JEFF GOLDBLUM

Like just about every other reviewer, I was disappointed in the Jeff Goldblum show on NBC. Hwood folks are fond of saying that nobody ever sets out to make a bad movie and I'm sure that's true, the same way we all never intend to turn in a bad book. It happens.

The thing with the Goldblum show is that it isn't really bad. It's just bland and overly familiar. So, and this is a point nobody else has made, maybe there's hope. First of all, let Goldblum be Goldblum. Maybe not extreme Goldblum but 3/4 Goldblum. Second, I suspect that most of the scripts need some serious punching up. Though likely several of them are in the can. Lee Goldberg could tell us about that. Third, find a different way to handle the occult. Maybe kid it a little. This, for me anyway, is the blandest part of the whole show. Right now books for both adults and young adults are ripe with intriguing and amusing approaches to suoernatural themes. Steal a couple of those.

I want to see Goldblum succeed. Tenspeed and Brownshoes and the Kauffman remake of The Body Snatchers are two of my all-time favorite pieces of film. And both owe very much to the talents of Goldblum.

PLEASE, DUDES, BEFORE IT'S TOO LATE.