I have to admit that I judged Jeff Goldblum's new show, Raines, before I even saw it. When I heard the plot description that was scattered about on the web several months ago, I think I actually sighed. Another show about an investigator who speaks to ghosts? Why had this become such a hot genre, like westerns or sitcoms many years ago? Did we really need another one, no matter what big name they had for the lead?

Well, I have to eat my words.

Raines is the new quirky detective drama starring Jeff Goldblum. It's going to premiere in the Thursday at 10pm slot that ER currently occupies (side note: why was last night's ER a repeat when the rest of NBC's lineup was brand new?). The two episodes will air on March 15th and 30th. The show then goes into its regular time slot, Friday nights at 9pm.

Goldblum plays a detective that "sees" the victims of murder and they help him solve the crime. Now, contrary to earlier reports, these aren't ghosts a la Ghost Whisperer or Medium. These are actually hallucinations that the detective is seeing, but they help him piece together the puzzle of the crime. Yes, it sounds like the guy is legally insane, but he solves crimes.

The show will co-star Matt Craven, Linda Park, Madeleine Stowe, and Remi Boyer.

(S02E08) This episode gave us a look at the eco-friendly Earl Hickey. Who would have known that he had a burning desire to save the Earth from global warming after spending a week in a dung cottage at the Sunshine Collective?

I know I'm repeating myself, but this show continues to make great use of guest stars, and Christian Slater as Woody IMHO was outstanding here. Of course, one could be cynical and say that he was a good choice to play a stoner based on his past history--the scenes of him stumbling around his house as Earl and Randy slowly rob him of all his possessions were certainly authentic.