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I know what you know
Even if I thought October Road was a good show, which I don’t, why would I get attached to it, knowing ABC’s track record? It’s an episodic show with a diverse cast of characters. You know, like The Nine, which disappeared after a month and a half last fall? I don’t trust the network to reward my faith, because they have no loyalty to programs or viewers. And anyway, October Road isn’t that good. I mean, if it weren’t for the stiff acting and stilted dialogue, it might be okay. The concept is high enough. Writer who trashed his old friends in a book returns to town after ten years, to find -- what? That everything has changed, and his old friends resent him, and some jerk is raising a kid that might be his son? There are elements there, but it doesn’t come together very well. So why should I care enough to keep watching, when I can almost count on ABC pulling the rug out from under me?

On the other hand, I loved Raines, the other drama that premiered tonight. This one’s on NBC, which is so desperate for a hit that it might keep a program on the air if it had a pulse at all. Plus it has something that October Road doesn’t: star power. It has Jeff Goldblum, who can pretty much carry an hour by himself, as long as he has something to do. Being a cop show, it also has self-contained episodes, so if it disappears I’m not left quite as much in the lurch as if a soap opera fizzles out before its time.

And I latched onto the concept of Raines right from the start. He’s a detective who visualizes the victims in his cases as hallucinations. He can see them and talk to them, but he knows they’re not real, and they can only give him what he already knows about them. So as the investigation proceeds, they change to fit what he learns, until by the end we see the victim as a fully rounded human being. That’s something you don’t always get in a procedural show, and the natural quirkiness of Jeff Goldblum makes it work. I’m going to hope against hope the network sticks by this show, because I think it’s one I’ll enjoy investing in.

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