IN a year when more TV characters are having visions than a tent full of biblical A-listers, enter Eli Stone, lawyer/modern-day yuppie/fire-breathing courtroom killer – and newly minted visionary.
Eli (Jonny Lee Miller) is a San Francisco lawyer who has begun seeing things of a somewhat questionable spiritual nature. For one thing, he’s begun manifesting George Michael in full song-and-dance mode in the strangest places, which do not – repeat, do not – include men’s rooms or cars, thank you.
Seeing fantastically talented pop icons of questionable moral character, while having visions of a questionable nature, is frankly ruining Eli’s reputation as kick-ass, mean guy.
If it isn’t bad enough that George Michael keeps showing up – sometimes with dancing boys and girls from the office pool, Ã la “Viva Laughlin” – Eli has also begun hearing other kinds of music that don’t include cuts from “The Best of George Michael.” I’d say organ music, but that wouldn’t sound right in the same sentence as George Michael, so I’ll call it church music.
Eli’s brother, a neurologist named Nathan (Matt Letsher), does an MRI of Eli’s head and tells him it’s all in his head. There’s nothing wrong with him. The visions persist, however, so Nathan takes Eli’s scans to specialists who are more special than even neurologists, and they find that he has an inoperable brain aneurysm which must be causing the visions. Right.
But the aneurysm can’t be solely responsible for Eli suddenly feeling the overwhelming need to take the other side in medical malpractice suits. Even when it’s his law firm that represents the pharmaceutical companies.
He’s turning . . . moral and good! Help!
So, Eli does the unthinkable and goes to see Dr. Chen (James Saito), a Chinatown acupuncturist, healer and all-around Asian wise-man.
Dr. Chen is not, of course, what he seems. Now, if the show were conceived by any less a mind than that of Greg Berlanti (“Everwood,” “Brothers & Sisters,” “Dirty Sexy Money“), Dr. Chen would turn out to be his guardian angel or some other sort of spiritual guide.
But he’s not. You’ll have to watch for yourself to see what happens and, more importantly, to see Saito act – a wondrous thing to behold.
Complicating Eli’s already complicated life is his sassy, clichéd assistant Patti (Loretta Devine), who should be written better; his fiancé (Natasha Henstridge), a hottie lawyer who happens to be the boss’ daughter; and the boss himself (Victor Garber).
They’re not sure about taking a visionary into the family of lawyers. Can you blame them? It could ruin the reputation of lawyers everywhere.
Lots of fun. The acting and comic timing, when called for, are tremendous – and Miller’s got the heft to carry it off.
“Eli Stone”
Tomorrow night at 10 on ABC