I thought I’d seen pretty much all of CI over the years. Loved Goren and Eames. Okay about Chris Noth with whomever. But I just came across these Season 9 episodes with Jeff Goldblum, largely paired with Saffron Burrows.
They’re fantastic. And the writers were definitely engaged and … writing. Jeff Goldblum rivals Vince D’Onofrio for me. (And I love V. D’O.)
What’s anyone else think about these Goldblum episodes? I have a new respect for the guy as an actor.
I greatly preferred him to Chris Noth (he left after the *Sex & the City *film hit to pursue films). Noth was good, but he played the conventional cop. Goldblum was a savant like Goren. Make sure you watch the last few episodes of season eight as Goldblum partners with Katheryn Erbe (Eames) for these and they were great together!
a funny flavor.
Goldblum is a top-drawer actor, but I was really disappointed with the writing on his run. (Maybe it was better than I remember?) His last couple of shows had the feeling of someone taking notes during a kids’ CLUE play-off, just too damned cute. I respected Goldblum a lot for bailing when he did, and allowing us to have a good send-off for Goren and Eames.
I remember the ad teasers for Goldblum’s season, the close-up on his reptilian eyes blinking and shifting at the same time. That was oddly cool.
Oh, yes, I did love the episodes with him and Eames. But then, I think Eames was great no matter who or what.
Funny, but good funny. CI was about being… “funny.”
Did you ever see his series Raines? It was very short-lived (only 7 episodes), but I loved it. He played a detective with some serious mental health issues. I always felt that his character on Criminal Intent was kind of a continuation of the Raines character. I think I preferred Goldblum’s character to all of the others on CI except for Julianne Nicholson’s, who was my all time favorite.
Did you see her in August Osage County? She was partnered with a very different “savant cop” actor. Honestly, it took me about an hour to remember where I’d seen her before. (I saw it at the Denver Film Festival and didn’t really notice the credits after Streep and Roberts.)
Oo, thanks. I will definitely follow up on Raines. Julianne Nicholson didn’t do much for me until she was paired with Goldblum. But I may have just been missing Eames at that point.
Goldblum’s character had the “Backstrom” problem - they wanted him quirky, but with different quirks than Goren. They tried to give him different ones, trouble was, they weren’t interesting quirks. Like going to movies to get a grasp on the case. That just looks like goofing off, even if it works. At least Goren stayed up all night on his own time to research.
Two episodes in particular are very odd - The Glory That Was, which was omitted from the DVD, I think has some of the worst quirks. And Palimplsest is something out of the 19th century, or older. Maybe even Shakespearian.
But the good ones are good, like Revolution.
And another vote for Raines. It’s a great show, but I don’t think it could have run very long. I’m sure Raines was well on his way to eating his gun. But it was a good ride, and is available on iTunes.
I never liked the “Criminal Intent” franchise, until they brought in Goldblum. I ate up those episodes like candy. Not casting aspersions on the D’Onofrio episodes; they just left ME cold for some reason. But Goldblum rocked.
That Jeff sure can rock the eyeliner, huh?
I liked all the partner pairings and actors except for Alicia Witt.
I miss this show a lot. And Regular Flavor L&O.