Tonight on NBC, we say a brief see-you-later to 30 Rock (which, with every episode, I regret a little more not putting on my 2006 10 Best list) and a welcome-back to Andy Richter. In 30 Rock’s time slot, Andy Barker, P.I. has Richter playing a mild-mannered CPA (like there’s another kind on TV) who inadvertently inherits a private-eye business from the guy who had his old office in his strip mall. It’s oddball and charming, with several nods to the ’70s detective-show genre. (You’d expect that from Conan O’Brien, the co-creator, who once gave us the brilliant-but-failed detective spoof Lookwell with Adam West.) Hopefully, it will stop your post-traumatic-stress dreams about Quintuplets once and for all.
Ah, but!, you ask, Is it as good as Andy Richter Controls the Universe? Not quite, nor could you expect it to be–nobody boxes a kangaroo–but let’s give the poor guy a break. After the fantastic Universe, Richter has been one of those unfortunate victims of the You Must Never Be Allowed to Make Another Show Again and Sully the Memory of My Favorite Show syndrome. (As, probably, is Tony Hale of Arrested Development, who plays a video-store manager and Andy’s sometime sidekick.) Let’s grieve and move on.
As a mystery show, Barker is pretty mundane, but it’s a hoot as a comedy. After it, in ER’s time slot, we have Raines, a much cleverer mystery and a much more skippable show. Starring Jeff Goldblum as an eccentric LAPD detective who has imaginary talks with dead people, it’s sharply written, but way too self-consciously quirky. (It doesn’t help that I’m not a fan of Goldblum’s trademark hyper-mannered, mutter-mutter-mutter acting style.) If you have time for only one detective on Thursday night, make it the one who can do your taxes.