TVSquad

(S01E04) Is James Avery always a lawyer these days? Every time I see him he's either a lawyer, or a judge, or someone involved in law enforcement. Gosh, even in The Closer he's a medical examiner. And in other things he's been a general and a Chancellor and other characters of power. Well, I guess if you are going to be stereotyped in Hollywood it's best to be stereotyped as a person of authority.

Anyway, Avery was a guest-star on this week's Eli Stone as, you guessed it, a lawyer. But, he wasn't a member of Eli's firm. He was actually requesting the services of Jordan Whethersby to represent him in a case of same-race discrimination. You read right -- this was Jordan's case, not Eli's. This makes it the first time in the show's short history that there was more than one case shown on an episode.

This poses a bit of a quandary since the show is named Eli Stone and not San Francisco Legal. I really shouldn't be surprised that the program would need to focus on some of the other cases at Jordan's law firm, but I thought that Eli would have a hand in them. I guess that the producers of the show thought that, by the fourth episode, they could shift some of the focus away from Eli and more towards the other characters.

This worries me, as I thought that Jordan's case was more interesting than Eli's. The case that Eli took seemed to be filler for all of the other events that were going on around him this episode. It was Jordan's case that had the meat and showed off his character quite well to the television audience. It also gave us the opportunity to be introduced to (I think) new character Keith Bennett, played by former What About Brian star Jason George. I can only hope this won't be a regular trait of the show until all of the characters have established themselves.

I like Jordan. Rather than being a stuffed shirt he has a human side to him. Not a quirky human side like Denny Crane has on Boston Legal, but a fairly honest and truthful side. Yes, yes, I know that's hard to say about a lawyer, but I like to take risks. Jordan isn't one to back down, yet he is willing to give his employees, like one Eli Stone, slack to do what they need to in order to right themselves on the flume ride that is life. If I were a huge corporate entity I would certainly like to have Jordan in my court.

Eli, on the other hand...not so much. It's not that he doesn't know his law, and it's not that he ends up jumping up or hiding under various tables after visions. It's just that his support staff stinks. His associate, Maggie Dekker, is one of the worst law graduates I have ever seen: You can glean all of the information you want from books and legal briefs, but if you don't have experience in court, then you are S.O.L. Maggie is that type of person and I wish that she wasn't added to the cast of Stone.

Meanwhile, Eli's assistant, Loretta...Man, how I dislike her. You know, when I see her smile and listen to that high voice I am reminded of one Dolores Umbridge from Harry Potter and The Order of the Phoenix (the book, not the movie). She just seems all sugar and spice, but she's really salt and, um, really stinky spice. What does she have against Taylor anyway? Oh sure, she's a successful lawyer who swept Eli's heart away. But to be so vengeful towards her, especially when Eli breaks up with her. Well, that's just not nice.

Eli, for the most part, is a nice guy. However, I do have an issue with him...he's stiff. I'm not talking about his personality -- frankly, I think Eli is a very emotional type of guy. I'm talking about the way he moves. I haven't noticed it over the last three episodes, but tonight Jonny Lee Miller was definitely walking and moving a bit stiffer than a normal person would. I don't know if that is a characteristic of Eli or Jonny Lee Miller, but it's a bit disconcerting to see on camera.

Eli's case this week -- as I said, it really was just a tool to further Eli's development. In fact, it was over in about 30 minutes, which made me wonder what he would be doing in the second-half of the show. Turns out, it was filled with his visions of his client having a medical emergency and his sort-of reconciliation with Taylor. I did enjoy his musical vision this week, which featured many copies of his client, dressed in a hospital gown, singing "Good Lovin'". I think this is also the first time where the musical number was not a George Michael song.

I like Eli Stone. I think that it's in a growth stage right now, so it's still a bit clunky. Yet, I see some good stuff with the stories and characters that could make this show last for awhile. Let's see what they do over the next couple of weeks.