April 21-27, 2005

tv party!

Live and Let Die

by Joey Sweeney

Fox's Tru Calling Is Moral Dilemmalicious!

I think it was some fratboy/modern rock philosopher who coined that old chestnut about the pretty ones always being so fucked up. In Fox's metamystery series, Tru Calling, this idea really gets a lot of mileage. Here's the premise: Eliza Dushku plays a young med student named Tru. Tru is the kind of girl who's really together, or would be, were it not for one major thing: Each night, when she goes to bed, she dreams of a murder that will happen in her city the following day. In most cases, she is sprung into action by the final bit of every dream, wherein the slated-for-murder sadsack hisses, "HHHHHEELLP ME!" And then Tru springs out of bed, tries to piece together what exactly happened in the dream, and then hustles on down to Starbucks so she can enlist her boss (oh, she conveniently works at the morgue) and her ne'er-do-well brother in tracking folks down and preventing murders.

Preventing murders, it turns out, is a lot like throwing a surprise party: Careful ruses are planned to get everybody in the same place at the same time, locations are scouted, a list of participants is drawn up. And when it all shakes out, usually, these things are a success. Tragedy is averted. Until, of course, the next day. Tru Calling is one of those shows like Quantum Leap in that its premise is so patently stupid that it has to be a metaphor for something.

For those of us who sat through last season waiting to crack the code, Season 2 has brought a humdinger of a twist, and its name is Jason Priestley. Oh yes. Apparently, Priest-o has been flopping around in a sea of drink for the last decade, listening to Barenaked Ladies records and making wry asides that would make him the hit of any water-cooler party, if only he weren't so damn complicated. I mention this because the only difference between him and his character is that his character also dreams of murders that are about to happen … now.

Because years of murderous dream-cries have taken their toll on Brandon, I mean, Jack, he is now of a different philosophy than Tru: For Jack, preventing these murders messes with the entire world. It may be small change in the book of fate whether so-and-so dies, but cosmically, man — and Brando, it seems, has had plenty of time to think about this — it all adds up.

This puts he and Tru at odds, and this season, it has also let the show whip itself into a tailspin that goes like this: Tru and Priesto dream the murders. When they awake the following morning, Tru tries to shut that murder down. Priesto does everything he can to undo Tru's work, not in the name of evil, but in the name of Philosophy! (Don't get confused; Priesto is good, he's just … a little dark.) Tru, however, has help: the aforementioned brother and dorky morgue boss. But wait! So does Priesto. He's apparently in some sort of Let-Death-Happen biz with Tru's estranged father that has yet to be fully revealed.

Like you, I kind of can't believe that it took me all of that just to explain what the fuck is happening on this harebrained show. But you see, I'm dragged in now. The dilemma of Tru Calling — if you knew that you could get out there and save lives every morning, WOULD YOU ANSWER THE CALL? --is a Fox-ized musing on the Terri Schiavo fiasco. If I didn't know better, I'd think that there was some crazy pro-life agenda seeping through the show. But it's so convoluted and silly that this cannot possibly be.

What remains is a weird hodgepodge: Tru Calling is cleverly written in that they keep finding new ways to come at Tru's dilemma; on the other hand, the acting is comically poor, and getting up sympathy for any of the characters is an exercise in futility. Ultimately, you kind of want to quote Springsteen to Tru: "Everything dies, Baby, and that's a fact." If that puts you on the same side of the moral argument as Jason Priestley, well, that's just too bad. Drink up; tomorrow is another day.

Tru Calling airs Thursdays at 9 p.m. on Fox.

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TV/Tivo Tips!
April 21-May 5

Blowin' Up!: Fatty Koo
BET, Thu., April 21, 9:30 p.m.
This show is called Blowin' Up!: Fatty Koo, and it's basically BET's stab at Making the Band. It's my belief that this is also one of those shows that's a TV chain letter: The minute you say you're not going to watch it, you're totally watching it. Owie.

Locusts
CBS, Sun., April 24, 9 p.m.
A made-for-TV movie (everyone should start watching these while they are still being made, because any minute now, it's gonna be like, poof!) about the coming plague of locusts that finally shows us the error of our ways as a civilization. Thanks, locusts!

Craft Corner Deathmatch
Style, Wed., April 27, 10 p.m.
Attention hot young things who read ReadyMade magazine and crochet scarves while listening to The Shins and drinking Stella Artois. Your TV show is ready.