(this is spoiler free)
Imagine my surprise and subsequent scoffing when I realized
that Jeff Goldblum had a career still, and a new TV series. He seemed to be all the rage in the mid-to-late 90's, a buzz that I never quite figured out. He wasn't bad, mind you, but I just keep seeing the Celebrity Jeopardy skit on SNL where David Duchovny pretended to be him, and was hilarious at it.
So I expected very little going into Raines, where Jeff Goldblum plays the title character who has a very overactive imagination and sees his victims.
They don't give him any advice or anything useful. They don't know any more than he does, something I applaud the writers for. They're essentially just him, talking to himself. And that's an interesting mechanic.
In this first episode, it's boringly used. The detective story itself is not terribly exciting or original, but in this first episode you're not watching to watch a good detective story, and they aren't always required. You don't watch House for the cases, you watch because Gregory House is a beautiful wreck.
(But that said, a show would do well to follow House and have both fascinating characters AND interesting cases)
The episode plodded for three quarters of the show. It wasn' tuntil the ending, which I won't discuss in detail here, when I became both interested in the series and heartbroken for Jeff Goldblum's character. It was those last ten minutes or so that'll keep me coming back, at least for a little while.
Greg House is hurt, and so he becomes this big prickly monolith that lumbers around the hospital.
Detective Raines is hurt too, but he's small and quiet and shy, and...fragile. And you knew that from the beginning, but it wasn't until the end when it was made readily apparently.
So the writing needs to tighten, but that's okay. MOst pilot episodes stink. It's got potential, and it's got a character who's interesting, and Jeff Goldblum impressed me. That's enough for me.
Imagine my surprise and subsequent scoffing when I realized
that Jeff Goldblum had a career still, and a new TV series. He seemed to be all the rage in the mid-to-late 90's, a buzz that I never quite figured out. He wasn't bad, mind you, but I just keep seeing the Celebrity Jeopardy skit on SNL where David Duchovny pretended to be him, and was hilarious at it.
So I expected very little going into Raines, where Jeff Goldblum plays the title character who has a very overactive imagination and sees his victims.
They don't give him any advice or anything useful. They don't know any more than he does, something I applaud the writers for. They're essentially just him, talking to himself. And that's an interesting mechanic.
In this first episode, it's boringly used. The detective story itself is not terribly exciting or original, but in this first episode you're not watching to watch a good detective story, and they aren't always required. You don't watch House for the cases, you watch because Gregory House is a beautiful wreck.
(But that said, a show would do well to follow House and have both fascinating characters AND interesting cases)
The episode plodded for three quarters of the show. It wasn' tuntil the ending, which I won't discuss in detail here, when I became both interested in the series and heartbroken for Jeff Goldblum's character. It was those last ten minutes or so that'll keep me coming back, at least for a little while.
Greg House is hurt, and so he becomes this big prickly monolith that lumbers around the hospital.
Detective Raines is hurt too, but he's small and quiet and shy, and...fragile. And you knew that from the beginning, but it wasn't until the end when it was made readily apparently.
So the writing needs to tighten, but that's okay. MOst pilot episodes stink. It's got potential, and it's got a character who's interesting, and Jeff Goldblum impressed me. That's enough for me.