Story in a Nutshell:

This new ‘gift’ has a severe impact on her social life because it is not something she can share with anyone, I mean, who would believe her? She first tries to tell this to her brother Harrison Davies (Shawn Reaves), but he thinks she is nuts. She also cannot tell this to her new boyfriend Luc but because she often has to leave him without explanation, this soon becomes on issue for him (Matt Bomer). Quite unexpectedly her boss at the morgue, Davies (Zach Galifianakis), lets her know he knows about her gift, that he knows her days rewind when a dead body asks her for help. He also tells Tru that her mother, who died 10 years earlier, also had the same gift as Tru has and that he also didn’t believe her when Tru’s mother tried to save his wife. He learned the hard way about her mother’s gift because he decided he didn’t believe her.

Later in the season, we meet Jack Harper (Jason Priestley), who’s day apparently also restarts when Tru is being asked for help. At first Jack seems to be an ally but very soon Tru finds out the hard way that Jack wants the opposite to what Tru wants. She wants to help save that person, while Jack feels that when someone dies, he or she is supposed to die, it is the nature of things. What we also learn is that Tru’s father Richard Davies (Cotter Smith), who has married a new wife and has children with her, is working together with Jack Harper against his own daughter. We also learn that Richard Davis, like Jack and like Tru, had the same gift in the past, he was the antagonist to his own wife. So, Richard had the same job description as Jack has now, trying to stop his wife from saving dead people who asked for help. This is the story in a nutshell.

Jack / Tru:

Jack certainly doesn’t see himself as a bad guy, he truly believes he is on the right side of this thing, and honestly, he could have a point! It is obvious that by saving someone who was supposed to die, maybe changes things, no one can oversee. You can fill in yourself what I mean by that. But on the other hand, why did Tru suddenly get this ability, why, if this is wrong, is she able to save these people after they died. For Tru it is obvious, she is asked to help, so she does everything in her power to save these people. At one point you could argue she abuses this power when her boyfriend dies, who doesn’t ask for help, but when a second dead body asks for help, she not only saves the body who asked for help, she also saves her boyfriend who didn’t ask for help.

What is so good about Jack’s character, he is not all evil, he is just a normal guy who believes is doing the right thing. He thinks what Tru does is wrong and he really feels that way. In the season two episode “The Last Good Day”, he admits to Tru that he sometimes hates his job and wishes he died himself instead of the woman who dies. In this particular episode the dead body does not ask Tru for help, but asks Jack for help. You can tell he finds this very difficult, he doesn’t want to let this woman die a second time when the circumstances have changed. But Tru’s father pressures him into doing his job, so he does, but he hates himself for it, just like Tru does. I really like these characters, not black or white but grey. As a viewer it becomes difficult to hate him, even though he does things you don’t agree with, how he manipulates people around Tru, like her brother Harrison, Luc, or Davis to get the end result he finds just. Jason Priestley (and the writing staff) did a wonderful job with this character, shame it got cancelled when it was becoming so f-ing good.

Characters:

Well, I’ve talked enough about Tru Davis and Jack Harper. Davis, Tru’s boss, although it is unknown if this is his first or last name, is Tru’s ally, he tries to help her with everything. Tru sees him as a partner in this and uses his expertise. Zach Galifianakis does a wonderful job with this clumsy, quirky, nerdy guy who lacks certain social skills, who barely can talk to women he’s attracted to. His clumsiness and lack of social skills is the source for many comedic moments.

Harrison Davies is Tru’s brother, they are inseparable, seeing each other each day. At first he doesn’t believe his sister but once he sees actual proof, he thinks there is a buck to be made. Harrison is a guy who easily gets himself in trouble, he wants to make a quick buck and is fortunate Tru’s gift can warn him on more than one occasion. One time even Harrison is the dead body asking Tru for help! Harrison is definitely one of my favorite characters, as I said, always trying to scheme, but also very dedicated to his sister, and also easily manipulated by Jack. Great performance by Shawn Reaves.

Tru also has an older sister, Meredith Davies (Jessica Collins), who has her own issues, addicted to drugs, not being able to shake it and annoyed when her younger sister confronts her about her addiction. After episode 14, Meredith Davies did not return. Lindsay Walker (A.J. Cook) is Tru’s best friend, who never found out Tru’s newfound ability. Lindsay had a rocky relationship with Harrison, mostly because Harrison’s actions. In the final episode of the first season she marries a guy she knew from her college days. We didn’t see her back in season two.

