Tru Calling – Season One
Picture: B-
Sound: B- Extras: C+ Episodes: C+
Is it me, or are too many characters lately in film and
television seeing dead people and becoming psychic all of the sudden? It is not a sign of the times that people are
looking for a new spirituality or the like, but that a few such shows in the
wake of X Files and the Superhero genre’s explosion have spawned a
sub-cycle of not always good programming.
Tru Calling began broadcast in 2003 and plays loose with its
subject matter, in that it relies heavily on beautiful lead star Eliza Dushku
to pull in a younger audience who might find genre pretentious then go from
there. Though not as bad as the grossly
overrated Smallville in this, the show is more about personality and
plot than solid writing. With that
said, the actors are better cast than you would expect.
Still, the “someone to hang out with” factor only goes so
far before it wears thin, then you want the characters to be given something
more to do than look good on camera.
The difference is made up with in melodrama more suited to Beverly
Hills 90210, and not just because Jason Priestly plays a villain against
type. I actually respect Jason just for
surviving the business and a severe auto wreck, and he did not write any of the
teleplays. The episodes here are:
1) Pilot
2) Putting
Out The Fire
3) Brother’s
Keeper
4) Past
Tense
5) Haunted
6) Star
Crossed
7) Morning
After
8) Closure
9) Murder
In The Morgue
10) Reunion
11) The Longest Day
12) Valentine
13) Drop Dead Gorgeous
14) Daddy’s Girl
15) The Getaway
16) Two Pair
17) Death Becomes Her
18) Rear Window
19) D.O.A.
20) Two Weddings & A Funeral
Certainly Miss Dushku’s acting is better than expected and
the editing and pacing of the shows are not bad, but the titles looseness in
whether they are going to send up known names or just recycle them sums up the
unevenness of the series. Nevertheless,
the show has had enough going for it that a second season is in swing and Fox
hopes its audience grows. The six DVDs
are here in three slender packs, nicely boxed, so they are serious of seeing if
this has a growing audience to support it.
It is going to need to get better, unless the audience is of the passive
“appointment television” type.
The anamorphically enhanced 16 X 9/1.78 X 1 image is not
bad for a TV production that uses slick editing and digital here and
there. Cinematography was shot on
location in Canada by the likes of David Moxness, C.S.C., who m ay get better
as the series goes on if he stays on.
Color is consistent and the copies all clean, as a brand new show should
on DVD. The Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo
offers Pro Logic surrounds and they are nicely utilized. The combination makes watching the show more
pleasant, though little of the whole season really stayed with this critic.
Extras include a Music Video for the Somebody Help Me
theme song for the show by Full Blown Rose, three featurettes that introduce
the characters, actors and show’s story, deleted scenes with the option of
producer Jon Harmon Feldman’s commentary, and audio commentaries for the episodes
listed above marked with an * by various cast and crew from the show. They are well spoken, but not the most
exciting commentaries. Fans and fans to
be will like it. Then there is always
the possibility Tru Calling could become a guilty pleasure or even cult
item, but you will just have to see the show for yourself in this case to
judge. I hope the next season(s) will
offer stronger scripts.
- Nicholas Sheffo
