BuzzSugar

Link Time! 6/30

BuzzSugar — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 13:30:18 -0700

Would you ask for a refund or keep the Michael Jackson concert ticket as a memento? - PopSugar
Are these the five least-convincing TV high-schoolers ever? - The TV Addict
Spike Lee's Do the Right Thing celebrates its 20th anniversary this week. - MTV Movies Blog
Dear Heroes: Please don't bring back Ali Larter again. - TV.com
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince: Will you reread it before the film's release? - Popwatch
Here's a live Wilco and Feist duet. - Stereogum
Jeff Goldblum: alive, well, proving it on The Colbert Report. - TV Squad
In this era of a zillion teasers and trailers before a movie's release, how do we avoid premature trailer fatigue? - Cinematical
RIP, Vibe magazine. - Jezebel

Buzz News Roundup, 6/27

BuzzSugar — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 13:34:58 -0700

Chris Noth is leaving Law & Order: Criminal Intent and Jeff Goldblum is joining the show in his place, writes Variety.
Bob Saget is the newest target of a Comedy Central roast, reports Broadcasting & Cable.
Musicians and fans gathered in London to celebrate Nelson Mandela's 90th birthday, the AP writes.
Showtime is producing a Dexter-ish drama called Hilary Jones about a female Los Angeles cop who works as a prostitute on the weekends, according to the Hollywood Reporter.
According to ComingSoon, Marcia Cross's first feature film role since joining Desperate Housewives will be in an indie comedy titled Peck.
Bravo's Real Housewives series is heading to Atlanta; details are at The Futon Critic.
James Gandolfini's wardrobe from The Sopranos raised almost $188,000 at a charity auction benefiting soldiers injured in Iraq and Afghanistan, the Associated Press reports.
Variety has the news that the excellent Korean horror-thriller The Host will be getting a sequel.

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TV Preview: "Raines"

BuzzSugar — Wed, 14 Mar 2007 05:30:42 -0700

Right after "Andy Barker, P.I." premieres on Thursday, NBC will show the first episode of a very different kind of cop show: "Raines," Jeff Goldblum's latest project, which focuses on a Los Angeles detective who starts seeing and talking to the dead victims of the cases he's trying to solve. I checked out the first episode, which you can watch online, and I'm not sure I'll watch another. The opening minutes set up "Raines" as a neo-noir, but aside from the occasional trumpet wailing in the background, it could be any other procedural crime drama.

Well, except for the talking dead people. And as gimmicks go, this one isn't as bad as I'd feared. It's worth noting that the victims don't actually give Raines any information; they're just a sounding board for him while he's working through his own clues. But if those chats are meant to take the place of the traditional noir voiceover, I'd rather have the voiceover. While it leaves open the question of whether the people are ghosts, hallucinations or just figments of Raines' imagination, it makes for deadly dull television: Raines proposes a hypothesis, the victim shoots back a "maybe" or a "whatever you say," rinse, repeat. But "Raines" might be redeemable, so read more

That formula didn't leave me wanting more, and I can't picture a big audience following "Raines" to its normal Friday time slot. A small twist at the end of the pilot does add a bit of intrigue, but I don't think it's all that novel or shocking - especially considering that NBC basically revealed it at the end of its own preview of the series.

So - as with "House" or "Monk" - your feelings about "Raines" might boil down to how much you like Jeff Goldblum in the leading role. His Raines looks and acts like a classic detective straight out of "Dragnet," and his droll one-liners nearly saved the pilot for me. If "Raines" could somehow shift course and become more of an exploration of its title character's motivations (the "House" model), maybe it could pull me back in. But you'll have to let me know if that happens, because I probably won't be watching.

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Watch "Raines" Online Now for Free

BuzzSugar — Fri, 09 Mar 2007 06:15:36 -0800

NBC recently promised to put episodes of its new spring shows online early, and they've now made good on the offer by posting the full pilot of "Raines." The Jeff Goldblum show about a detective who channels the dead victims of the crimes he investigates officially premieres on March 15, right after the debut of "Andy Barker, P.I.," another show you can watch online right now.

I saw a short preview of "Raines" a while back, and I wasn't sure what to make of it. On the one hand, Goldblum had a nice touch as the staid detective who thinks he's going nuts when the dead crime victims start appearing, and some of his dry one-liners made me laugh out loud. On the other hand, I'm not sure I dig the "Law & Order"-meets-"Six Feet Under" concept, no matter how well it's done. But I just might be curious enough to check out the pilot. To see a preview video, read more

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