I gave it a shot because the only other thing on here is Basketball (or the news–
(loacl ABC station has HS basketball), and it it has Linda Park (Hoshi from Enterprise*) on it.
It was OK. Dunno if I’ll watch again.
Brian
*Now if she shows up “out of uniform” - then watching agian becomes more probable.
Actually, I kind of liked it.
And no, Raines isn’t psychic, and the people aren’t actually speaking to him. He’s nuts. He ‘sees’ the victims. Basically he’s talking to himself.
Here’s the setup: Goldblum is an extremely smart detective. Like, genius smart. His specialty is being able to get inside the victim’s heads and really understand who they were, and what they were about. It helps him piece together the puzzle when other cops can’t see it.
Then he and his partner are shot, and when he gets out of the hospital his skill at empathizing and understanding the victims morphs into the victims actually appearing to him - but it’s still him talking to himself. If he asks the victim questions, he just gets back a reflection of his own thinking:
“Who are you?”
“Who do you think I am?”
“You’re a pretty girl who was shot in the back. What were you running from?”
“What makes you think I was running?”
That sort of thing. It’s actually a really cool premise, and I thought it would be super lame. The ‘dead people’ change in front of your eyes as Goldblum works the problem and figures out who they really were. For instance, tonight’s victim was a young woman who ‘appeared’ to him as a sweet innocent. Along the way, he starts to figure out that she was a prostitute. So suddenly she’s wearing heavy makeup, she’s smoking, and she’s dressed like a hooker. Raines stares at her, and decides it’s just not right. The cigarette vanishes. He still can’t picture her in that makeup, and suddenly she changes back into the way he ‘sees’ her. That leads him to believe she’s not quite a street walker. Another piece of the puzzle fit in…
The strength of the pilot was in the writing. It was clever, I never saw a couple of the twists coming, and everyone acted intelligent - especially Raines. He solved the puzzle without deux ex machina, all the clues needed were there once you saw the puzzle unfold, etc. The show turned a couple of cliches on their heads, and had some quirky Goldblum-esque humor sprinkled through it.
I’ll watch it again. Mild thumbs up.
I watched it. I’m unimpressed. Goldblum plays his police detective as if he were still doing “Earth Girls Are Easy.” The character is no Elliot Stabler. Ho hum!
Pretty much liked it. I especially liked the parting joke about the dead sucking out everyone’s brains and the dead partner’s reaction and his reaction to the dead partner.
Damn it. I’m the thread starter and I fell asleep before it started. I’ll have to try again tonight. Damn it!
It didn’t suck which, considering my usual distaste for Goldblum, is saying something. The “I see dead people” bit worked far better than I expected. And it has Hoshi (Linda Park)!
I liked it and will continue to watch.
I enjoyed it. I wouldn’t have minded if he was actually talking to dead people, but I like the imagination aspect of it even better. I’d say it’s definitely worth coming back next week.
The actual murder mystery was kind of pedestrian, but Goldblum sells it for me. The only really stupid bit of writing (unless you consider the premise to be stupid) was when the cops didn’t cover the back door while busting in on a guy in force, and he actually managed to escape. It’s a silly tv cliche; hard to imagine it happening in real life with any kind of competent officers.
I figured out fairly early that his ex-partner was really his late partner; Raines could use some real, living people to talk to.
Althought I liked it- C’mon did ANYONE not know his former partner was also a hallucination?
Did anyone else catch that the girls apartment was Marlowe’s apartment from “The Long Goodbye”?
::Raises hand tentatively::
I figured it out by the end, but in all fairness, I did come into the episode late.
I liked the show, and I loved Jeff Goldblum - you know that thing that big stars have that make you look at them and no one else when they’re on-screen? Well, he’s got lots of that thing.
Opposite to you, Draelin, I was a little disappointed that there was no hocus-pocus stuff going on, but I really dig that kind of thing. I did like that the hallucinations didn’t know anything that he didn’t know; there was no cheating going on. I’ll give it another try, to see if the regular show is as good as the pilot.
I prefer my hallucinations to be complete with splattered brain matter and gaping bullet holes. Did his look “normal?” If so, I am disappointed.
My wife and I missed it, although after the reveal, we realized that all of the clues were there. What can I say – you can’t catch 'em all.
I quite enjoyed it. Yes, detective with mental illness that gives him special insight while fighting crime, is a bit cliched by now. But this show made it work. I like Goldbloom, and the murder mystery wasn’t a victim to the hero’s quirks (unlike in Monk, which while it has its moments, is mostly about Tony Shaloub twitching).
Raines = (Crossing Jordan - CSI) + L&O:CI
Actually, I quite liked it. I found Jeff Goldblum’s acting to be very good. As someone previously said, he really sold it. I’ll continue to watch just for him. Of course, the hott…, er, actress from Enterprise is an added bonus. 
J.
If only they had come up with some excuse for her to wear the cheerleader outfit…
I stayed tuned after watching the pilot of the new Andy Richter show. When I saw that Frank Darabont directed the episode, that injtrigued me enough to keep watching. I thought it was okay, not great, but you can’t always tell how good a show is going to be from its pilot. I’m still undecided about whether the whole “seeing the victim” premise has intriguing possibilities or is just a useless gimmick.
I liked it much more then I thought I would. While the partner being dead wasn’t very difficult to figure out, I did like the way the victim would reflect his thought process. There was a semblance of subtlety, something you don’t always find on TV.
I’m waiting for him to portray Gordon Freeman in a Half-Life movie.
It was good enough for another look. Its eventual time slot – 9 p.m. on Fridays – doesn’t really offer much in the way of competition (at least while Monk and Doctor Who aren’t around).
If only they could keep killing Alexa Davalos over and over!