That’s what I started asking myself as I finally got around to working my way through the canceled second season of the show about a prophet lawyer who randomly bursts into lavish song and dance numbers.  (Season two’s addition of Katie Holmes is fantastic btw)  If Eli Stone had come out this year, or perhaps even last, would the show have received a more welcoming audience?  I have to say yes and no.

Today’s TV landscape includes one key figure that changes the entire game – GLEE.  We know it, we love it.  It’s by no means the first show to go song and dance happy but it is one of the only ones to ever make it massively successful.  We also have to give some credit to Efron and the High School Musical gang for making all this possible.

What Eli Stone tried to do was take it to a more adult level but maybe that’s where it went wrong, where it confused people.  We turn to musicals for their cheese factor for the pure gooeyness of how much fun life looks when you can burst into song.  Adding that to adult responsibilities, babies, disease, natural disasters and the justice system is a bit of a drag.

Don’t get me wrong, I really enjoy this show and I wish it had got a longer run, mostly so I could see Victor Garber on my screen more often (though he has popped up on none other than Glee) but while I do believe today’s conditions are more favorable for a show of this type, I think their flavor was maybe just too much for prime time to handle – in concept.  So many people, and networks dismiss shows on concept alone and never give them the chance to blossom.  This is why we have to watch 2 hours of the biggest loser every week.

Ah! Creativity at it’s best.

- DoubleBitch

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