TVSquad

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.

NBC has announced that they plan to stream their mid-season shows, The Black Donnellys, Andy Barker, P.I., and Raines on NBC.com. The network is also set to stream all produced episodes of Andy Barker and the pilot of Raines before their premiere dates. There will also be web exclusive content for both The Black Donnellys and Andy Barker.

In addition to all that, Medium and Identity will also begin streaming full episodes in March. That brings NBC's total of full episode streaming series to 13 when added to The Apprentice, Heroes, 30 Rock, Las Vegas, Friday Night Lights, Passions, Studio 60, and My Name Is Earl. The network also plans to make the full seasons of Heroes and Friday Night Lights available, starting with the pilots, beginning in the spring.

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.

It appears that NBC's experiment with Netflix last summer was a success. Back then, the network made DVDs of the pilots of Studio 60 and Kidnapped for Netflix members to preview before the shows premiered on the network in September. This winter, NBC is giving that gimmick another shot. This time the NBC DVD has a Heroes recap, a preview of the pilot for The Black Donnellys and a sneak peek at Raines. The DVD is available to rent only through Netflix from now until January 15th.

The Black Donnellys is a crime drama based in New York and it's being produced by Crash and Million Dollar Baby writer Paul Haggis. It's about a group of brothers, some of whom are wrapped up in crime, who will do anything to protect each other. Raines stars Jeff Goldblum as a cop who has visions of crime victims. Donnellys doesn't have a premiere date yet but Raines is set to take over Las Vegas' timeslot in March. Although, NBC recently reduced its episode order for Raines-- not a good sign.

I'm reminded of the great American poet Dave Mustaine who said, "Hindsight is always 20/20, but looking back it's still a bit fuzzy." You may recall that before it became Knights of Prosperity, that show was called Let's Rob Mick Jagger. And before that, it was reported to be I Want To Rob Jeff Goldblum. Unfortunately, that didn't work out because Goldblum already had a gig set up at NBC called Raines. It's about a detective that sees dead people. I like to think of it as The Ghost Whisperer minus the boobs.

Adam mentioned a couple weeks ago that Raines would be starting in March. That's still the plan, but Cynopsis is reporting that they have cut the episode order from 13 to 7, which is never a good sign. Maybe things would have been better for Goldblum had he jumped ship to get robbed over at ABC. On the other hand, given the state of the rest of the ABC midseason shows, I wouldn't bet on that one either.

ABC gave the greenlight to two new comedies, including Let's Rob Mick Jagger, which is a single-camera comedy about a janitor and his friends who plan to rob Mick Jagger. It's executive produced by David Letterman. The original plan for the show was to rob Jeff Goldblum, but he's already busy with NBC. Jagger just recently signed on to appear in several episodes of the show that is all about robbing him.

ABC also picked up A Day in the Life, which has different views of a couple's wedding day. How are they going to get an entire season out of this premise? I dunno, either. The network also renewed What About Brian? for a second season.

And, part-improv/part-scripted comedy Sons & Daughters did not get renewed for a second season. Creator Fred Goss (interviewed earlier this year by Joel) confirms cancellation on his website.