Saturday, February 2, 2008

Eli STONED

Well, as you all know, the writer's strike continues to rear its ugly head, and, because of this, I have very little in new shows to watch, and, besides a winter edition of big brother coming up, and the impending beginning to the final season of Battlestar Galactica, I have nothing to watch.

Then, I got Faith.

I really enjoyed the premiere of Eli Stone, possibly because I've seen its premise before, but, still, I like it. Very much like Joan of Arcadia, Eli gets visions. In Joan, they were much more deliberately God, but here, they are still good, in that they, apparently, will be directing Eli to take cases that need help.

McFiance forwarded me an email about this pilot, prior to its airing about Autism, and its causes, and how this show might be less than forthcoming about those causes. I don't really care about the autism controversy surrounding this episode. Not because I don't care about autism, I do, its tragic and effects far too many children, but because this episode, while light on science, was good on spirit, and I like that.

I wonder if it was deliberately light on science, in that, they just didn't care as much, because it is a show, in its own words, that is about Faith.

George Michael played himself in the vision scenes, and from what I can gather online, will have many, many cameos, which is fun, I think, but could grow old.

It is also interesting that Eli's dad, played in flashbacks by Ed's Tom Cavanagh, which, by the way, is my 6th favorite show of all time, and a show I want on DVD badly, also had visions, and also had the same apparent cause, the as yet to burst aneurysm in Eli's brain. So, the show is set up, Victor Garber is great, as is Cavanagh, and, we know that Eli will be struggling with his visions, and struggling with a blood vessel so deep it can't be operated on, but, so tricky it could kill him at any second.

As we move forward, I have no doubt we will be challenged by what sorts of visions Eli is having, who is behind them, and, how many times we can hear "Faith" and not get annoyed.

All in All, a great pilot, and a good pick me up from the doldrums of the strike.

Next week I will be late in my post, but, what else is new?