I just saw the first episode of Eli Stone, a new show on ABC (if you follow that link, let me know if they fixed it; the last time I was there, it proclaimed itself to be the site for “LI STONE”, Eli’s lesser known younger brother-cum-fibber). Can I just say? Awesome! [insert my nephew doing jazz hands]
Extreme spoilers follow because I’m really not certain how to write about a show I loved without giving you gory details:
Eli Stone is a corporate lawyer who suddenly starts hearing organ music. It later turns out that this is the intro to George Michael’s Faith, which he (GM) cleans up & performs in his (Eli’s) head. And living room. And office lobby. It’s awesome. And that’s a word you’ll see a lot in what follows: awesome.
He goes to his brother, a doctor (and given his first name, I’ve been assuming that he’s Jewish: their mother must be so proud), who proclaims him to be, what they call in medical terms, “Fine”. Even though it turns out later that he does, in fact, have a brain aneurism, just like his (their?) father.
He goes to an acupuncturist, one Dr. Chen, who is not what he seems, and eventually tells Eli that there are two explanations for everything: the scientific & the divine. The scientific explains the visions, but only the divine can explain their content; which, Dr. Chen explains, is that Eli is a prophet. This acupuncturist is the best character, and a better reason to watch Eli than Eli is. But it is worth watching.
When Googling “Eli Stone” for some juicy links, I stumbled upon the controversy that the pilot episode sparked. Apparently, many different groups got up in arms about the plot device through which the show worked: autism. While watching it, the parts that made the biggest influence on me were the issues of faith, atheist prophets, and Jewish acupuncturists. The most meaningful part was not when Eli won the case against the big, bad drug company but when Eli says to Dr. Chen, “I don’t believe in God.” And Dr. Chen says,
Sure you do: You believe in right & wrong, you believe in justice, in fairness…and you believe in love. All those things, they’re God, Eli! And that? *gestures to the setting sun* That’s god, too.
If there is a Divine, It is surely in justice, right, fairness, love, and sunsets. And in idiots, traffic jams, and medical bills. I’d love to have the faith of Eli Stone: an atheist with a line to God.
