It seems like every season there is at least one really great show that's "on the bubble" to make it to a second season.

This season, that show is "Eli Stone."

I loved this show when it debuted. After seven episodes, I love it even more.

Eli (Jonny Lee Miller) stars as a lawyer who either (a) is having hallucinations/visions because he's a prophet, or (b) is having hallucinations/visions because of an inoperable brain aneurysm. As a result of these visions and his accompanying strange behavior, Eli ends up helping clients who really need help instead of clients who will make the high-powered law firm where he works loads of money.

So far, Eli has helped the mother of an autistic boy, an immigrant couple, a family separated by war, a man who lost his wife and business while he was in a coma, a man paralyzed in an accident, and a teen whose mother died because of medical malpractice.

There are some serious, heartfelt moments in "Eli Stone." But it's also full of witty dialogue, laugh-out-loud humor and musical numbers.

That's right, musical numbers. They're part of Eli's hallucinations/visions, they drive the plot, and they're a hoot.

In tonight's episode, Eli is confronted by a hallucination/vision of his ex-fiancee, Taylor (Natasha Henstridge), and Maggie (Julie Gonzalo), the associate he's oddly attracted to, performing "I Feel the Earth Move" as an earthquake rattles everything around him.

As it turns out, Eli has gotten dragged into a case on the side of the "bad guys" — developers who are trying to evict people from their homes. Eli's hallucination/vision of an earthquake destroying the community convinces him he's got to work on the side of "evil" in order to save the residents.

Have I mentioned how much I love this show?

The big question is whether it will return next season. "Eli Stone" isn't doing badly in the ratings — it tends to win its time slot in the all-important 18-to-49 demographic, which is good. It beats NBC's "Lipstick Jungle" but loses to reruns of CBS's "Without a Trace" in total viewers and households.

ABC has renewed a bunch of shows for next season, but not "Eli." Not yet, anyway.

I've got just three words for ABC Entertainment President Steve McPherson — please, please, please!

THERE ARE OTHER shows yours truly has fallen in love with in this weird, strike-interrupted season — shows that I would be worried about except for one fantastic fact.

They've already been renewed for next season.

Shows like "Big Bang Theory," "Dirty Sexy Money" and "Pushing Daisies."

Hey, any season in which I find three new shows that I love and they're renewed is a successful TV season.

Now, if only we can get "Eli Stone" and "Reaper" (which is also on the bubble) back in the fall. ...

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E-mail: pierce@desnews.com