Eli Stone (also late to the party)

Cafe Society
1

On the recommendation of my new neighbors, I started up “Eli Stone” this week on Netflix. They said it was similar to other shows they (and I) really enjoyed - like “Wonderfalls” or “Dead Like Me” and “Pushing Daisies”. With the elevator summary of “it’s about a lawyer who gets predictions of the future by seeing visions of George Michael”, how could you not give it a shot?

Well, it started off shaky. The premise is fun - I don’t have a problem with that. The cast is great - it’s almost a constant stream of “hey, it’s that guy!”. But the first episode had me extremely wary it was written by a bunch of woowoos. Our hero Eli Stone eventually takes the case of a mother and her autistic son, who are claiming he got autism from his vaccinations. :rolleyes: I really almost turned it off right there - I don’t put up with that woo bullshit.

But I gave it a few more episodes. The woo went into hiding, and it quickly picks up into a long-term story arc, rather than just being a vision-of-the-week show. (There is a VOTW, but there’s plenty of running themes to keep you interested.) I more recent episode has a city official making a very questionable decision based on the logic of “but what if you’re right?!?” - I’ll have to go back and check to see if the same writer was involved.

Anyone watch this? I’m scared it’s going to descend into a downward woowoo spiral, but it’s fun at the moment (10 episodes in).

2

I watched in its original run, going from memory here…

I wouldn’t necessarily say it “descends into woowoo,” but there is something of a vague otherworldly spiritual vibe. I think they stop short of actually saying “God did it” but you could take that away from it if you wanted to. Plus, later episodes feature a weird ill-explained acupuncture technique that gives people visions but is very dangerous (or something) that I could never buy into.

But, the show isn’t really about those things. As you already mentioned, it’s full of good actors playing good characters. It’s solid entertainment, and due to its rather short run not a huge investment to follow through. I say go for it, you’ll probably keep enjoying it.