I don't watch TV much, if at all. Never have been a fan of the crime wave that's hit the world over the past half decade; the little I did catch always felt overblown in almost every sense. Granted, this doesn't apply to the genre by and large, for I've seen barely anything; it's just that what I did see, I was incredibly turned off by. Also worth noting is I've never cared for crime-themed shows/films in the first place. So why'd I check out 'Raines'? Goldblum.
....and he's basically the reason this show impressed me, in that I actually came away liking it. For sure, the pilot seemed a bit lazy at times, both in acting and direction, and the story was typical fluff, but I did enjoy the dynamic between Goldblum and his hallucinatory victim. It's hokey and absurd, to be sure, but taken as an overt metaphor for his thought process, it works. I wasn't crying by the end or anything (as Goldblum nearly does), but there was a certain amount of resonance when his victim disappears after the case is solved; naturally, one of the hooks of the show is the emotional "bond" that forms between Goldblum and the empathetic hallucination. I should add, the victim in this particular episode happens to be a young, quite sexy "prostitute" -- though her character in Goldblum's mind really doesn't appear as one would imagine she did before her death, given her job and actions -- but whatever.
Goldblum does appear to be sleepwalking throughout a reasonable amount of it, but I'd rather watch Goldblum sleepwalk than pretty much any other actor that appears on television; he's a genius (his performance in 'The Fly' is one of my very favorites in all cinema). And he's basically handsome and charming to boot (I'm a male), tall and charismatic. One little complaint, though, is that he does his little "drooping of his eyes" bit WAY too much (it's sexually fueled, also; he did it two or three times in 'The Fly' to great effect -- in the romantic context of that film it was suited perfectly, and used in respectable moderation -- but it feels tacky and merely a mask for him conveying any emotion in those particular moments. Again, though, it's a fairly trite nag.
Again, the episode wasn't spectacular (that being said for a pilot is was probably pretty exceptional; even many of the great shows out there have abhorrent, painful pilots), but this hour of 'Raines' was entertaining and somewhat affecting, enough so that I'll be catching the show when it finally hits the airwaves. Pretty confident I'll be following it throughout the entire season, too.
....and he's basically the reason this show impressed me, in that I actually came away liking it. For sure, the pilot seemed a bit lazy at times, both in acting and direction, and the story was typical fluff, but I did enjoy the dynamic between Goldblum and his hallucinatory victim. It's hokey and absurd, to be sure, but taken as an overt metaphor for his thought process, it works. I wasn't crying by the end or anything (as Goldblum nearly does), but there was a certain amount of resonance when his victim disappears after the case is solved; naturally, one of the hooks of the show is the emotional "bond" that forms between Goldblum and the empathetic hallucination. I should add, the victim in this particular episode happens to be a young, quite sexy "prostitute" -- though her character in Goldblum's mind really doesn't appear as one would imagine she did before her death, given her job and actions -- but whatever.
Goldblum does appear to be sleepwalking throughout a reasonable amount of it, but I'd rather watch Goldblum sleepwalk than pretty much any other actor that appears on television; he's a genius (his performance in 'The Fly' is one of my very favorites in all cinema). And he's basically handsome and charming to boot (I'm a male), tall and charismatic. One little complaint, though, is that he does his little "drooping of his eyes" bit WAY too much (it's sexually fueled, also; he did it two or three times in 'The Fly' to great effect -- in the romantic context of that film it was suited perfectly, and used in respectable moderation -- but it feels tacky and merely a mask for him conveying any emotion in those particular moments. Again, though, it's a fairly trite nag.
Again, the episode wasn't spectacular (that being said for a pilot is was probably pretty exceptional; even many of the great shows out there have abhorrent, painful pilots), but this hour of 'Raines' was entertaining and somewhat affecting, enough so that I'll be catching the show when it finally hits the airwaves. Pretty confident I'll be following it throughout the entire season, too.