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The reaction to the NBC presentations for this week hasn’t been too pleasant. Reuters’ reaction to the “Knight Rider” movie – “A painfully long car commercial.” Well, yeah, the pacing was not very good and I couldn’t quite care about the characters, but was it a commercial? Too many commercials cutting into the action of the movie, I thought. (and it doesn’t help that the commercials with KITT were slightly more entertaining than the movie). Plus, if the most amusing moment was seeing the characters at the “Las Vegas” casino (NBC synergy!) — it really doesn’t bode much for your movie-as-a-tv-pilot (being hokey worked for the old series; dare we say that we’re an age of welcoming hokey tv? I mean, beyond that in reality shows? I don’t know, sadly, and ratings aren’t revealing much).

David Bianculli says that NBC will soon be known as “Nothing But Crap,” considering its offering of Really Crappy Reality Shows (and the not-very-good Knight Rider movie). I can’t say that this level of crappiness wasn’t long in coming for NBC – sure, “The Office” and “30 Rock” made it better, but the strike derailed NBC’s progress. Too many Law & Orders (the aging original and the ridiculous amount of spinoffs), an aging ER, a pitiful Bionic Woman, and Heroes needing help, stat… well…

NBC still has to keep going with the rest of the year. But is a tv season a “season” as we know it anymore? NY Times announces NBC’s plans for “an endless season” – somehow comparable to FOX’s set up of early fall/late fall/spring releases of shows (which never really impressed me because I still don’t end up very impressed with FOX’s offerings anyway). Apparently, NBC wants to find a way to branch out to other media (Internet, mostly) and get stuff out ASAP:

After months of speculation, NBC confirmed on Tuesday that it would sidestep the annual star-studded “upfront” presentation for advertisers and hold a series of client meetings with media buyers instead.

Perhaps more important for television viewers, the network said it would embrace a year-round prime-time programming schedule, jettisoning the frequently criticized practice of saving most shows for the traditional September- to-May television season.

For several years, the broadcast networks have gradually replaced repeats during the summer and winter months with some new shows, mostly of the unscripted form. NBC’s announcement appears to be a more dramatic step in that direction. The network is already preparing several shows for the summer months, including a second season of “American Gladiators” and a broadcast version of the singing competition “Nashville Star.”

Get ready for “the endless season, ” said Gene DeWitt, chairman and chief executive at DeWitt Media in New York, when the broadcasters “launch programs when they’re ready and promote them when they’re ready. ”

“There are many more opportunities to introduce programs to viewers over the course of a year than over the course of a few weeks in September,” Mr. DeWitt said approvingly of the NBC plans.

The fourth quarter is often the most important of the year for many marketers like retailers and auto makers, Mr. DeWitt noted, but under the current system many of the broadcast shows they are offered from October through December are new and untried.

If more shows are brought out earlier in the calendar year, he said, “you’d have a track record of their performance.”

“We’d have more reliable rating information,” he added, “so we won’t be going into the fourth quarter blind.”

A 52-week broadcast schedule may make it more difficult to track the hits and flops, Mr. DeWitt said, but “it’s the way of the world today; things move faster and we all have to keep up.”

Perhaps you want to move faster; fine. But if you present crap to us, it’s still crap, no matter how quickly you get it on-line or on tv. Have we not learned from the writers’ strike? We (the viewers/purveyors of entertainment) need content – preferably quality content. Or, is that just me wanting something with some quality (even if it’s hokey/campy)?

Personally, I’m not very good at moving faster anyway.

Oh, and breaking NBC news: Jesse L. Martin may be leaving Law & Order! Say it ain’t so! But, I understand if he wants to move on; just don’t be a stranger!

What strikes me as creepy: “Mysterious creatures found in Antarctica.” Look, as long as these are not the aliens posited by “X-Files” or the “Stargate” tv series, I’m all okay – it’s just how evolution can create really weird stuff. Really. Nature is both beautiful, diverse, and plain weird.

