Skip to content
The Eddy is a French musical drama, and when I first heard of this, I had shockwaves of horror go through me as if I was about to witness the return of Fame.
However, no sooner as the first episode begun in this series – which comes from Whiplash director Damien Chazelle – and we’re treated to a blistering jazz number that would get the whole street out in their droves… if we weren’t forced to currently stay indoors at the moment.
Similar to Into The Night, each episode is named after one of the characters, using them as a jumping off point into the story, and episode one focuses on Elliot (André Holland), a man who runs the titular jazz club, and who has a number of fiduciary issues; and when a fan tells him at the end of a night, “I’ve got all of your CDs, man”, Elliot replies, “Thanks. That’s more than I have … the wife got everything in the divorce”(!)
Elliot and Farid (Tahar Rahim) work together at The Eddy, but they often have a heated debate amongst themselves; and late one night, after everyone has gone, some Serbian men come to the club, claiming they’re owed money and won’t take no for an answer, even though nothing’s going to get resolved that night…
Elsewhere, Elliot’s daughter, Julie (Amandla Stenberg), comes back into the picture for him – bringing her own issues, and overall, while this first episode was inoffensive, it’s quite meandering. It passed an okayish hour or so, but each episode is that length, and it didn’t grip me enough to stick with it any further. If you’re really into your jazz, then it’s certainly worth a look.
Although there’s no English dubbed option, I’ve gone with the French original, and you soon find that even mid-sentence, the characters jump back and forth between French and English, which is a bit odd.
The Eddy is not available to pre-order on Blu-ray or DVD, but is on Netflix from Friday May 8th.
Episode 1 Score: 4/10
Series Directors: Houda Benyamina, Damien Chazelle, Laïla Marrakchi, Alan Poul
Writers: Jack Thorne, Rebecca Lenkiewicz, Rachel De-Lahay, Hamid Hlioua, Phillip Howze
Music: Randy Kerber, Glen Ballard
Cast:
Elliot Udo: André Holland
Farid: Tahar Rahim
Julie: Amandla Stenberg
Randy: Randy Kerber
Maja: Joanna Kulig
Beatrice: Liah O’Prey
Amira: Leïla Bekhti
Franck Levy: Benjamin Biolay
Sim: Adil Dehbi
Pierre: Etienne Guillou-Kervern
Jude: Damian Nueva
Katarina: Lada Obradovic
Cashier: Yannick Bouanga
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.