The Story:
Set in the gritty, smoke-filled parts of Paris, The Eddy follows Elliot Udo, an American musician and struggling jazz club owner whose life is upended when a tragedy threatens to end his business at the same time his estranged teenage daughter arrives. The series mostly stars real-life musicians and has dialogue in English, French, and Arabic.
Watch this if:
You love music and slice-of-life stories. Damien Chazelle only directed the first two episodes, so don’t expect any starry-eyed passionate go-getters in this one. Every episode focuses on one character with an overarching storyline and their musical performances are some of the best on-screen.
What I think:
It bears repeating, the music in this show is amazing. It positions music as the joie-de-vivre force that heals, comforts, and provides respite to those who need it. Episode 3 is a spectacular highlight and showcase of this. In what’s basically a summary, “You’re a mess when you’re not playing music,” is an actual quote from the show. The good part is that the show’s musical performances are long. It’s basically half the episode a few times but it never feels like it overstays the welcome. In fact, it’s even encouraged.
When ‘The Eddy’ is good, it’s very good, but when it’s bad it is bad.
Because on the other side of the spectrum is the pseudo-murder mystery plot featuring what might be some of the worst detective work I’ve seen in a while (even by television standards). It’s easily the weakest part of the show and even gets repetitive. I can’t watch Elliot get approached by the Russian mobster again and get accused of something new every time he so much as breathes in front of the melodramatic-borderline-cartoony detectives which is a stark contrast to the show’s realistic setting and slice-of-life stories.
When ‘The Eddy’ is good, it’s very good, but when it’s bad it is bad. Luckily, everything else outweighs the bad parts enough to make this show watchable and often even a joy to watch.
My Rating:
The Eddy is now streaming on Netflix. Watch it here.
