What the hell is up with Eli Stone?

Over the Summer, Channel Seven/Prime is showing Eli Stone twice a week.

I've been looking forward to seeing Eli Stone since it started airing in America. I've had a policy of not downloading shows because I can't stand watching things with poor sound and picture quality. So finally I got my chance.

For those who haven't watched it, Eli Stone is about a lawyer who starts to see visions. He is diagnosed with an inoperable brain aneurysm, but begins to believe he may be a prophet and that his visions are leading him to lead a more ethical life. Instead of taking on the cases of big, morally bankrupt companies, Eli starts taking cases of more deserving regular people. Much like the characters of Boston Legal.

Jonny Lee Miller, who plays Eli Stone is a really charismatic actor who has been in Aeon Flux and Trainspotting. The supporting cast are just as great with Natasha Henstridge and Victor Garber from Alias. But there is a problem with the show, and it's the fault of the writers and the researchers.

Dialogue isn't the problem. The actual lines the actors speak are just as good as any other show on television. When it comes to the cases however, it could be argued that Eli takes the type of cases that clog up American courtrooms unnecessarily with frivolous lawsuits. Of course, Boston Legal do this too, but their cases tend to show that there are two sides to every story and no-one is ever absolutely right. Eli Stone's cases do no such thing.

Take the 1st episode for example. In it, Eli Stone represents a mother and her child in a lawsuit against the manufacturers of a Mumps, Measles, Rubella (MMR) vaccine which the mother says gave her child autism. This very debate has been raging, particularly in America, for the past few years. Celebrities have been getting involved too, with Jenny McCarthy and her boyfriend Jim Carrey leading calls to stop vaccinating children until alternatives can be developed.

Trouble is, the argument that vaccination causes autism has been widely disproved by the scientific community. See: http://health.howstuffworks.com/vaccines-autism.htm
In the episode, the family was given many millions of dollars. Which would no doubt help the family get the best help for the autistic child, but autism is a health condition we do not yet know the cause of. It is a growing, yet so far blameless, problem.

This week on Eli Stone there was a far greater cock-up in the morality department.
Eli re-tried a case he had won 5 years previously. It was a case against a SUV company who made a car that rolled. The passenger had swerved to avoid a "metal thing" and his SUV had rolled. The man ended up in a wheelchair. The police who attended the scene couldn't find anything that the driver may have swerved to miss.

Oh yeah, the guy was also drunk.

Eli ended up settling the case because of a technicality. The drunk driver got millions of dollars. Within the series, this was considered a win for morals. The message seemed to be that if you get in an accident which is your own fault, sue the company. Because driving a car isn't meant to be dangerous.

What utter bollocks.