Having seen “Michael Clayton” on Monday, I still prowling the web for the reviews (’cause, really: George Clooney’s The Man!) – interesting reading, considering what one may think what the movie’s really saying. Slate has the review of the DVD: Patrick Radden Keefe writes on the movie’s observations on the state of the legal profession [hyperlinks removed]:

Clayton features terse dialogue, a pair of professional killers, and one exploding Mercedes. But beneath the expertly deployed suspense lies something more interesting: an indictment of the mercenary universe of white-shoe law firms and a devastating—and unusually accurate—look at the demoralized lives of the lawyers who work for them. Granted, George Clooney’s Clayton is an improbable 17th-year associate [link from the article, which is a NY Observer article by David Lat – interesting article, I thought, when I had first read it]. But when he says, “I’m not a miracle worker; I’m a janitor,” he could be speaking for the whole profession. [….]

As Clayton, Clooney has the raccoon eyes and zombie mien of a lawyer sucked dry by the job. Look around next time you’re riding the subway, or waiting for your order at Starbucks, and you’ll spot the type. [….]

In Michael Clayton, as in real life, the firm doesn’t employ people so much as consume them, creating a culture in which personal or familial obligations always take second place to work. Like a disproportionate number of lawyers, Clayton is divorced, and in one touching, sadly recognizable scene, he drives his 10-year-old son, Henry, to school, completely lost in his own thoughts as Henry tries to engage him in conversation.

As Karen Crowder, U/North’s general counsel, Tilda Swinton plays the villain. But when we glimpse her alone—while she dresses for work or has a panic attack in a bathroom stall—we realize she’s just as lost as Clayton. “Who needs balance?” Crowder says, when an interviewer asks how she reconciles her demanding job with the rest of her life. “When you really enjoy what you do … there’s your balance.”

When, in a nod to thriller convention, Crowder starts calling in professional hits, it strains verisimilitude. But only just. Her fidelity to the job is absolute—she has nothing else, after all—and she offers a frightening specter of “zealous advocacy” taken to its logical extreme.

Crowder is so tightly wound that she raises an interesting question: Do the studies showing high rates of depression among lawyers tell us something about the profession or the people who go into it? Crowder is a neurotic and a perfectionist; in that respect, she’s the kind of lawyer you want on your team. (She will worry so that you don’t have to.) But if that’s the self-selecting type who migrates to the law, it seems unfair to ask them to be happy as well. “I fear that happiness isn’t in my line,” Benjamin Cardozo observed in 1933, blaming “the disposition that was given to me at birth.”

Whatever the explanation, Michael Clayton offers an only slightly exaggerated portrait of a profession undergoing a kind of slow-motion existential crisis. It does so at a time when in the real world, midlevel associates are dropping out in droves. [….]

Ultimately, Michael Clayton is a movie about redemption—but also about naiveté. As Michael tries to retrace the trail of incremental compromises back to his original decision to become a lawyer, to find the point where his profession and his principles diverged, you wonder why it has taken a manic breakdown and an exploding Mercedes to prompt such basic self-reflection. As Marty Bach, the firm’s unflappable founding partner, Sydney Pollack offers a much-needed counterpoint: a corporate lawyer who loves his life and his work. With his townhouse and his trophy wife, Bach is not lonely or alienated like Michael or Karen Crowder. Nor is he disillusioned about the work he does, if only because he had fewer illusions to begin with. [….]

“The case reeked from Day One,” Bach acknowledges impatiently. “Fifteen years in, I’ve got to tell you how we pay the rent?”

So — do we prefer entering the profession without illusions, or can we accept becoming disillusioned? Can we handle the compromises we make along the way of developing a career? And, surely, it’s not just the lawyers facing these dilemmas? Just my rhetorical questions.

This article in the past weekend’s Week in Review in the Times “The Charisma Mandate” – is it enough for a candidate to have charisma? There are pros and cons to just examining a candidate’s personality. I have to agree with this article’s quoting historian Doris Kearns Goodwin: the ideal candidate would have both charisma and experience/expertise. Kind of hard to find that in one person, but we can wish for that, right? Enter with our eyes wide open. Or, maybe risk being disillusioned. Not sure.

Lisa Takeuchi Cullen for Time.com on “Does Obama have an Asian Problem?” Well, it would seem to be that Hilary Clinton has the majority of APA support; but then again, it’s not that monolithic – perhaps the APA vote has more swing to it, and AsianWeek endorsed Barack Obama on the Democratic ticket (and John McCain on the Republican ticket).

Sunday – tea at Sweet Melissa Patisserie‘s Park Slope location.