Luc Johnston (Matt Bomer) works in the same building as Tru, he is a crime scene photographer. Soon they hook up, but he gets frustrated because Tru is always running from here to there, always leaving him behind. On the day she decides she wants to tell him about her gift, he dies, with help from Jack. Dr. Carrie Allen (Liz Vassey) is the new shrink working in the same building as Tru and Davies. She seems to like Davis, which results in many funny and awkward moments, but it turns out she is a plant, working with Jack and Tru’s father Richard to find out about Tru’s rewinds, to be able to be one step before Tru. Richard Davies (Cotter Smith), Tru’s dad, who works against his own daughter and in the past against his own wife. It is very likely he had something to do with his wife’s death and he would not have minded if Tru would have gone to jail, for murder, so she could no longer help dead people. It becomes clear he is shady as hell, so you can call him a bad guy. How he manipulates Tru and Harrison and even Jack, how he works against his own daughter, a despicable man. Gardez (Benjamin Benitez) is a colleague of Tru at the morgue, he picks up the dead bodies before Jack comes along.

In the short season two we also meet Jensen Ritchie (Eric Christian Olsen), who becomes Tru’s new boyfriend whom she saved without being asked for help by him. Avery Bishop (Lizzy Caplan) is a fellow student which becomes friends with Tru.

Episodes:

To be fair, when the first season starts, it is fun, but it is not quite as good as later in the season. It misses an antagonist and we get that in episode 14 in the form of Jack Harper. There certainly are strong episodes before Jack Harper makes an entrance, with episodes like “Closure”, “Murder in the Morgue” and “The Longest Day”, but with episode 14, “Daddy’s Girl”, the mythology steps up a few nudges with Jack’s entrance as a new colleague of Tru at the morgue, and also the appearance of Tru’s father. Till then, “Daddy’s Girl” is the best episode which I graded a 9/10. From then on the show evolves from a good show to a great show. Jack first acts as if he is an ally but very soon he shows his true colors. The season ends quite strong with the last 3 episodes. The finale one I also graded a 9/10 where Tru's brother Harrison is mistakenly killed by a woman's jealous ex-husband. It doesn’t get any better than this and the fact it was renewed for season two made it even more better of course. Unfortunately, because of low ratings, Tru Calling was cancelled and season two consists of only six episodes.

In season two the mythology becomes more important. Tru juggles working in the morgue with studying to become a doctor. Just six episodes but these are some of the best of the entire series, Jack even “wins” a few times, which is also important when you have two lead characters with opposite viewpoints. Davis is being manipulated by Dr. Carrie Allen, who works with Jack and Harrison goes working for his dad which is also a manipulation from Richard because he figures he can try to convince Harrison that what Tru is doing is wrong. As I said, a despicable man. In the series finale, episode six of season two: 'Twas the Night Before Christmas... Again, Harrison finds out that Jack and Richard know each other, when Harrison wants to tell Tru about it, Richard almost kills his own son. Luckily for Richard the day rewinds so he can try again without almost killing his son. Thankfully it does not end on a big fat cliff-hanger but it has an open end, and when you watch the finale scene, you cannot deny that at that moment team Jack has the best papers to “win” this: Harrison is being manipulated to join his dad and Dr. Carrie Allen is manipulating Davis.

Final Word:

Having watched the complete series again, it sucks even more this got cancelled. There was so much to look forward to, but no, FOX thought by replacing it with “Point Pleasant” they would get better numbers, but boy, that didn’t turn out like that at all. The ratings for “Point Pleasant” were way worse. Below this blogpost I’ve added some additional data regarding season two: what would have happened had the series continued. Also, I’ve added the original long-term plans the writers had for the mythology. Well if you have read this, you will slam your head against the wall even harder for FOX cancelling this.

The additional data is not written by myself, that is AI, combined info from several websites. I also added the links to these websites if you want to check out these websites. I’ve added them in a text file, so you will have to copy-paste the URL. I didn’t expect it to be such a long blog post, it just felt natural to continue writing. Sometimes it is just difficult to keep it brief if you are excited about something.

screencaps found with Google Search