew about this fandom was:

Apparently nothing. I thought it was a cartoon! Upon reflection, I think I may have been confusing it, just slightly, with Ed, Edd & Eddy. Do not laugh at me!

Here's what this fandom is really about:

Scotland Yard has a problem: their police force is treating the beating up and apprehension of criminals as if the whole thing were some kind of soccer game -- excuse me, a football match. And so, like all good foreigners, they turn for help to an All-American Hero: Keen Eddie, NYPD cop. He's got spunk! He's got sassy American moxie! He's got a gun! And he's going to show those Brits how police brutality is done in the good old U S of A! Alas, Eddie is plagued not only by the inevitable tight-assed superior officers who fail to appreciate his loose-canon renegade ways, but also by two arch-nemeses: a small dog and a mysterious graffiti artist. The dog is unquestionably real, even if no one save Eddie recognizes its true evil nature, but it may well be that the "go home" graffiti which follows Eddie through his every waking moment is, in fact, only a figment of his own tortured subconscious, visible to no one save himself.

Fortunately, Eddie is supported through it all by his extremely gay British partner, whose loving devotion enables him to conquer his demons, both inner and outer, and allows him in the end to find true happiness and fulfillment in the land of tea and crumpets.

Stranger 6

All I knew about this fandom was:

I knew that it was about an American cop in London.

Here's what this fandom is really about:

Our hero does something (or many somethings) wrong, and is sent to London to work for Scotland Yard. I can't fathom why this would be so, as you'd think that we'd only send out very, very best folks to another country, so that the other country doesn't think we're big idiots or incompetent, but whatever. He's in London as punishment, and the London cops are supposed to school him on his manners or something.

Which is not at all what happens. He's partnered up with a kind of adorable DORK, who is clumsy and goofy and way more affectionate with him than even cop partners normally are. They seem to get in a LOT of trouble together, much of it involving injury to our hero, or destruction of property (both his own and others'). Other than the dork-partner, people don't seem to like him at Scotland Yard, and he keeps getting in trouble or hazed or just ignored. His little dog doesn't like him either, and bites him and drops things on his head and also ignores him.

This guy is not enjoying London, or his life. Perhaps he should just have an affair with his little dork-partner? Maybe that would cheer him up...

Stranger 7

All I knew about this fandom was:

Certain people had been trying to pimp this fandom to me for ages, yet never quite told me what it was about, so the pimpery never managed to batter down my arguably godlike defenses. There might have been mention of a dog and people with accents.

Here's what this fandom is really about:

The first 15-20 seconds or so of the vid had me convinced that this fandom is all about the seedy underbelly of British football. There was clearly a strange gangland of white blokes beating each other up over merchandising rights and territory for souvenir and snack stands.

But then Mark Valley from Boston Legal began contaminating evidence at a DEA crime scene whilst showing a wider range of facial expressions than he'd ever been allowed on BL so, congratulations! It's a cop show! Of course the shoddy police work and the contamination of the wee broken Big-Ben evidence resulted in him either a) getting transferred to England in some sort of twisted "exchange cop" program or b) bravely following the lead on his own all the way to Scotland Yard…where he gets a partner - a thin-lipped bisexual Bowie-wannabe whose resemblance to an aging fanon Draco Malfoy is bordering uncanny.

Either way it's clear that this fandom is all about the misadventures of a fish-out-of water cop on a mission to uncover a drug smuggling ring that uses tiny Big Ben figures in souvenir shops to ferry their goods. Unfortunately for him he's hated by the general public (which is what happens when you bean innocent grannies with cabbages in the marketplace). However, being despised by everyone around him is a direct consequence of his extremely bad luck. I'm convinced the pit bull is actually some dread cursed beast that our unwitting hero blindly protects, much to his detriment.

Stranger 8

All I knew about this fandom was:

Although the name was utterly unfamiliar, I think I saw an ad for the show at some point, because the characters look vaguely familiar.

Here's what this fandom is really about:

Keen Eddie plays football! Wait, no.. he fights crime. It's a buddy cop show. His NY boss seems angry with him; I'm not sure why sending him to London is a punishment, but apparently it is. NYPD Eddie ends up at Scotland yard. Shortly thereafter, a mysterious woman appears and hits on him via fortune cookie slips. Sadly for her, he is way more invested in the floppy haired guy, who is his new local partner. NY Eddie is relatively handsome and charming--or at least he thinks so. People don't seem to respond positively to him. In fact, NY Eddie is not particularly well-liked by... well, by a good chunk of London, it seems, though the three poorly dressed gentlemen seem to like him even less than most and kidnap him, possibly more than once. Throwing cabbages at seniors probably doesn't help. Nor is NY Eddie particularly capable of looking out for himself, since even his abductors need to save him from a random double-decker bus. Eddie's new partner is awkward and buttoned-down (despite the long hair and tendency to get naked at parties). The floppy-haired partner returns NY Eddie's feelings, which explains why he rescues NYPD's creepy-looking dog from quarantine. (There is no other reason to expedite the release of an animal that weird-looking, especially since the dog was partially responsible for the destruction of a map covered with small sparky squares.) And then the floppy-haired partner rescues NY Eddie himself. Repeatedly.