Sunday night – watched the latest Knight Rider movie. What possessed me to watch…? My explanation: sentimental 1980’s nostalgia and the temptation of seeing how bad it was. Mostly lame, as expected; some thoughts:

Lots of driving around (what else?), and pointless dialog as the daughter of the inventor of (new) KITT had to go rescue her kidnapped dad. Sarah is herself a scientist and a prof at Stanford, but apparently is reduced to being the Damsel in Distress; too bad because she had some personality.

Character actor Bruce Davison does the simple job as the Inventor of (new) KITT.

The (new) Knight Rider, Mike, is the long-lost-son of Michael Knight; Mike lacks the camp factor that Michael had. Mike’s mom had more personality. The Return of actor David Hasselhoff as Michael Knight… umm, not much could be said about it because he didn’t do much.

Val Kilmer as (new) KITT, replacing actor Will Arnett (because Arnett is contracted to do Ford or Chevy (or whatnot) commercials and they weren’t pleased that he wanted to be KITT) sounded bland (or irritated that the NBC folks weren’t paying him more; who knows?).

TV Guide’s Matt Roush’s review made sense about how not fun the Knight Rider movie was. As a pilot for a prospective series, it didn’t make me want to watch more. Sorry, NBC. Not unless you show me that you as a network care about telling a story and having some interesting characters.

Monday – watched “Michael Clayton,” starring George Clooney. Really strong movie. Clooney as Michael Clayton, a son of a NYC cop; a Fordham Law grad; a former Queens ADA; a former federal prosecutor – and he’s now stuck as a Special Counsel at a Big Firm, Kenner, Bach & Ledeen. As Special Counsel, he’s not a Partner (despite having been with the firm for way too long) and he’s not on any litigation stuff – nope, he’s The Fixer, The Bagman, The Janitor. It’s starting to drive him nuts; being with The Firm already took the mind of his colleague, the firm’s litigation partner, Arthur Edens, played by Tom Wilkinson. Edens is a manic depressive, and he went off his meds and made a scene (to put it mildly) during the deposition for a major case for the firm’s client, UNorth. UNorth makes agricultural products that caused health problems for the farmers that made the stuff.

Other stuff: Tilda Swinton plays Karen Crowder, UNorth’s General Counsel – who really crosses some legal ethics boundaries (umm, Karen, no one said that murder is involved in trying to force a settlement for a case. Really!). Firm Partner, Marty Bach, is played by Sydney Pollack – pretty convincing as the partner who has his inklings about how ugly things are but pressing on with business. Bach sends Clayton to clean up after Edens, but Crowder makes things difficult, as the Difficult Client. Lives are at stake. Can you keep a conscience in the middle of such ugliness? Hmm. Clooney as Clayton seemed a bit stilted in some of the reading of lines, but he did such a strong job as the burnt-out lawyer – the one whose life is pretty much falling apart, but somehow he keeps going.

What a movie. Kind of makes one think twice about joining a Big Firm. Manola Dargis in her NY Times review of “Michael Clayton” makes the point of how there were no real good guys in the movie, but Clooney… well, he embodied the closest thing to what was left of Good in the corrupt corporate world. Entertainment Weekly’s Owen Gleiberman puts an even Good vs. Evil opinion of the movie. (although I still have a hard time believing that a corporation would get its hands dirty in retaining assassins, but hey, who knows? If you’re crazy enough to pay so much for Big Firm Lawyers, what’s to stop you from hiring other ugly sorts?).

Okay, so I’m behind on watching the current season of “Law & Order” (yep, Season 18, people!) – but managed to catch a scene or two. Cute little scene here on NBC.com – (a minute and a half in), where Executive ADA Cutter and Detective Lupo are bonding. Lupo’s apparently taking an evening law student — at the Alma Mater Law School! We got mentioned! High Five, people! A Law & Order character’s one of us! (ok, I wasn’t an evening student, but how often does the Alma Mater Law School get mentioned in pop culture items?).

As I previously noted, the ripped-from-the-headlines plots make the series almost laughable, but the characters – for a show that claims that it’s not about the characters – sorry, it IS about characters. What else would really make me care about a show – characters make the plot work. So, in a way, it has this season. Legal ethics, moral issues – characters being just a bit amusing. Man, is Season 18 turning out to be pretty interesting or what?

