reviewed by Charity Bishop
          

One of the biggest mistakes in recent television programming was the cancellation of the series Tru Calling. Midway through its second season, the plug was pulled. Fortunately, their concluding episode leaves a feeling of satisfaction if not quite completion, however much you wish the series had continued.

Tru Davies (Eliza Dushku) has an unusual gift: the dead call out from beyond their grave for her to "help them." Immediately, the day rewinds to the hours in which those poor souls brought to the morgue were still alive, giving her enough time to put things right and make sure they never make it into her place of business. A mortician part time and studying to be a medical doctor the rest of the time, Tru has almost more than she can handle on a typical day... and that's not even mentioning her arch-nemesis. If Tru's job is to save the dead from death, Jack Harper's (Jason Priestley) is to make sure that who's meant to die "gets dead." While she is the balance of positive, he is the negative, and the two often go neck to neck as they battle over the uncertain future of many hapless individuals wandering the city streets.

Two people are in on her gift: her buddy Davis (Zach Galifianakis), who heads up the morgue staff, and her brother Harrison (Shawn Reaves), a "mostly reformed" drug addict who occasionally slips into his former lifestyle of partying. Pairing up with them, little does she know that Jack has an even more powerful adversary on his side -- Tru's father, who used to be a grim reaper just like Jack. But nothing is ever black and white in this world in which they are so desperately needed, and that's part of the fascination that comes with the series. The second season is infinitely better than the first. There's not as much content, far tighter plots that build toward an eventual conclusion, and most of all, a fantastic chemistry between Tru and Jack. Even he is not all evil, and in one gut-wrenching episode, it is to him that a body turns and pleads for help rather than Tru, leaving him in an emotional quandary over whether or not to flout convention and save her, or let her die.

No words can really compare this to anything else, except that it's a little bit like Early Edition and Ghost Whisperer thrown into a bag and shaken up. The result is not as creepy as it is intriguing, and even my mom was fascinated by the two episodes she happened to catch one weekend. Tru basically wants to do the right thing and save as many people as she can. Sometimes she fails. Sometimes you cannot save everyone, but no matter what she hikes up her boots and keeps trying. There are consequences to all actions, as we learn through the ways the lives around her change through simple intervention. Most people want to live, but some want to die, and therein lies the quandary. Probably the best episode is the unaired season finale, a Christmas mystery that ends on a positive but slightly ominous note, as the reaper and the savior call a temporary twenty-four hour truce.

Scattered language punctuates the script. There is some violence, particularly in a mid-season arc that winds up with Tru framed for murder. Two men are shot. There are occasional fist fights. Most of the bodies brought into the morgue are in some state of bloodied imperfection. It's a little creepy to watch the dead heads turn, and hear "Help me!" whisper from their lips, but there's no real supernatural element to it, or explanation for why they are there. Tru does voice various questions about God, and the reason for her existence, but essentially plays the role of a guardian angel in strangers' lives, doing all she can to prevent them from going out on that boat, or walking into that store. Mild sensuality intervenes, since the new therapist at the morgue is attracted to Harrison. She comes on too strong one evening by putting her hand on his thigh; it's implied nothing happens.

The downfall, other than that the season is only six episodes long, is that it does cast back to first season events, so if you haven't watched the first season in awhile as I hadn't, it might take you awhile to remember some of its nuances. But it's also a decent stand-alone since most of the episodes contain their own unique plot lines. I'd encourage more adventurous viewers to give it a try.