Eli Stone: A Charming Show with a George Michael Soundtrack
Yes, you read right, Eli Stone, the new hit legal drama-comedy (or dramedy, if you like) on ABC, features the music of George Michael in each episode. But that’s not why I started watching it. I mean, I like me some George Michael music of old (and let’s face it, there is no George Michael music of ‘new’,) but my guilty pleasure reasons for giving this show a shot had a lot to do with the fact that Jonny Lee Miller plays the main character, Eli Stone.
Miller, otherwise known as Angelina Jolie’s first husband and the actor that played heroin addicted “Sick Boy” in Trainspotting, has always been a favorite of mine. Plus, it helped that the writer’s strike was still in effect and I had had enough of reality shows such as Real Housewives of Orange County to count as my must-see television for the week. (Did I just blogmit that?)
Eli Stone features a fantastic cast, drama, comedy, interesting story lines (and legal cases). If you’re not watching it, here’s the background on what you are missing:
Eli Stone, the title character, is a hot shot attorney at a big-time San Fransciso law firm that has big business as its typical client and “the little guy” as its typical dinner fare.
For no reason that we know of yet, Stone begins getting odd hallucinations one day. But these aren’t your average hallucinations. They are loud, vivid, full of music — George Michael music — and more. In fact, his first hallucination featured George Michael himself, singing ”Faith,” in the middle of Stone’s apartment.
As the hallucinations become more common place, frequent and, er, embarassing (Stone reacts to his hallucinations no matter where he is, be it the law office or the courtroom), he turns to his brother, a neurologist named Nathan, played by Matt Letsher. Nathan runs some tests on Stone but finds nothing.
Stone then turns to one of my favorite characters on the show, Dr. Chen, a Chinese acupuncturist who starts out speaking with a heavy accent but, as Stone later discovers, fakes it in front of his clients because he thinks they find him to be more believable that way. Dr. Chen, who speaks with a surfer’s cadence, ends up being the “wise one” on the show as he helps Stone recall important memories from his past.
Scenes from Stone’s past come to us via short flashbacks, which is great because Stone’s dad is played by Tom Cavanagh, who played Ed in the popular NBC comedy-drama.
As Stone relays these memories to his brother, his doctor sibling remembers that their father had similar episodes in their youth and decides to run more tests. He discovers that Stone is suffering from an inoperable brain aneurysm that’s causing his illusions. That revelation means a lot to Stone and his brother as all this time they thought their dad acted that way only because he was a drunk. They now think he turned to the bottle as a way to quell his hallucinations.
Stone’s condition changes EVERYTHING. The once-solid relationship he had with his fiancee Taylor (played by the beautiful Natasha Henstridge) is up in the air; his trusty secretary (played by the brilliant Loretta Divine) wonders if her boss has gone batty and the firm’s top attorney, and Stone’s would-be father-in-law, Jordan Weathersby (played by the Emmy-winning Victor Garber of Alias) also wonders what is going on with one Stone, who in addition to dating his daughter, was one of his firm’s most reliable and shark-like attorneys.
Stone returns to Dr. Chen, tells him about his condition, only for Dr. Chen to tell him that maybe, the hallucinations mean he is a prophet. And being that each hallucination is related to cases that Stone takes, or is inspired to take on, Dr. Chen could be right. But that’s not all, our once-sharklike lawyer could be changing his life around.
This show has just begun and I can tell it’s going to be a success.
I plan to check in regularly to blog about Eli Stone. The legal cases are interesting and I haven’t even gotten to that yet.
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