Time’s Lisa Takeuchi Cullen posts her observation how APA’s of the 18-25 age range don’t nearly vote as much as we’d like and she embedded an old and strangely campy video from the 2004 Presidential election to encourage APA’s to vote (you can tell it’s old because the video needs to update its collection of APA celebrities; no offense to Russell Wong and Ming Na, but neither of you are quite up on the A-List these days):

This more updated one is less hokey and straightforward:

I liked how the multicultural one has some of the stars from “Ugly Betty” – getting more diversity in our celebrities, are we?…

An “Auntie” of mine passed away this week (it’s a complicated genealogical relationship – the closest “western” description would be my mom’s younger sister’s husband’s cousin.) Her wake ended up being on Valentine’s Day. The nicest thing there was the three frames of photos throughout her life, from the wedding in Jamaica, the ones raising the kids (and a shot of the living room from the old house), and trips to China and back to the Caribbean. She had a good life and a loving family.

Afterwards, P- and I went to Randazzo’s in Sheepshead Bay. Even at 9 PM, the place was pulling a 35 minute wait for their glorious seafood, today being served on actual tablecloths. Normally, if you did not know better, you would first think it is cafeteria-style Italian with its linoleum floors and plain decor, but you would be very wrong. Calamari is not stereotypical here. Their secret red sauce that accompanies the plate is the star. It is thick and rich and must have some seafood stock to pump it up. The advertised cherry stones on the half shell were fresh, meaty, and full of flavor. We shared the lobster fra diablo, which was more than enough for the two of us. We saved some lobster pieces and red sauce for dinner the next night, which we used to cover our own pasta, licking our fingers. Recommended for the seafood, but you’ll have to go elsewhere for dessert. Some reviews gripe about how it isn’t Olive Garden, and that they serve 1950 style 8 oz Cokes out of the cheeky bottles, but deal with it – it’s inherently Brooklyn.

Afterwards, we did a flyby and visited the old digs in Sheepshead Bay. Much has changed, but much has stayed the same. There were a few new buildings, including a large Petco. We had one of our usual late night shopping dates at the nearby Stop N Shop, and we bumped into some people that we knew from NYU alumni (making my random meetup quota for the month). Maybe we’ll move back to the neighborhood.

Are Americans reveling in a culture that’s anti-intellectual? Probably. Education’s not that valued, and (bad) reality tv is probably going to be the downfall of western civilization. Well, that’s my theory anyway.

Kind of creepy: the discovery of a solar system that looks a lot like ours…

Is it a good sign that the writers are done with their strike but can’t remember what they were working on prior to the strike? Hmm. Maybe that’ll mean some of the bad stuff that was on prior to the strike can be scrapped for better ideas.

“Is PBS necessary?” NY Times Charles McGrath says “yes” to NPR but “not quite” to PBS tv. — well, I think it’s still necessary, but as McGrath notes, the Powers Behind PBS aren’t too good at keeping the PBS identity distinctive. I don’t listen to NPR, but I do like Newshour on tv — so I think PBS is still better than some stuff on cable.

Slate on romantic poetry, or Robert Pinsky’s past selections anyway – always good stuff.

And, as another post-Valentine’s thing, TV Guide did a photo gallery of “TV Lovers We Will Always Love” (thought it was amusing that they even included Agents Scully and Mulder – who for years tried to convince people that they were not lovers; then again, their relationship kind of entered the soulmate arena, considering how much they went through (alien conspiracies kind of make relationships too hard), and Entertainment Weekly did an interesting and broader photo gallery of “Pop Culture’s (Fictional) Lovers.”

Sad but true – on Sunday night, it’s the return of Knight Rider on NBC. Good lord, they’re not even using KITT’s old voice. Scary enough, they’re bringing back David Hasselhoff? I’m having one of those 80’s flashbacks now, aren’t I? The previous returns of KITT and friends haven’t been that spectacular (well, the original show wasn’t that spectacular either, but so that goes): the tv movie “Knight Rider 2000” killed off Devon, the principled boss of Michael Knight, and was about a weird year 2000; plus the short-lived (single season) syndicated tv series “Team Knight Rider,” which had a (what else?) a team of talking cars. One character was a possible daughter of Michael Knight. I actually watched that show and thought that it needed … improvement. Having one more go at the Knight Rider franchise? Sigh.

Well, I’m more vaguely curious about the return of The A-Team than a return of Knight Rider.

Mmm…! Chocolate…! Apparently there’s more to milk chocolate than we realize.

As a follow up, Facebook has become more user friendly, having indeed making it easier to leave it, in case one would be so inclined. (and, no, I’m not there yet).

