Eli Stone: Freedom
By fred | February 8, 2008
(S01E02) So I finally got to watch the second episode of ABC’s new show, Eli Stone, which last week stared pretty good. It wasn’t perfect nor the greatest thing ever, but I liked it quite a lot, it had the lightness and humor of a show that doesn’t take itself (too) seriously, and I have to admit that Eli is a very lovable character. So I may not be a fan of George Michael, but that wasn’t to keep me away from the show.
And so here we go, back for another episode of a maybe prophet maybe just crazy layer trying to do the right thing for a change. Wait, what?
Never mind that, the show isn’t bad, and I enjoy it. Well, I mostly enjoy it, it has its pros, and there’s some very nice ones, but it also has its cons, and there are some pretty nasty ones here, forced to admit.
So let’s start with the good stuff, what works. As I said before, Eli works. The guy is a very nice guy, and even when he’s a bad lawyer who doesn’t care and throw you away, he still manages to not appear as one of those angry bastards of lawyers who only care for money. Whether you know there’s more to it, or he just has that charm that makes it less ugly I’m not sure, but either way it works. Plus, in the end he’s a good guy, so there’s more to it, and that’s what the show is all about.
Then it’s a matte of taste, and as far as I’m concerned I’m no fan of musicals, and whenever I see a show diving into a musical bit I’m usually not a fan, unless there’s something more. South Park does it in their very special way, and when it’s Cartman singing about how Kyle’s mum is a bitch, you gotta love it. Ally McBeal used to have musical bits too, to bring back that analogy, but there was always something to it, something more, something different, and I loved it as well.
Here, it’s not really the case. It’s not, yet I didn’t dislike that musical bits of this episode, and maybe it’s because there’s something after all even if I’m denying it, or maybe there were just short enough not to annoy me, but I didn’t mind them. I kinda like them even, maybe, I guess.
And of course the show still has humor, and though it wasn’t exactly in the same tone as the first one, there was still a couple of things I liked, and when Eli started to hear music again, in the conference room, when he banged his head against the table that really made me laugh a little, yes.
Bit as much I want to love the show, some things simply don’t work. For starter, it’s all about Eli’s visions, or hallucinations. So here we have one, if not two, big problems. The first one : special effects aren’t always the greatest, and it kinda hurts the show as they play a pretty important role on the show. And even though there wasn’t that many of them this time, it still bugged me a little I have to say.
Then, how stupid can he be ? I mean when clearly the guy knows he’s experiencing such visions, when he’s already seen a plane that wasn’t actually there, when he’s in a meeting with his boss, who’s not seeing anything so there is no doubt that the plane he sees is not actually there, especially when he “saw” it before, why would he still panic and jump on the floor !?? He is trying to pass for crazy or get fired or something ?
I wish he would grow on this, because it doesn’t really work. I mean it doesn’t work at all, when he’s acting like that. If he ever hears a song again and starts clapping along, singing or dancing only to realize he’s not on the dance floor or something, I’ll have to have him killed.
But the stupidest thing he’s ever done in his entire life, for sure, has to be to hire that new girl, Marie something. (Yeah, I know, it’s Maggie the spammer.) Now she is a moron, one who obviously never went to law school. I’m telling you, she’s a fraud, she’s got no diploma, and he’ll be in trouble when he’ll find out about it. Because if she doesn’t even know how to ask a question or make an objection, you are no lawyer. I know it’s not easy, and I know there’s stress, but to that extent you’re easier braindead or a complete fraud. Damned, maybe I got this wrong, maybe he hired a braindead girl as new partner. Doesn’t matter: either way, he’s screwed!
Speaking of which, it seems obvious to me that he shouldn’t have sex anymore. Apparently, that’s what God expects from his Prophet, because every time he starts something with his fiancée, he starts to heard and see something. He’s no longer in the apartment, but on a Church or in the middle of a War zone. Clearly, someone doesn’t want him to have sex. Now I said God, maybe it’s George Michael, who knows? Although either he’s fine with doing it in the middle of a War zone, or he’s finally decided to sometimes just ignore his visions. Hopefully, it’s the later.
Of course I have to mention something else : he lost. He did not loose all the cases, and he did not loose “the big one”, but surely he lost one case, and that’s great news. I sure hope this will continue to happen, and go even further away. Next time, I want him to loose and them to be deported. Not that I’m mean, but I love it when you have no idea, watching a show, whether the “hero” is actually going to win or not. Because he can loose, even when the case is right. That’s something that is just great, really great, as a viewer. So we got this little teaser this week, and I can’t stress enough how great it would be for him to loose a big case. Maybe not next week, but then the week after.
In the end Eli Stone proves to be a really nice guy and I enjoyed this new hour, despite its (many) flaws. Hopefully they’ll work on fixing those, so he can stay around for a little while.
