Valentine's Father's Day - Eli Stone and Notes From The Underbelly

Eli Stone - Father Figure - Ep. 103
Notes From The Underbelly - If the Shoe Fits - Ep.206 , The List - Ep. 207 - Season? (Series?) Finale

Lists and crazy fathers on ABC.

I'm probably the only one still watching Notes From The Underbelly and while we are on season 2 already, I never actually thought they would have the actual baby. But they finally did! And it will probably be the last episode of the show ever (since the remaining episodes are still in question and it's doubtful ABC will renew the underrated comedy).

Loved the crazy shoe shopping thing when Andrew keeps getting suckered into buying more Christina Louboutin shoes (you know, the ones with the red soles that you need to take out a mortgage for), and Peter Cambor's Andrew is still one of the funniest things about the show. His facial expressions are just precious.

As are Rachael Harris' line readings as sarcastic unemotional Cooper but I loved that she went with Lauren (and Julie) on the crazy roadtrip to deliver the backstage passes to Andrew and Danny at the outdoor music festival where of course, the baby finally arrives, making a father out of the extremely goofy Andrew. Seriously. Peter Cambor's face with that "eh?" look is genius.

As is Jonny Lee Miller's "eh?" look.

Which is still the main reason to watch Eli Stone. I agree the show isn't perfect, and I've said it each time, that the best part of the show is the casting, so let's continue/repeat it again this week!:

This week: a return of Tom Amandes who was on one of my favorite shows, Everwood!

A return of Tom Cavanagh who was on one of my favorite shows, Ed!

Tonye Patano is a judge in a custody case that Eli is propheted to help out, going against his fiance (Natasha Henstridge who I'm still not completely buying in her role here). And Tonye Patano is in one of my favorite shows Weeds!

There's still the regular cast members Julie Gonzalo from one of my favorite shows, Veronica Mars!

Victor Garber from one of my favorite shows, Alias!

Matt Letscher from the first season of one of my new favorite shows, The New Adventures of Old Christine!

Apparently I have a lot of favorite shows.

So on Eli Stone, which at least has one of my favorite casts, is already actually suckering me in, with this episode hooking me emotionally more than the first two epsisodes.

With Eli imagining war combat, he ends up helping out a female soldier with her custody case for her son against a possibly abusive husband. It just so happens that his fiance Taylor is representing the husband/father.

Eli flashes back to his own father (Tom Cavanagh) realizing the time his father was imagining being in war and shooting a gun into the wall, which Eli, own his own volition, ended up talking the blame for, leading him to figure out that the son's abuse was actually a ploy to sway the judge to give the mom full custody and was actually all a lie.

There's also the big engagement party being thrown, one that Eli made Patti organize, so Patti adds Beth Keller (Take the Lead's Laura Benanti) to the list, creating her own little revenge for Eli (since Beth was Eli's first and sparks flew when he helped her on the case in the pilot episode). It's a genius plan that angers Eli, vowing to avoid giving Patti the reigns to the wedding plans, which was her perfect plan all along! Genius!

But it was heartbreaking to watch Eli grow conscious in the cake when he has another bout of his imagination during the party. Those Jonny Lee Miller eyes help do it to me.