iljxyz This is less of a review of the show and more of an open letter to the powers that be at NBC: Hello NBC people,This year you have two excellent new shows in your lineup in Heroes and Raines. Everyone knows that Heroes is an amazing show, but Raines is also as equally amazing. Since the original CSI on CBS there have been a million different shows, on your network and others, trying to capitalize on the format and success of your competitor's blockbuster, but all, in my opinion, have fallen far short of the goal to even be watchable shows, not to mention achieving the level of quality that CSI adheres to. I think Raines hits the mark. It is unfair to compare the two shows because they are fairly dissimilar. However, that doesn't matter with Raines. It is its own show. It isn't trying to pull in people who are looking for a "CSI alternative." Simply put, Jeff Goldblum is wonderful to watch, the writing is top-notch and the premise is just quirky enough to hook you in and keeping you wanting more. It isn't the same old thing and it isn't so far fetched that it comes off being silly. It is just right. So, in short, please keep this excellent show on the air. My friends and I watch it and will continue to watch it as long as it is on. Thank you, NBC, for providing another 40 minutes of television worth watching in this age of unbearable reality shows, contrived comedies and blasé copy-cat dramas. Here is to a long run of Raines.

Scott Ellington In episode six of season one of BOOMTOWN, Detective Bobby Smith engages in conversation with his long-dead and long-lost friend in that 2002-3 milestone series that introduced me to incredibly long oners, powerful dialogue, and brilliant actors who portrayed singular events from multiple points of view. Whether Detective Smith's cameo in the RAINES pilot indicates that Graham Yost is planning to blow me away again is moot, but the quality of his work presented in BAND OF BROTHERS and FROM THE EARTH TO THE MOON leaves me very little room for doubt. I'm not much for who-done-it mysteries, and detective procedurals are my cure for insomnia, but I've already bought myself a RAINES season pass at iTunes, because there's just so much more juicy, layered information in the pilot than a single visit allowed me to explore. Mykelti Williamson was uncredited in the pilot, so I've got to wonder whether other spectres will rise from the flawed scraps and fragments of humanity that still make BOOMTOWN spectacularly insightful. Of all the great cities of the world, spawned by her great rivers, perhaps only L.A. hugs the banks of an open sewer. He's back, and I'm more than ready for the instants of insane camera angle, the unexpected beauty wrung from a place where there's no There, and the onionlike complexity of real personalities opening in the mind of a writer/detective who tells vivid tales of emotional explosions like nobody else. At the center of every episode outline, under the wonderful throwaway lines and ThinMan banter, are the severely mutilated hearts and damaged lives of real people, especially the protagonist.Michael Raines paints dead victims three-dimensionally, from the bare canvas outward, sifting through layers of hearsay contradiction to reveal a final likeness. Simultaneously, he identifies the killer by initially suspecting everybody, then whittling away impossible suspects; all of whom are merely "ordinary people". It's a process easily confused with making art. I can't spot the difference, although if this were a democracy, I'd vote for more Matt Craven.The south forty is a ranch, "the back forty at Crawford" is too many golf courses.

blanche-2 I admit to a soft spot for Jeff Goldblum, a wonderful actor whose career has spanned theater, film, and television. Years ago, he and Ben Vereen had the series "Tenspeed and Brownshoe," which was a flop. I remember loving it especially because of Goldblum's quirky delivery. The show was a little ahead of its time and even five years later would have done much better.Here's Goldblum again, here as a thoughtful police detective who, in the genre du jour since "Sixth Sense" sees dead people. And, like Medium's Allison Dubois, he not only sees them but he talks to them as he tries to figure out the identity of their murderer. In this case, however, the dead are only in Raines' imagination and only know what he knows. Because of this, they change throughout the episode, as he begins to see different facets of their lives and personalities.Though the show has a dark quality, it contains a lot of humor. "Maybe she saw him naked and laughed," Raines suggests as one motive for a murder. "It always comes down to penis size, doesn't it?" the female officer observes. "Pretty much," Raines and his captain answer in unison.It's offbeat, downbeat, quirky, and a welcome addition to television. I hope it continues.

sherrylrsc What a treat! We don't have to wait for a movie with just the right part to see Jeff. "Raines" is a perfect fit and it is a pleasure to see him on weekly TV! I was channel-surfing on my way to the History Channel, and, "Wow," I found Jeff and something surprisingly entertaining. "Raines" is different from the psychics in the current TV plots; a stressed-out detective having hallucinations is believable. I've grown older with Jeff watching him since "the Big Chill." Jeff seems to be one of those remarkable people who start out in acting with great performances and continues to deliver for his fans. Impressive. I may start to watch a regular series on TV again!