Review(s): DVD Tru Calling - The Complete Second Season
Tru Calling Season Two
Tru Calling is one of my favorite shows. I had thought the show as back when the second season began. But, it only had a few episodes. Only six were made for this season and only five were aired. This set is the only way to see that last episode. Also, this set has a making of featurette.
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Tru Calling wasn't exactly original but it had a great concept and had the chance to seriously develop into bigger and better things. By the end of this, unfortunately truncated, second season the show had a great deal of complexity. It will forever remain unfinished.
It's a real shame, but this isn't reality TV and every single show that isn't reality TV these days gets cancelled. A sad, horrible fact but it's the world we live in. Since its invention the standard of programming on TV has gradually decreased in sophistication and Tru Calling is one of many casualties. At first I was hopeful that it might come back to another channel or even as a movie (Firefly only managed half the episodes Tru Calling did and THAT ended up a successful and critically acclaimed film) but I've since learned that Eliza Dushku (who, surprising for an actress of her age, keeps a low-profile on her career) does not want to play Tru again even if the opportunity arose.
I totally recommend Tru Calling but, ultimately, you're setting yourself up for disappointment. This show slipped away without being freed.
Daring to be Different = Cancelled
Why is it that whenever a show breaks away from the precedents of molding the crime scene or ghost interacting moldings, they are quick to be cancelled? It was worse enough that CBS has decided to pull the plug on one of their best non-criminal based shows Joan of Arcadia after it took a dark turn with the series finale dealing with foreshadowing of Joan in the middle of good and evil, now they decide to cancel Tru Calling.
Yes, Tru Davies did talk to dead people. However, it wasn't in the Jennifer Love Hewitt/ Patricia Arquette formula where her purpose is to make them feel complete by solving their "unfinished business." No, Tru was meant to prevent their deaths, which is the twist that primetime TV needed.
The first season of Tru Calling seemed a little desperate to grab viewer's attentions, especially with the recurring role of Jack Harper (Jason Priestly) as her complete opposite. But the bickering between Jack and Tru, the race to either save a life or prevent it from being saved, is really what brought in those 4 million audiences. If there was a major complaint in the first season it is that Tru never seemed to reach a limit with Jack. Maybe it was because she is known as the fierce ass-kicking Faith in Buffy, but in the episode "Two Weddings and A Funeral," her encounter with Jack at the funeral lead me to thinking that she would ressurect her old Faith ways on Jack, but instead it was just verbal resentment - something I loathe when I know she can do some damange.
The second season showed much promise, as the stories got deeper as well as the character development. Harrison was on the verge of cleaning up his gambling life while stumbling across daddy's plans to prevent Tru from saving lives. We also saw Jack and Tru in an uncanny predicament where they both switch roles and Jack learns how it feels to lose a life. There was also more action like the first episode "The Perfect Storm" where we are actually shouting to the TV, "Save them, Tru." These ingredients would have really blossomed this show into the hit it was supposed to be.
Now that FOX has cancelled Tru Calling for show like Point Pleasant who fell off the map faster than a Jessica Simpson single, fans are now saying, "Save it, FOX!" Why not ressurect this witty and creative idea rather than following the same patterns that CBS has now been accustomed to. Rather than making the male equivalent to "Ghost Whisperer" (will James Marsters from Buffy be playing the lead role?) Let's stick to something original. But now that I mentioned it, giving James Marsters his own show isn't a bad idea. Can we say, "Spike" spinoff?
Related DVD's Tru Calling - The Complete Second Season
Tru Calling's trump cards are its intriguing paranormal premise and the lead performance by the underrated Eliza Dushku (Buffy the Vampire Slayer), both of which have earned it a small but loyal audience; both of these virtues are preserved in this six-disc set that includes not only the entire 2003 debut season but a surprising amount of supplemental features. Dushku plays Tru Davies, a young morgue attendant who discovers, much to her dismay, that she can hear the voices of the dead, as well as reverse their fates; with the help of her brother (Shawn Reaves) and boss (Zack Galifianakis), Tru relives the last day of these people's lives in order to prevent their untimely deaths.
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