Friday, June 27, 2008

After Raines, Goldblum cops another role

Despite the disappointing response to Raines -- his quirky, criminally under-rated series that fleetingly appeared last season on NBC -- Jeff Goldblum is taking another crack at playing a TV cop: He's on deck to replace Chris Noth for the eighth season of Law & Order: Criminal Intent.

For me, this is a good news/bad news thing. I'm a fan of Criminal Intent, which seems to be enjoying something of a renaissance during its current USA Network run. (I was particularly impressed by a recent episode that played like a homage to Sweet Smell of Success.) And I'm glad to see Goldblum coming aboard. Noth will be missed, of course, but maybe he thinks, after the success of Sex and the City, that now is the time to pursue a movie career.)

And yet: I'm still sorry that Raines came and went so quickly, without finding the audience it deserved. (Go ahead: You can see all seven episodes for yourself over at Hulu.) And I can't help hoping that Goldblum actually will carry his Raines character over to Criminal Intent, kinda-sorta like Richard Belzer transplanted his Det. John Munch from Homicide: Life on the Street to Law & Order: Special Victims Unit. Sure, I know that's not likely going to happen. But I can dream, can't I?

2 comments:

Toto said...

Goldblum remains such an emminently watchable actor. It's a shame the movies can't find a place for him.

Joe Leydon said...

Loved him as the rock critic for the Boston alt-weekly in Between the Lines (1977) -- one of those movies that, alas, seem to have fallen between the cracks. Also admired his performance as the hyper medical researcher working on an artificial heart in Threshold (1981).