Eli Stone
Starring:: Jonny Lee Miller, Victor Garber, Natasha Henstridge, Loretta Devine, Sam Jaeger, James Saito, Matt Letsher, Julie Gonzalo
Created By:: Greg Berlanti, Marc Guggenheim
Airs: Thursday at 10 p.m. EST on ABC
At first, I thought Eli Stone couldn’t decide if it wants to be a comedy, a fantasy, or a drama. By the end credits, I realized it could be all of those things, and we’ll throw inspirational into the mix, as well. In my preview earlier this week, I likened the show to Northern Exposure, and after seeing it, I’ll stand by that comparison.
It revolves around a high-powered San Francisco attorney named Eli Stone (Jonny Lee Miller). He has a really nice life complete with a beautiful fiancée, Taylor (Natasha Henstridge), whose dad (Victor Garber) is Eli’s boss. At work, Eli’s sassy secretary, Patti (Loretta Devine) keeps him in line.
Suddenly, Eli finds himself representing a woman named Beth (Laura Benanti) whose son developed autism after receiving a vaccine with a preservative thought to cause the disorder. The only problem? Eli’s law firm is representing the vaccine company. It’s all very awkward, made moreso when Eli realizes that Beth was his “first” sexual encounter way back when.
Ok, that’s a lot to take in, and we’re just 15 minutes into the show at this point. And what started out as a fun romp has now turned deadly serious…sort of…
During all of this, Eli keeps hearing music – specifically, 80s pop star George Michael singing “Faith”. Eli not only hears him, he actually sees the pop star at the office and in his living room. Yeah, there’s a message in there somewhere, about having faith when really weird things start happening to us.
And it doesn’t end there. Eli sees a trolley car in the lobby at work, and flashes back to riding a trolley car with his alcoholic dad, who told Eli he’d do great things. Later, Eli nearly jumps off the ledge of his apartment, thinking he’s in the Himalayans.
Thank goodness Eli’s brother is a neurologist, but yikes, diagnoses him with an inoperable brain aneurysm that’s causing his illusions – the same thing that plagued his father. Ok, back to being serious again.
Eli seeks help from Dr. Chen (James Saito), who’s more of a funky home-boy than a Chinese healer. Still, he makes a lot of sense when he says Eli is a prophet. And why not? God said he’d send a prophet for each generation, the Chinese home-boy tells him.
And maybe Eli is destined for greatness. He ends up winning a $5.2 million settlement for Beth and her autistic son, and she donates part of the money to help families affected by the vaccine preservative. Meanwhile, Eli heads off to the Himalayans to release his dad’s ashes over the mountain.
Yep, lots happening there. You can see where things are headed. Each week, Eli will probably get a case that will change the world or help people to live better, love better, and gosh darnit, just be better people.
Will I keep watching? Yeah, probably. It’s no Lost, but at least it’s not a rerun. And Jonny Lee Miller has that I-can’t-believe-this-is-happening look down cold.
