GUEST BLOG #32: Diane Holloway Says "Law & Order: Criminal Intent" Has Struck Gold with Goldblum

[Bianculli here: I'm back from Rome, and tomorrow will post a recap of the best new and proposed international TV projects knocking around at RomaFictionFest. Today, though, contributing columnist Diane Holloway wants to rave about a star of NBC's Law & Order: Criminal Intent, which airs tonight at 9 ET -- but NOT about the star of tonight's show...]

Jeff Goldblum Sucks... But In a Good Way

By Diane Holloway

Not many actors can draw me to a TV series that I don't normally watch, but Jeff Goldblum is sucking me into the eighth season of Law & Order: Criminal Intent (9 p.m. Sundays on USA).

The first seven seasons didn't strike my fancy, but this season with the new cop and a new guy? Much better.

Goldblum has replaced Chris Noth as the alternating lead cop on Dick Wolf's L&O spinoff. Howls of protest from Noth fans erupted over the casting announcement last year, but as perhaps the only woman in the country who didn't love him or his time on Sex and the City, I didn't care one bit.

Original star Vincent D'Onofrio, who still leads the CI cast every other week, has always gotten on my nerves. D'Onofrio's perpetual twitching drives me nuts, and as the years have gone by, both he and his character (Detective Goren) have seemed on the verge of "going 'round the twist," as they say in Britain. Come to think of it, both sort of have, but D'Onofrio fans slurp up every weird turn and twist.

I know, I know. Goldblum's quirky intensity, coupled with his propensity for playing wildly eccentric characters, would appear to place him in the same vein as D'Onofrio. But Goldblum, to me, is endearing, whereas D'Onofrio is off-putting.

My love affair with Goldblum began way back in 1980, when he starred with Ben Vereen in one of the best and most under-appreciated comedy-dramas of its time, Tenspeed and Brown Shoe. Goldblum played a nerdy detective who was paired with Vereen's super-hip parolee hustler. The chemistry was immediate, and the result was fast-paced fun. It didn't last, but that's one of TV's ongoing tragedies: sometimes the good die young.

Goldblum, now 56, had been floating around stage and screen for a while before he popped up on Tenspeed and Brown Shoe. He made his movie debut in Charles Bronson's Death Wish (1974) and may be remembered by alert moviegoers for a brief scene in 1977's Annie Hall. He popped in as the type of flustered Hollywood lightweight Woody Allen loves to make fun of, a desperate guy on the phone frantically babbling to his meditation guru, "I forgot my mantra!"

Even more memorable was Goldblum's performance in the iconic baby-boomer flick The Big Chill (1983). He played Michael Gold, the bespectacled, neurotic magazine writer suffering an early midlife crisis. As usual, his neuroses provided a healthy dose of comic relief in the angst-ridden comedy-drama.

Goldblum, apparently, is an acquired taste. Either his fast-talking, pointy-headed take on characters makes you hungry for more, or makes you hit the remote so fast you hurt your finger. Millions of viewers certainly fled his most recent solo series, Raines (2007), in which he played a detective who communed with dead crime victims. That little effort lasted less than half a season.

And when he starred in the 1986 remake of the camp horror film The Fly, people never quite knew whether to laugh or cringe -- or both. Certainly watching his gooey human ears drop off as he turned into the icky insect was both funny and deeply disgusting. And he sure buffed up his previously scrawny body for the role. It was a perplexing take that was not well-received.

But millions loved him as the chaos theory scientist in 1993's Jurassic Park, and once you become a certified member of the Goldblum fan club, there's no turning back. His take on New York Detective Zach Nichols in Criminal Intent is refreshing in an otherwise overly serious cop saga.

Try it... maybe you'll like it. He may not be as GQ handsome as Chris Noth (again, I never got it), but he's a whole lot more interesting.

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Diane Holloway was the TV critic for the Austin American Statesman for 30 years, until the downturn in the newspaper business prompted her to take a buyout. She's now sniffing out other possibilities. Before newspapers, she worked in Washington for the Library of Congress, the American Film Institute and the National Endowment for the Arts. Maybe something entirely different is next. Or not.