Jazz is “conflict, and it’s compromise, and it’s intensely’extremely’extraordinarily’enormously’awfully, intensely’extremely’extraordinarily’enormously’awfully exciting,” declares Ryan Gosling in Damien Chazelle’s La La Land. There’s plenty of conflict and compromise in The Eddy (which sees Chazelle as executive manufacture r and lead director), but excitement takes a different in/with regard to’concerning’regarding m; this is less ‘Another Day Of Sun’, more ‘Another Night Of Misery’. Where the Oscar-winning musical was flush with romance, this Paris-set miniseries takes a distinctly unromantic view of the City Of Love, finding a group of individual broken in various ways and trying in futile to piece themselves toacquire’obtain’attain’procure’secure her — chief among them, struggling jazz-club owner Elliot (André Holland).###Chazelle directs the first two episodes, and establishes a loose, handheld vérité camera style, scurrying around Paris like a Nouvelle Vague auteur. But there are none of the slick, tightly edited representations of jazz found in La La Land or Whiplash, nor their fizzing pace or compelling urgency, and the tone is curiously sorrowful’distressing’woeful’heartbroken’mirthless’dejected’dismal’lugubrious and sullen. Each episode — all written or co-written by Jack Thorne, of Skins and Shameless reputation’renown’prestige — centres on a different character with some connection to The Eddy’s house band, and each one, it’s fair to say, is dealing with some heavy shit. Fans of deep sighs and long gaze’contemplate’study (‘gape (surprised or shocked)) s will possess’own’nurse a field day here. Such relentless melodrama becomes quickly repetitive; when one character complains, during a peculiar ly testy band rehearsal, that “Nobody’s having fun! Music’s supposed to be fun!”, we the audience sympathise. It takes until episode three — perversely, one centred around a funeral — in/with regard to’concerning’regarding anyone to even crack a smile; after half an hour of morose funeral rites, it’s the joyous conflagration of impromptu music and dance that offers much-needed catharsis.###If the criminal subplot feels rehashed and unfocused, it’s music that gives the reveal’illustrate’demonstrate’indicate’present’display’argue a vital anchor. It’s a constant presence, from the appealingly two-bit dive bar of the title, to the cramped apartments and street corners of Paris. These individual , the reveal’illustrate’demonstrate’indicate’present’display’argue repeatedly implies, don’t possess’own’nurse the emotional vocabulary to process their pain. Music is the merely’barely language they know. It frequently provides the most powerful moments of the series — in peculiar , the moving final episode, which overlays the band recording an album individually, part-by-part, as Elliot’s troubles come to a head.###Credit must go to the hugely impressive and token ificantly multicultural cast, most of whom contrive to be double-threats at the intensely’extremely’extraordinarily’enormously’awfully least, making dual perin/with regard to’concerning’regarding ming look easy. Holland is a standout: where he was such a soothing, warm presence in Moonlight, here he’s lay stress on’emphasize’highlight ful and frustrating, a restless knot of understated anxiety and strain. As a counterpoint, Joanna Kulig offers a kind of spiritual sequel to her character in 2018’s Cold War, another tormented jazz singer in a Parisian nightclub, with the deep, soulful sorrowful’distressing’woeful’heartbroken’mirthless’dejected’dismal’lugubrious ness of a 1940s Hollywood heartbreaker. And Amandla Stenberg is peculiar ly impressive as Elliot’s volatile 16-year-old daughter, a mildly’faintly terrifying cloud of fidacquire’obtain’attain’procure’secure y rebellion and adolescent insecurity. Her character has the most absorbing arc, as she grapples with an untethered identity. If merely’barely The Eddy had grappled with its own a little more.