Forgotten Television: Tru Calling

Tru Davies (Eliza Dushku) is a recently graduated college student hoping to get into medical school.  Her internship gets cancelled, and she is offered a job at the city morgue, where she discovers that she can hear the dead, and if one asks for help, the day will rewind, and she can relive the day with the intent on saving the person who asked.  Her life is complicated with an older sister Meredith (Jessica Collins) who has a drug problem and her playboy brother Harrison (Shawn Reaves), who is continually in trouble.  She is aided in her quests by her boss Davis (Zach Galifianakis), who has met someone with the same ability before. Further complications arise with a few different love interests throughout the series. Mark (Kristoffer Polaha), her former college professor; Luc (Matt Bomer), a photographer; and Jensen (Eric Christian Olsen) who appears in the second season. Hindering her intention of saving those who ask for help, Jack (Jason Priestley), who has the same ability, believes that his job is make sure Tru does not succeed and that the hand of fate takes the life as intended.

True Calling was one of those unique shows that was interesting and intriguing.  At its heart, it is a murder mystery program, but not only does Tru need to figure out whodunit, but also needs to prevent it from happening, which can be an even more difficult task. The show premiered on the Fox network on October 30^th 2003 and ran for two seasons and a total of 27 episodes ending on April 21, 2005. The writers and producers kept the show from becoming stale by trying to not just have it become the “murder of the week” type of program, and with the introduction later in the season of a character (Jack played by Jason Priestly) who had the same abilities but believed that he was meant to use them to make sure fate was not subverted.  The dialogue is witty and clever, and the show was well executed, but unfortunately this was not enough to lure a big enough fan base and the show was cancelled six episodes into the second season.

I was a huge Buffy, the Vampire Slayer fan and loved Eliza on that program, and very much enjoyed her performance as Tru. Dushku actually passed on a “Faith The Vampire Slayer” spin-off when Buffy came to an end so she could do Tru Calling. Her character has a bit of an edge, but also a heart of gold and genuinely cares about saving the people that ask for help.  The rest of the cast is also top notch, with Zach Galifianakis doing a wonderful job as Tru’s subtly comedic mentor, Shawn Reaves doing a great job as the troubled brother, and Jason Priestley is excellent as Tru’s opposite foiling her plans. Overall this was a wonderful program, with great performances and a unique and interesting storyline with clever and witty writing that never seemed to find its audience.  In fact, it seems like people either love this show or they hate it, there are few that were just casual viewers.