Over in the IP forums, there has been some discussion about cancelled shows and what didn’t deserve to be cancelled or didn’t get a fair shake. Naturally, a show like ‘Firefly’ gets listed as a show that didn’t get a fair chance, but the movie Serenity shows that it probably would’ve been cancelled regardless of the praise that fans give it.
So in that vein, I present to you a fun show that debuted on Fox but finished up on Bravo… ‘Keen Eddie’.
‘Keen Eddie’ stars Mark Valley as New York narcotics detective Eddie Arlette, who heads over to London after a failed drug bust leads him across the Atlantic. After (naturally) cleaning up that case, he is invited to stay with Scotland Yard under Superintendant Nathanial Johnson (the underrated Colin Salmon). He works cases with Inspector Monty Pippin (Julian Rhind-Tutt) and ends up sharing an apartment with the lovely – but bitchy – Fiona Bickerton (Sienna Miller) due to a mixup with the owner.
The main appeal of this show is it’s “fish out of water” nature, which sees Eddie apply his New York style to our stereotype of merry olde England. Sometimes, it works. And sometimes Eddie gets punched in the face, which brings me to another part of it’s appeal – the humour. The show proceeds similar to most cop shows, but where most shows rely on drama and tension, this show doesn’t take itself as seriously, giving you humour both wry and overt.
This show is out on DVD, so if you can find it at a rental store, give it a shot.
Bits and Pieces
– So the first single from the new INXS is Pretty Vegas. Which tells me that INXS knew who was going to be the new lead singer with about 4 weeks left in the competition.
– The new show dead pool now stands at three, with ‘Inconceivable’ and ‘Just Legal’ getting the axe. I’m sure none of you will miss them.
– No wait, it’s probably four. ‘Kitchen Confidential’ stopped production and is likely to not return.
– Random plug: ‘Cable & Deadpool’ from Marvel Comics. If you like your action books grim and gritty, this isn’t the book for you. If you like books with some humour and a willingness to poke fun at ‘New Avengers’, give it a try.
Wrestling? What wrestling?
With ‘Raw’ back on USA, Spike TV brought back ‘UFC Unleashed’ as a lead-in to ‘The Ultimate Fighter’, and this week we got the Rich “Ace” Franklin show as they build up to the next PPV. Good way to showcase what Rich is all about, and if you look closely at his corner during the Evan Tanner fight you can see Jorge Gurgel in his corner. I think the replay is tonight, so ignore what Donny Deutch thinks and look for it.
Meanwhile, we once again take a break from heavyweight inaction to showcase the welterweights on ‘The Ultimate Fighter’. We got a good fight between Anthony Torres and Luke Cuommo, as Anthony had the advantage early, but eventually gave way to Luke’s conditioning and good standup skills. I was a bit disappointed for Luke that the doctors didn’t stop the fight after he gave Anthony a deep cut, but still, Dana “Poochie” White was happy with the both of them and we might get to see Anthony in the future. As for Luke, I’d imagine Hughes will send Sammy Morgan over to Team Franklin but I think he needs more seasoning on the ground.
Next week they’ve promised a shocking ending to the Heavyweight match, which might mean that it’s not boring, but it more likely means that a favorite like Mike or Keith goes home.
Hey, wow, we’ve actually passed the Mason-Dixon line…
Well, you’ve gotten a one week reprieve from my Live Amazing Race recaps. Hope you enjoyed guest recapper Paul Meekin’s take on a show he’s never seen.
For Reality TV, this seems to be the season of mud, as Survivor, The Ultimate Fighter, The Amazing Race and even Battle of the Gridiron Stars have featured mud challenges. Must be fun for the contestants.
Detour – Obviously, the shrimping was the easier option. With four people to do the task, it went fairly quickly and the fact that teams only had to walk to the next clue box meant a much shorter travel time too. And because they took the driving, Weaver and Aiello dropped down from the higher placings to the bottom four.
Roadblock – This was all about reaching the Roadblock and grabbing a number. You have to figure that each simulation took about 10-15 minutes, so that was the real factor in determining final placings in this leg.
10. Black
9. Rogers
8. Aiello. What can I say? You ran into some bad luck with slow reading at the cluebox, which led to reaching the Roadblock last, and in this case, that was all she wrote.
Sequesterville:
Bransen – Here’s to hoping that Wally doesn’t have a heart attack.
Paolo – In a way, you lucked out. You managed to turn your 20 minute deficit into a 30 minute deficit at the airport, but the 1-in-4 chance to get Philiminated turned out to be the edge you needed. Still, the Gaghan family caught up to you at the email station, so had you done the Roadblock seventh, I might be writing your Race eulogy instead of the Aiellos.
Schroeder – Nothing to say, you’re doing well.
Weaver – It’s amazing how much animosity you’ve built up in such a short time. I’m sure the other teams are sympathetic to your plight, but giving people the cold shoulder may come back to bite you in the ass.
Reaching the Finish Line:
Gaghan – I have to admit, this family is making a believer out of me. The kids are still annoying, but they’ve got impressive stamina, so they become one of my top three picks.
Godlewski – I haven’t seen anything this week that would make me bump you from here, but it looks like there will be some tension next week.
Linz – Looks like that next-to-last finish was an abberation.
Winners of The Amazing Race:
Linz – Nothing I’ve seen says that I should change this.
That was about as casual a Tribe swap as I’ve ever seen
Before you read my analysis read what (the lovely) Sarah Jane, (the equally as lovely) Dora, (the not-so-lovely – hey, he’s a guy – but he’s smart enough to not make predictions) Dan and the Murtz/Eliza (Murtliza?) duo have to say.
Are you ready? OK, let’s do it.
18. Jim Lynch
17. Morgan McDevitt
16. Brianna Varela
15. Brooke Struck – Normally when you don’t hear much from a contestant it’s a good thing. For you, it just means that you weren’t particularly interesting to the editors. If you total your face time in the four episodes you were in, I’m thinking that it doesn’t even match that of Jim – who was eliminated first.
Out Before Merge:
Amy O’Hara
Cindy Hall
Lydia Morales (F2)
Margaret Bobnich (j)
Merge Boot:
Blake Towsley
Jury:
Bobby Jon Drinkard
Brandon Bellinger
Judd Sergeant(o)
Gary ‘Hawkins’ Hogeboom
Jamie Newton (o)
Rafe Judkins
Stephanie La Grossa
Final Two
Brian Corridan
Danni Boatwright (j)
Sole Survivor
Brian Corridan
OK, so at this point I’m 2/4 for predicting who would go out before merge, but Jim and Morgan were easy picks, so I can’t exactly pat myself on the back there. Last week’s tribe swap kinda threw things in disarray, but let’s see what we can discern from this:
– The alliances of Lydia/Brian and Rafe/Gary have been split up, as well as a possible Judd/Brandon (I’m guessing on that)
– Steph and Jamie have seemed to form an alliance out of necessity, and added Judd to the mix. Rafe, one of the alleged “strategists”, is on the outside looking in right now.
– I keep flip-flopping on where Lydia is going to go. All I can figure is that if she makes merge, she’s reaching the finals because as Anne Robinson might say, she IS the weakest link. Right now, I think she’s safe for another week because Amy is probably the next to go.
– Which of course means that Yuxha has to lose the immunity challenge. It’s fairly obvious that the new Nakum tribe has much better teamwork, so assuming that the next challenge comes down to that, they’ll win. I’m sure that Steph would be happy about that.
And that’s it for this week.
