first look

Jeff Goldblum talks to dead people. That's the basis for his new detective series, Raines, which will replace ER for two weeks starting on March 15th. NBC has posted the entire pilot on its First Look website. It's up in four, 11-minute chunks and you have to watch a promo each time for a terrible horror movie about killer ventriloquist dolls.

I spent 44 minutes watching the pilot this morning and I can say "eh". You really have to like Jeff Goldblum because there are a lot of Goldblum-isms in there (stuttering, awkward pauses). And, maybe I just watch too much television, but I figured out the "twist" at the end in one of the first scenes.

What I did like about Raines is that the "ghosts" Goldblum talks to aren't really ghosts. They're just crime victims in his imagination. So, they don't give him any clues or anything. There's also a subtle noir-style storytelling mechanism that makes the series seem old-timey, rather than high-tech like many of the crime series currently on television. Nicole Sullivan has a pretty minor role, but hopefully we'll see more of her in future episodes, if the series ever finds an audience.

[Via Pop Candy]

Sam Register, a former senior vice president, development for Cartoon Network who helped bring shows to the network such as Ben 10, My Gym Partner if a Monkey, PPGZ, Star Wars: Clone Wars, Hi Hi Puffy AmiYumi, Justice League Unlimited, Teen Titans, The Batman and Duck Dodgers, has signed a first-look deal with Cartoon Network to develop new series for the network for both children and adults. Given Register's success so far, especially when it comes to action series, I'm interested to see what he brings to the table next. Register also helped to develop CartoonNetwork.com and worked in advertising for companies like Hasbro and Kenner. So there you go, a man who knows what children like and also knows how to market to children, that's the kind of mixture of art and commerce that keeps the kids entertained and the parents shelling out the cash. Hurray for capitalism.