TV Review: Netflix’s The Eddy Is Open For Murder Mystery Business
For all the lush music and buzzing scenes of jazz that intersperse throughout The Eddy, the new Netflix series. premiering May 8, is, actually, a quiet show. It bursts with the noise of silence and the beeps, pings, and chirps your surroundings make when you open your ears because there is not much to say, especially after a murder. Yes, if you thought the series, directed by La La Land’s Damian Chazelle, was going to be a sweet, colorful dance where, of all people, Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling are determined to save jazz….. Welp!….. No.
The Eddy is a Parisian nightclub run by André Holland’s Elliot Udo; the most elegant man to not have his life together. Holland’s ability to emanate Elliot’s brilliance, despite his frustrations, selfishness, and inability to just GET IT TOGETHER is what makes you pull for Elliot. He is a good man, with dreams of money and music, making his mind reel with goals he is desperate to realize, even if costs him true relationships like, the one with his daughter Julie (Amandla Stenberg). Still, each episode becomes a peak into the other lives swirling The Eddy, and, in this, the show find its biggest strength and weakness.
The Eddy | Official Trailer | Netflix
The Eddy has its moments, but they depend on whether you like or dislike the lives of its imperfect characters. This should feel like an obvious point because what show does not depend on whether you like its characters? Still, because of the strange, surprising quietness of the show, relying on great, bustling nightclub scenes for its breathe of music, the tension of finding a character you like and pulling for them feels amplified. Luckily, audiences will anchor to the resilient journey of Amira ( played with strength by Leïla Bekhti) and the relatable desire for “more” stemming from Maja ( played tenderly by Joanna Kulig). In the end, the show is a story of what happens when you try to live in music without being an ultra-famous popstar, which is why it can feel grim, dark, and….. lead to murder!
The Eddy is gritted in a realism that is approached through great performances and the inherent dreaminess that people perceive in a “musical life.” Hence, its music scenes are atmospherically stunning and can buzz you off the couch. Yet, as each episode passes, that dreaminess becomes greyed, and viewers are able to see the tension of having debts, running a business that has gone from blessing to financial burden, resenting your dad’s lacking presence, and finding out your beloved, dead husband was FAR from a saint. These are real scenarios that music can’t cover, The Eddy hopes you love its characters and its sound enough to stick through its darkness. I think you should. The Eddy comes out May 8.
