Wednesday April 1, 2009
Kooky visions
By HARI AZIZAN
Legal drama comedy Eli Stone has a lot of heart and some snazzy pop numbers.
NO television series can hit the heights without that chart-topping pop soundtrack these days, and I’m not talking just about the theme song.
A hit TV series can even make a music star – think The OC and Death Cab for Cutie; Grey’s Anatomy and Snow Patrol; or One Tree Hill and The Fray. But building a whole series on the back catalogue of a jaded pop star – now that’s a first (in my short memory, at least).
Cast of Eli Stone: (from left) James Saito (as Dr Chen), Matt Letscher (Nathan Stone), Victor Garber (Jordan Wethersby), Natasha Henstridge (Taylor Wethersby), Jonny Lee Miller (Eli Stone), Julie Gonzalo (Maggie Dekker), Loretta Devine (Patti) and Sam Jaeger (Matt Dowd). And that is Eli Stone, the comic legal drama that has beamed into our homes recently on the satellite waves.
The pop star in groove here is the legendary British crooner George Michael. Yes, that George Michael.
And even if you hate the ex-Wham-ster and sexy solo strutter, I guarantee you’ll love Eli Stone. If nothing else, you will be drawn to it just because it features no crazy grand prizes, sad wannabes, lie-detector machines or Simon Cowell. But mainly because it’s your good old-fashioned scripted TV series with some good plots and even better acting.
Eli Stone revolves around Eli Stone, an ambitious, high-powered, corporate lawyer who seems to have it all – gilded office, posh apartment, beautiful girl, cool car and fine suits. Until he heard the music, that is. George Michael’s music. And then he sees Michael – live in his living room.
His visions do not stop there and he starts seeing other things, including his legal fraternity singing and dancing as well as blasts from his father’s past.
Eli’s neurologist brother Nathan tells him he is simply overstressed. “Stress gives you premature greys,” Eli replies. “It doesn’t make legendary British pop stars sing their greatest hits live from your couch.”
As it turns out, Eli has an aneurysm and not long to live.
This jolts him out of his comfortable “Armani, accessories and ambition” existence, making him rethink his 70 hours a week of making the rich richer.
And as he is sorting out the new direction his life is taking, he meets acupuncturist Dr Chen, who suggests that he could very well be a modern-day prophet.
So, with his remaining days, he decides to fight for the truth, or in lawyer-speak, represent the little man against the big, bad corporations. Guided by Mr Georgios Kyriacos Panayiotou’s music and his aneurysm-caused “visions”, of course.
Created by the rising powerhouse of TV – Greg Berlanti and Marc Guggenheim (Brothers and Sisters, Dirty Sexy Money and Everwood) – the series ambitiously shakes up your average legal drama format with its whimsical flights of fancy. And there are plenty of these fantastical, quirky scenes whereby Eli suddenly finds himself in strange situations and (ahem) stranger music video clips.
The producers definitely had fun with the formula, and the musical interludes are highly entertaining. The visions, meanwhile, provide some ironic whimsy to the shark-eat-shark world of the courtroom, making it as endearing as the other surreal but heartwarming show on TV, Pushing Daisies.
OK, some might argue that we’ve seen it all before in the irritating Ally McBeal (although it was fun in the first few seasons). But that offbeat series did not have Eli Stone’s secret weapon – Jonny Lee Miller, who alone is reason enough to watch Eli Stone.
The former Mr Angelina Jolie shows that he is a star underneath the tabloid mush.
With his impish looks and the boy-next-door persona, he hooks your sympathy and interest in his misadventures as God’s messenger.
But the series also gets superb performances from the rest of the cast, not least from Victor Garber (who many will recognise as Alias’ dad) as Eli’s boss; Matt Letscher as his sympathetic older brother; and Tom Amandes as the acerbic senior partner in Eli’s law firm who is constantly trying to catch him out.
The best though has to be James Saito as Dr Chen, the stereotypical Chinese acupuncturist who unexpectedly breaks the mould.
And then there is George Michael, of course.
It is a touch of genius to have Mr Lewd-Act-in-Public-Toilet as the celestial light that leads a lost man down the road of redemption.
Beginning with Faith, Michael gets to revive his other hits like Freedom and even Wake Me Up Before You Go Go in this career-boosting cameo.
In one of the episodes, Michael even gets a chunky guest star role as himself to help save a girl on a warpath with her school over an abstinence-only sex education programme, singing what else, I Want Your Sex.
Of course, not everything here works. Some of the cases get too preachy and cheesy.
Too much time is spent on Eli’s relationship with his fiancée, Taylor (played by Natasha Henstridge). I feel that Henstridge has zilch chemistry with the amiable Miller. Then there is the perky young lawyer, Maggie (Julie Gonzalo) who reminds us why we fell out of love with Ally McBeal.
Yet, at the same time, it is the very flaws that make Eli Stone a charm.
And may it get irreverently kookier and more imperfect.
Eli Stone airs every Friday at 8pm, on Star World (Astro channel 711).
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