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By
WAYNE KLEIN
A truly unusual series, "Tru
Calling" focuses on Tru Davies (Eliza Dushku) a
medical student working at the local morgue to
make ends meet. One day the corpses start saying,
"Help me" to her. Luckily, they don't get off the
table and chop her head off. That's "Dawn of the
Dead" and if you're looking for zombies, you're on
the wrong page. Tru discovers she has the ability
to "rewind," i.e., relive the last 24 hours in an
effort to prevent the deceased from becoming,
well, deceased. It's God's way of a do-over.
Stylishly directed, "Tru Calling" reminds me a bit
of "Buffy" crossed with a mystery. We know that
somebody has died we just don't know why Tru needs
to save them and how they died. As the season
progresses we also discover that Tru has an
opposite -- a grim reaper working against her. The
who and why are revealed in the last couple of
episodes of season one.
The ensemble cast does a great job making the
incredible credible. There's a handful of very
good featurettes on the series, an Easter Egg and
a number of very good commentaries are a highlight
of this terrific set. The featurettes include
interviews with creator/executive producer Jon
Harmon Feldman, the main actors about the
development the show, the auditions they had to go
through and changes the show made before airing.
Actor Zach Galifianakis proves to have a dry,
self-depreciating wit and could easily be the next
Bill Murray.
Feldman's observations in the commentary tracks
are nicely complimented particularly on the last
two-hour episode (which is presented here as two
one hour episodes, for some weird reason) of the
first season by some very funny asides from actors
Galifianakis and Dushku. The commentary on "Two
Pair" by Feldman and Jason Priestley is also very
entertaining and funny.
Only time will tell if Tru calls the audience the
way the network hopes. "Tru Calling" gets off to a
promising start with a fine first season that
offers a whole lot more in the future. Stay tuned
and find out about Tru's "mission." |
