Stometer Save your money for something good and enjoyable

Flyerplesys Perfectly adorable

PiraBit if their story seems completely bonkers, almost like a feverish work of fiction, you ain't heard nothing yet.

Cristal The movie really just wants to entertain people.

liquidcelluloid-1 Network: NBC; Genre: Crime/Mystery; Content Rating: TV-14 (violence, language, adult content); Perspective: Contemporary (star range: 1 - 4); Seasons Reviewed: series (1 season) Oh, Graham Yost. He's quickly replaced Judd Apatow as the unluckiest talent in Hollywood. After work on the seminal achievement of "Band of Brothers" and the tragic cancellation of his own modern classic "Boomtown", Yost returns to the LA cop drama. This time with a retro twist.Jeff Goldblum plays homicide detective Mike Raines like a black-and-white 50s film noir gumshoe who stands over bodies and muses about death. In his attempts to solve the case he sees and interacts with the spirit of the dead person who hassles him to solve their murder. Well, not really. This isn't "Medium", in fact if you ask me it is much less annoying. The visions Raines sees are a product of either an overactive imagination or, what those around him to believe is, full-blown schizophrenia. Yost keeps us guessing.This is a deceptively simple concept, executed with a nifty cleverness by Yost. As Raines learns more about the victim, his perception of them changes and so do his visions. Their clothes, their attitude. As the show could have gone on you can only imagine all the fun it could have had with itself. The premise also, more cleverly, allows us into the life of a man who spends most of his days alone in an entertaining way. Yost makes the notoriously un-filmable filmable. As much as NBC tried to explain it, the nuance of the concept was just lost on the public, no doubt just seeing another "Medium" rip-off and caused the show's quick cancellation.Even with the very few episodes that aired, "Raines" starts to grow tired due to agonizingly slow pacing. After a knock-out twist at the end of the pilot, the show shifts into procedural crime mode that the original concept has a hard time getting above. While I expected something more thrilling after the cracker-jack "Boomtown", as always Yost crafts a rich procedural series seemingly as easy as breathing. With "Raines" he downshifts, goes into the familiar and changes 100 microscopically tiny things - focusing on character and his internal psyche as much as he does the murder mysteries. He's one of the few show-runners working today that will go out on a limb and trust the audience's intelligence. "Raines" was like a test that the mainstream masses failed.It's great to see Goldblum on TV and Yost back in the saddle. "Raines" for what it's worth was hypnotic, methodical and well done. Goldblum's performance single-handedly sells the entire series. It could have been great, but that would have required more episodes.* * * / 4

datrom-1 Raines is quite simply a wildly clever and creative TV detective drama. I am quite enchanted by Jeff Goldblum and the way he wonderfully converses with the case victims' visions in his mind. I find the whole premise of Raines' character crossing over into somewhat of a spiritual world in order to define the history of the deceased victim very, very intriguing and thought-provoking. Jeff Goldblum rather shines as the introspective detective and he definitely seems endearingly comfortable in this role. The supporting cast of this show also works together quite well, especially impressive is Raines' sympathetic boss played by Matt Craven. Let's hope that the network eagerly gives this remarkable new detective show the fighting chance it certainly deserves.

christinamoe94 I normally don't comment on shows, but I wanted to make an exception. I absolutely love this show. The show is funny and entertaining and I think Jeff Goldblum is quirky and engaging. There are some really funny scenes between Raines and his murder victims and I love how the victims change as he learns more about them. I am always looking for new shows to watch and I saw the preview and thought I might give it a try. I don't think the preview did the show justice. While I do like the Ghost Whisperer, this show is nothing like that. I noticed that is a common misunderstanding people have who have never seen Raines. I think people should give the show a chance and don't base your opinion on the pilot. Although I did like the pilot, I think the show only got better from there. I hope they don't cancel this show.

cptloopy Like another person here commented I was a little worried Jeff might be a little over the top in this. My fears were completely unjustified. I thought it was a wonderful, funny, sensitive performance. Jeff's quirks weren't a distraction here, the made perfect sense and complimented the character wonderfully. It made me a little reminiscent of Tenspeed and Brown Shoe because it was so enjoyable but honestly I don't remember that series very well, I was pretty young. Excellent writing, excellent acting, even excellent choices in music. Very satisfying. As for the commenter that said it had the same shtick as Monk: are you insane? You may need to go back and watch another episode of Monk. If there was any hallucinating happening there it was you not Mr. Monk.