“Pride and Prejudice” on Channel 13 – Colin Firth as Mr. Darcy!… [drool]…

Not that long ago, FC visited the new 2nd Avenue Deli. NY Times’ Frank Bruni went to the 2nd Avenue Deli with Ed Koch, former NYC mayor; Nora Ephron, writer and film director; and Laura Shapiro, culinary history writer. Bruni notes that there will always the diversity of opinion on what is authentic Jewish food, but:

And I realized that we weren’t so much eating in a specific restaurant as passing through a communal storehouse of memories, on a bridge of babkas from the past to the future.

Ed, the most deeply rooted New Yorker among us, said that at the Second Avenue Deli, “I feel very much at home.”

“I walk out,” he said, “and I feel warm, no matter how cold it is.”

Watching some Conan O’Brien late Wednesday/Thursday night – his first show with the writers back. Matt Lauer’s a guest, and some laryngitis is preventing him from talking – so Conan’s letting Matt mime (good Lord…). I thought writer-less Conan during the writers’ strike was hilarious, so hopefully he’ll continue to do well with his writers back.

Yeah, we’ve living in interesting times; kind of dangerous to talk about politics at work, but it’s kind of like a sport half the time. You go to the watercooler after the primaries and analyze the results, as the linked article notes – kind of like how people become Monday night quarterbacks after the football games – and the chitchat either detracts from work or makes us bond and be happier at work (umm, or not).

And, in time for Valentine’s Day: Time’s art critic Richard Lacayo on the color of red, re-posting a post he did from last Valentine’s Day (since he’s on vacation). I liked his selection of various paintings that has such strong red.

Plus – romance in the Metropolitan Museum of Art or other museums, Lily Koppel observes for this NY Times article:

Andrea Bayer, a curator in the department of European paintings, where she has worked for 17 years, is planning an exhibition, “Love and Marriage in Italian Renaissance Art.”

“The museum experience is very relaxing — it’s about wandering, taking it in, allowing for an expansiveness of time,” she said. “Couples tend to gravitate toward art depicting domestic scenes. They connect with them in a way that is easier and less detached than looking at a religious painting of the same period.

“People try to get married here all the time. They come here with a minister or justice of the peace, but security has to dissuade them.”

For singles, it appears to be about the hunt. Museums allow people to explore, looking for something, or someone, that moves them.

“Is there anything hotter than seducing your potential next lover in the European sculpture garden of the Met in N.Y.?” is the way a Facebook group called “Museums Are Sexy” describes itself to potential members. “Or telling your paramour how you feel in front of Venus herself. If nudity, eroticism and nymphs remind you of how much you love museums, tell us about it here.”

I like dogs in general, but I have a soft spot for beagles. Maybe it’s their incredible sense of smell, even compared against other canines, or maybe it is just so cute, but there is so much in one little package.

P-‘s sister’s beagle Shelly can tell when I’m anywhere near her house, and then I always get a warm welcome upon my entrance. (I’m conveniently overlooking the other dog, Mimi the mini schnauzer, who is also real cute and affectionate, but quite frankly not that bright). While Shelly doesn’t normally speak, she can generally communicate what she needs, be it food, snuggling, or being taken out for a walk. When it’s cold outside, there’s nothing more comforting than having a lap full of beagle taking a nap.

Yesterday’s win by Uno the Beagle (a.k.a. Ch. K-Run’s Park Me In First) at the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show rivals the Giants’ win over the Patriots. It wasn’t the favorite coming in, being that the poodles were coming on strong, and that a beagle had never won in its over 100 year history. But Uno played the perfect game – a 10 score from the judge, and well-timed baying to the capacity crowd at Madison Square Garden that aroused a standing ovation at his win.

Like that other famous beagle Snoopy, if you give them a chance, they will figure out a way to make you happy.

Time’s Lisa Takeuchi Cullen on the coverage on the Asian/Asian-American vote, as AALDEF’s Voting Rights project 2008 results emerged from Super Duper Duper Tuesday. Cullen has concerns that CNN’s implying that Asians/APA’s are racist in their voting. Cullen remarks to CNN/media generally:

The thing is, we Americans have a habit of identifying people by color. I’m not saying it’s good or sensitive. But you [The CNN guy she’s referencing] do it, too. You [CNN guy] lumped us—a rainbow of Americans in varying shades of yellow from dozens of countries in the continent known as Asia—into one vote. When the young lady ID-ed Clinton as “the white lady,” she wasn’t saying she was voting for her because of those characteristics. To us, Clinton is the white lady. McCain is the white man. Obama is the black or multiracial man.

