There was a quick, brutally funny moment in the beginning of the premiere episode of Eli Stone that almost made me spit out my phad thai.
In a voice-over, the title character gives us a quick sketch of Who He Was Before: a ruthless, driven attorney who worshipped at the holy trinity of “Armani, accessories, and ambition.” As Eli is narrating, we see a shot of him in a courtroom absolutely hammering on a witness… and the camera pans to reveal that he’s screaming at a frightened little old lady.
That cracked me up, but then, I’m totally mean.
The edginess in that opening sequence is only occasionally glimpsed through the rest of the episode, but it’s a great contrast to the magical-realism and whimsy that follows.
In case you haven’t seen it, here’s the nutshell: Our materialistic Mr. Stone undergoes a crisis of conscience and faith triggered by hallucinations of singer George Michael, who appears in the dead of night dancing and singing on Eli’s coffee table. The visual and auditory hallucinations get more pronounced and disruptive, but are all rather harmless. It would be a different show entirely if Eli saw dead people.
It turns out Eli’s non-creepy visions are either caused by an inoperable brain aneurysm, or he’s a prophet receiving transmissions from a higher power – it depends on who you ask. Regardless of the reason, Eli chooses to use his visions as a catalyst for a profound moral and spiritual change in his life, and he changes overnight from a heartless attorney into a champion of the underdog. That’s the crux of the show.
In other words, Eli Stone is sort of a fusion of the yuppie redemption of Jerry Maguire with the vision quest of Field of Dreams, with a little sprinkling of Ally McBeal over the top.
I did want to see more of an internal struggle with Eli Stone the character. Despite the setup of the episode, Eli slips easily into the crusader role demanded by his visions, which makes it seems like, materialism aside, he was a pretty decent guy to begin with. I would have liked to see more of a character arc and more inner conflict as Eli rejects The Dark Side of The Force, so to speak. I guess I basically wanted more scenes of Eli acting like a rhymes-with-stickhead.
On the other hand, this is a one-hour TV show, things have to move fast fast fast. Plus, the job of a pilot episode like this is to quickly establish the status quo, not drag out the main character’s transformation.
And as far as establishing the premise and setting the tone, the first episode did a pretty good job. Eli’s case/crusade this time involves an old flame who is suing a pharmaceutical company because she believes the mercury-based preservative used in one of their vaccines was the cause of her son’s autism. At first Eli is on the other side of the table from Old Flame, because his firm represents the pharmaceutical giant. Through the intervention of George Michael (St. George?) and some clever negotiating, Eli manages to represent the woman and her kid against his own firm in court, where he kicks butt - legally speaking of course.
The vaccine/autism plotline generated quite a bit of controversy before Eli Stone had even aired, and I have nothing intelligent to add to the debate about the safety of vaccines. But I can imagine that more than a few folks who tuned in because of their interest in the controversy were surprised by how little time was spent on that plot thread, relatively speaking.
That’s because Eli Stone isn’t a courtroom procedural, it’s a character-driven show that uses courtroom elements to bump up the drama and to illustrate change and conflict within our hero. The legal element of the show is interesting primarily in what it reveals about Eli, which is the way it should be.
British actor Johnny Lee Miller (Sickboy from Trainspotting!) anchors the show with his portrayal of Eli as alternatively cocksure and bewildered. The supporting cast is equally good – I particularly enjoyed Loretta Devine as Eli’s sardonic administrative assistant and James Saito as Dr. Chen, Eli’s acupuncturist and spiritual guru. Dr. Chen, who is not what he first appears, has the best line of the episode: “You must make peace with George Michael.”
I think there’s some wisdom there. Wouldn’t we all be a little happier if we could just make peace with George Michael?
Now let’s see if I can make peace with Eli Stone – the show is well-written and acted, they’re not afraid to use special effects, and the more I think about it, the more it seems like a superhero story without the hitting. And that’s not necessarily a bad thing. I’ll stick around.
-Dave Campbell
