Two cop shows. Holy Crap!

Raines

It's the normal cop drama/comedy, but with one distinctive difference. Like all the police featured in these shows, this cop is a bit insane. He sees dead people, but not in the normal "twist." In this he imagines the dead people. Wooo. But thats not the distinctive difference referenced above. The distinctive difference is, and this is what makes the show pretty good, the cop is played by beloved actor and nerd god Jeff Goldblum.

It's only three shows in, and so far it has been entertaining. It's one of the few shows that is different enough to peek my interest, but not so much that either the majority of Americans won't get it or NBC will think the majority of Americans won't get it.

It's watchable. a bit obvious sometimes but still fun. Jeff Goldblum really give it his all. Real acting--like in Jurassic Park when the T-Rex is chasing after the car, kind of acting.

Life On Mars

This BBC show is in it's second season, and I've only seen this last season so far. It's about cop, Sam Tyler, who gets hit by a car and wakes up in 1973. He's trying to figure out if he's in a coma or really back in time while still maintaining his cop job.

The idea is basically the best cop show ever made. Sam knows an awful lot about his 70's era British crime, but to his cop coworkers he just seems eerily good at his job.

Sometimes it feel like the writers and director are trying to hard to prove it's actually 1973. A perfectly framed album cover put out that year--the technological backwardness. They seem to try to make the sexism a running theme, but to me the one working woman (she's a pretty high ranking police officer) seems kind of dumb and dull. But despite some problems it's still bloody brilliant, (said in your best Cockney accent) and it's better then any of the crap cop shows we have here.