I’m not saying race doesn’t play into Asian-Americans’ choice at the voting booth. But to imply the whole swath of us are not voting for Obama because he’s black is just a little much. Don’t you think?

Not sure if I agree or disagree with Cullen. I don’t think the Asian/Asian-American vote is that monolithic, but the numbers that went for Hilary Clinton, as reflected in the AALDEF findings – well, I do wonder why so monolithic? The pessimistic me also doesn’t think that we live in a perfect world about how people think about issues of race and ethnicity (if they think at all). (I may not be making sense there, but oh well; pardon me).

If we join a group, and then find we want out, shouldn’t it be easy to do? NY Times article on how hard it may be to leave Facebook. I’m not there (yet) but hmm…

The Mets’ David Wright – will he step it up as a leader?

Writers’ strike almost done, but future implications loom; dare we hope that we can avoid an actors’ strike? NY Times’ Bill Carter on what may or may not be back in salvaging what’s left of this season. No “Heroes,” since the special effects take time – honestly, they need to fix the plots anyway – learn from the best of sci-fi and comic books series. Go with what works – the ensemble, the intertwining nature of the plots – get us to care about the characters without sacrificing some complexity. Oh, and stop threatening to kill off the major characters – it’s a trend that’s getting tiresome. Tall order for “Heroes,” I know. “How I Met Your Mother” may be back, and so would “House.” Actually, FOX is in the best of shape; the less said about NBC, which may have to push every thing off. I’m pretty agnostic about “Lost” (which just got back anyway), and certainly less reactive about “24” (imagine, it might not be back until 2009!).

Winners and Losers (according to MSNBC.com anyway) of the writers’ strike. The AP article doesn’t exactly make me feel any better either, but maybe things will start looking better if we keep our patience. Casual tv viewers don’t seem to notice the difference anyway. (maybe they are too into the new “American Gladiators” (which doesn’t have the same campiness that the old one had) or the usual “American Idol” to care) about the writers’ strike.

Managed to have watched the so far two episodes of ABC’s mid-season series, “Eli Stone.” The work of writer-producer Greg Berlanti (previously behind WB’s “Jack and Bobby,” WB’s “Everwood,” ABC’s “Brothers and Sisters” (which more or less inherited the name of the character “Robert MacAllister” from “Jack and Bobby”), and ABC’s “Dirty Sexy Money”). Its premise is kind of hard to swallow. Eli Stone is Big Firm Lawyer who has brain aneurysm that gives him hallucinations – or maybe it’s something that will help him redeem himself. Yeah, right – and I got a bridge to sell you.

But, “Eli Stone” has a sweet quality to it, and it doesn’t hurt that Jonny Lee Miller is easy on the eyes (not only is he yet another British actor playing an American, he’s last known in America as Angelina Jolie’s first husband). Anyway, so Eli’s hallucinations has him imagining George Michael’s singing the song “Faith” (and other George Michael songs pop up) and the hallucinations are tied to his cases – as he’s now inspired to do more good, and not the usual Making More Money for Rich Folks. Hmm. Somehow, it kind of worked for me, even though it was kind of hard to find the first episode credible…

Actually, I accepted the plot that Eli decided to represent a single mother’s claim against a pharmaceutical for a flu vaccine’s addictive allegedly causing her son’s autism. I swallowed that the woman turned out to have been the woman who took his virginity when he was a teenager (and that it was funny and angsty that Eli thought he was the kid’s dad and the woman responded: “Yeah, I was pregnant for 8 years, Eli.” – Eli may be a smart litigator, but he’s kind of a dope in the personal department). Nope, the least believeable plot was how the mother approached Eli to represent her even though he was representing the defendant (well, his firm anyway; they met at the settlement conference, before she decided to fire her then-lawyer; she apparently recognized Eli when he couldn’t recognize her from their common past).

