Forgotten Jeff Goldblum Police Procedural Is A Love Letter To Columbo
Jeff Goldblum’s first television role came in 1975 when he played a random protestor in the Columbo episode “A Case of Immunity.” 30 years later, Goldblum returns for his first leading role on television since Jurassic Park in Raines, a police procedural that was a throwback to the old 70s style of detective shows. Instead of a bumbling police detective who is far more shrewd than he lets on, Goldblum played a detective who suffers from hallucinations, from murder victims to his dead partner.
Jeff Goldblum As The Eccentric Detective
Raines has no control over the hallucinations, which are a product of his mental illness, and as he gets deeper into each case, the hallucinations change and adjust accordingly. While that’s the most notable change that the series makes to the standard police procedural format, putting Jeff Goldblum in the middle of everything was a smart choice, as his raw, unfettered charisma makes everything interesting. In fact, everything that went wrong with Raines has nothing to do with its star.
A Short-Lived Series
Airing in 2007 as a midseason replacement, Raines only made it seven episodes before the plug was pulled by NBC. During those few episodes, Jeff Goldblum’s eccentric detective solves the murders of a new immigrant, a homeless woman, a drug dealer trying to better his life, and even a plane crash. Not one of the episodes stands out among the rest of them, and every case is easily solved by the end of the episode, but I dare argue that is not a bad thing.
Procedurals Are Comfort Food
I’m a huge fan of procedurals, from NCIS to Monk, House to Elementary, and The Finder to Tracker, and I know how boring and a slog they can be at their absolute worst. Thanks to Jeff Goldblum being, well, Jeff Goldblum, Raines never reaches the depths of, say, Sleepy Hollow, and I found the predictability to be refreshing and comforting, similar to Columbo. In the classic Peter Falk series, we know who the killer is, and we know how the murder was accomplished, but the fun is seeing Columbo piece it together.
Average Wasn’t Enough
Raines works on the same premise; even if we don’t know the details of each murder, it’s very easy to guess who the killer is and even why they did it. The fun of the series comes from seeing how Raines figures it out and his interactions with the hallucinations. It’s also to the show’s credit that there is never an allusion to the supernatural; we know the hallucinations are manifestations of mental problems, and we get to see Jeff Goldblum’s detective go through therapy to address them.
Alongside Jeff Goldblum in Raines is Madeleine Stowe (Victora from Revenge) as his suffering therapist and Malik Yoba (Alphas) as his dead partner, with Linda Park (Enterprise) and Nicole Sullivan (MadTV) rounding out the regulars. Everyone on the show exists to bounce off of Goldblum, and there are no weak links in anyone’s performance, but as with so many shows, being good enough is not enough.
A Throwback To Classic Detectives
Raines suffered from comparisons to its contemporaries, Monk and Medium, the former as the detective’s eccentricities reminded viewers of Tony Shalhoub’s obsessive-compulsive character, and the latter goes without saying. Critics have since compared Jeff Goldblum’s performance to Raymond Chandler’s classic detective, Philip Marlowe, but the general public never latched onto Raines the way they did similar procedurals.
Streaming Now Through Video On Demand
REVIEW SCORE
Today, it’s easy to recommend Raines because there are only seven episodes, and it’s a quick binge featuring Jeff Goldblum. At the same time, the only reason to watch the series is for Goldblum, as while there’s nothing truly wrong with it, it never rises above mediocrity. Everyone involved has done better work elsewhere; even the creator, Graham Yost, would later bring Justified to life, and the pilot’s director, Frank Darabont, soon launched The Walking Dead.
Raines is also only available via Video on Demand through Amazon and AppleTV,