Plus, it was silly how the partners of Eli’s firm acted like they never heard of the so-called Chinese Wall (or maybe they were still shocked that he wanted to represent the plaintiff instead of the defendant). For the non-lawyers out there – it’s the concept of blocking the lawyer within the firm from knowing about the strategies of a case to avoid a conflict of interest. The firm partners – they’re partners – surely they could think of what the solutions to ethical dilemmas may be? Then again, why on earth would they have allowed Eli to take the plaintiff’s case when he was so close to trial for the defendant? (maybe the timeline was longer than portrayed). I did like how Eli told the plaintiff along the lines of: “I can’t represent you; there are ethical canons about that. I could be killed; that’s why they’re called ‘canons.’” (canon, cannon – get it?).

So, there would be funny lines and enough to suspend some disbelief (i.e., yeah Eli could be crazy, but there’s a medical reason for it, and maybe a spiritual one too). And, I liked the cinematography of San Francisco – it looked nice on the tv screen.

Interesting cast selections: character actress Loretta Devine – last seen on “Grey’s Anatomy” as the Chief’s estranged wife – as Eli’s assistant, Patty; Victor Garber – previously the ex-Jack Bristow on ABC’s “Alias,” the morally ambiguous SpyDad (and last seen on FOX’s “Justice” as a Scary Nutsy Johnny Cochrane kind of Senior Partner) – as Eli’s Senior Partner and future father-in-law; Tom Amandes – previously Dr. Abbott on “Everwood” – as another Firm Partner (Berlanti bringing on his ex-cast-people, huh?); Tom Cavanaugh – ex-Ed Stevens of “Ed” (played the Bowling Alley Lawyer) – as Eli’s dad (from flashbacks) who suffered the hereditary brain aneurysm that no one knew about and died a drunk (what’s with Tom Cavanaugh and the drunk roles lately? He played the drunk uncle on “Jack and Bobby” and the drunk brother on “Scrubs” – hmm); Nastasha Henstridge as Eli’s lawyer fiancee (and the Senior Partner’s daughter); and James Saito – the ex-Shredder in the original Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie — as Eli’s Dr. Chen, the Beijing-trained acupuncturist – whose real name (in the series’ development) is a UC Berkeley educated/philosophy major Fred Lebowski (kind of wonder how Dr. Chen got that identity – was he adopted? was his dad Lebowski? what? At least we got an APA playing an APA pretending to be an Asian on tv!).

Eli – the “cutthroat attorney” who was once Justice Ginsburg’s clerk and graduate of Stanford – has a nice chemistry with his brother, the neurologist who diagnosed the condition and is desperately trying to help him. Eli – who’s turning out to be a better human being than he admits he is, apparently because it was in him all along, or because he’s scared he’ll die of the aneurysm without fulfilling much. Hmm.

I thought Eli had nice romantic chemistry with the woman who took his virginity and that he lacked chemistry with his own fiancee (maybe Miller and Henstridge are trying to see if her character gets better defined than Lawyer and Senior Partner’s Daughter), although there’s a lot of affection between them (although Patti hates the fiancee, so what’s going on there?). Henstridge and Garber kind of lacked chemistry – again, maybe because neither of them has very defined characters for now. (then again, I liked how Garber was the trying-so-hard Spy Dad to Jennifer Garner’s Sydney; his role as father figure/Senior Partner/mentor really needs needs further development on this show).

So, I agree with Entertainment Weekly’s Ken Tucker: I like the series so far. I can’t make much of the legal accuracy whatsoever or the over-the-top stuff; from what I can tell “Eli Stone” may have resemblance to “Ally McBeal” and tons of other “Named Character with Hallucinations” shows, but there’s a charm to it and it has room to grow. Room to Grow may happen, considering the state of Return of (Fictional) TV. Please, ABC, be a little kind.

The passing of actor Roy Scheider, best known for “Jaws” – but I remembered him for his role in “Seaquest: DSV” – which wasn’t a particularly spectacular tv show (let’s just say that no one quite understood how it was a submarine sci-fi thing and NBC kept tinkering with it too much), but Scheider did okay.

The passing of Congressman Tom Lantos, the only Holocaust survivor to have served in Congress. His bio is quite the story – not only was he accomplished and proud to have achieved the American dream, he was amazed to have survived the war because of Raoul Wallenberg, the Swedish diplomat who saved the lives of Hungarian Jews by issuing them fake Swedish passports. In addition to introducing the legislation to make Wallenberg an honorary American citizen, he was among the first to have demanded that the Japanese government apologize for its wartime’s military sex slavery crimes. An American story indeed.