Tru Calling Discussion – “Pilot”

So Eliza Dushku (Faith, from Buffy, in case you didn’t know) has herself a new SF-ish show. Between this, Buffy, and her role in “Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back,” is she turning into the next genre sex doll?


Oh yeah, and what’d you think of this new show on Fox?

16 replies on “Tru Calling Discussion – “Pilot””

  1. Taking Bets
    Okay, we’ve got a new sci-fi show on FOX. Now taking bets on how long until one of the network VPs has a bad day and cancels the show as a stress reliever.

    • Re: Taking Bets

      Okay, we’ve got a new sci-fi show on FOX. Now taking bets on how long until one of the network VPs has a bad day and cancels the show as a stress reliever.

      Crud, and I was really looking forward to this show too… But then you remineded me this is Fox we’re dealing withh.

      • Re: Taking Bets
        They’ll give us a few months to get in to it first. They’ll start moving the time slots around, showing them out of production order and then they’ll cancel it. That’s the way they work.

        • Re: Taking Bets

          They’ll give us a few months to get in to it first. They’ll start moving the
          time slots around, showing them out of production order and then they’ll
          cancel it. That’s the way they work.

          Yeah, but of course someones bad day was made the day they scheduled
          the show to begin with. Let’s see, put it opposite the last season of
          friends. Kiss of death.

          Fortunately I have two TiVos and watched Tru instead of Friends that my
          wife has to watch.

          All and all, rather interesting.

          Though I must admit, a few things hacked me off to start.

          1. Tru running to her graduation with her tits barely contained
          2. Tru shown ‘in the next season’ dancing under the rain. What the
            hell does that have to do with the show???

          I mean come the hell on. Can’t we have a show without hanging her tits
          out and trying to make her into some type of sex symbol. I mean I know
          she’s hot and all, but come on, this is the 2000’s, can’t we for once have
          a woman as a lead character without turning her into a jack off poster
          girl?

          All and all it was a decent show, had some promise. Interesting little
          twist there at the end. I’m going to watch it again at least.

    • Re: Taking Bets

      Okay, we’ve got a new sci-fi show on FOX. Now taking bets on how long until one of the network VPs has a bad day and cancels the show as a stress reliever.

      You ever get the feeling that us Sci-Fi fan’s have a tendancy to get a bit too jaded… oh hold on, we are talking about Fox here aren’t we, so its not so much of a matter of being jaded its more a matter of laying down bets as to when they do the dirty. So I’ll give:

      3/1 on it being canned at the peak of its popularity,
      5/2 on it being canned by an exiting VP who wants to leave his mark,
      3/2 on a blimp carrying radioactive biologial waste crashing into the plot during filming and in the resulting disaster the stars are mutated and merge into a single inhuman entity which goes on and gets its own day time chat show and wins a day time Emmy.

      Ahem… sorry its that Friday feeling folks.

  2. So so
    The show wasn’t bad, although it didn’t ‘pop’ for me either.

    As much as I enjoyed watching Eliza run around with city without a sports bra on (mmmm, bouncy) she seriously needs a car. Could have done without the voiceover/strike-a-pose over her mother’s grave too. Yeah, she’s writing wrongs, we figured that out.

    I’ll keep an eye out for the next couple of episodes before I make a judgement call.

    • Re: So so

      As much as I enjoyed watching Eliza run around with city without a sports bra on (mmmm, bouncy) she seriously needs a car.

      I was thinking the same thing. I turned to my wife and said “She really needs a car, a bike, a motorcycle, a segway, anything!”

      I could also do without the make-your-brains-bleed editing shots they did, especially the one at the end that served no purpose whatsoever.

      It will be interesting to see what happens, but as many others have pointed out, it’s on Fox so it isn’t going to be long-lived especially given the timeslot. They should’ve put it on Tuesday in Buffy’s former timeslot — would’ve gotten more viewers who now have nothing to watch then.

  3. Random Bits, in no particular order
    1. What was the title of the song clip played during the preview for next week?

    2. I thought the camera cuts, especially at the end were annoying. If somebody thinks that they contributed something that I’m missing, please tell me.

    3a. I can understand all the running, there was that comment about her on the track team, but where did that kick come from?

    3b. Why couldn’t she kick that well when she was the Slayer?

    4. Her mother’s murder provides an interesting long term story arc, a la Crossing Jordan.

    5. The premise reminds me a lot of Early Edition, which, while very entertaining, was also a little episodic for my liking. I hope they remember, “Story arcs are your friend.”

    Okay, I’ll stop talking… for now.

    • Re: Random Bits, in no particular order

      5. The premise reminds me a lot of Early Edition, which, while very entertaining, was also a little episodic for my liking. I hope they remember, “Story arcs are your friend.”

      You’re right up to a point, and you’re particularly right when it comes to diehard genre fans. But when I think back over the bigger successes, they’ve been episodic first and serial second. Take the X-Files. If every episode had formed a vital piece of the big conspiracy puzzle from the start, I don’t think the show would have gathered the momentum it did. There would be too many people jumping in late trying to make sense of things they can’t understand without having seen all the previous episodes. If you look at the first four seasons of Buffy (especially the first two), you’ll see the same thing in that a large portion of the episodes can be watched on their own with only very minimal “previously on…” bits (i.e., Buffy kills demons, Willow’s a witch, The Initiative is a bunch of government demon hunters, etc.).

      In fact, I could make the argument that seasons five through seven of Buffy were looked upon with disfavor at least partially because they were 90% about the serial/story arc as opposed to creating good single episodes. Most weeks ended with yet another tease for the future, leaving even the diehard fans groping about for resolution that wasn’t going to come until the last half-hours of those seasons. The episodes considered the best on that show (as well as X-Files) are the mostly self-contained episodes like Hush, The Body and Once More With Feeling.

      Now I’m rambling. In short, I think it’s a “crawling before walking” situation. You’ve got to get people into the show before embarking on long, multi-episode plots, and even then you’re still well advised to give each hour a beginning, middle and end.

      But what do I know? I’m just a TV addict who actually liked seasons 5 and 6 (less so 7) of Buffy. I’m probably not representative of the majority of viewers and not educated enough to judge TV (or anything else) properly. :)

      • Re: Random Bits, in no particular order

        5. The premise reminds me a lot of Early Edition, which, while very entertaining, was also a little episodic for my liking. I hope they remember, “Story arcs are your friend.”

        You’re right up to a point, and you’re particularly right when it comes to diehard genre fans. But when I think back Now I’m rambling. In short, I think it’s a “crawling before walking” situation. You’ve got to get people into the show before embarking on long, multi-episode plots, and even then you’re still well advised to give each hour a beginning, middle and end.

        When you put it that way, I would like to amend my previous comment to include your caveat about maintaining a balance betweeen episodic and arced installmants.

        • Re: Random Bits, in no particular order

          The “story arc” issue came up a lot at WorldCon this year, with the cliche notion being that fans and writers like arcs, which allow for character development, while producers like stand-alones, which make the show easier to sell (and watch on a “now-and-then” basis). But the opinion (which I share) that’s being expressed here was also popular. “Stand-alones” contain the built-in risk of “sitcom” syndrome– no character development, and a reset button at the end of every ep. “Arcs” contain the built-in risk of “soap opera” syndrome, wherein large portions of eps are devoted to advancing a miniscule and uninteresting portion of the arc, which is also incomprehensible to new viewers. Think of the worst episodes of Trek for examples of the former, and the worst late-season eps of Buffy for the latter.

          Of course, longtime viewers remember Buffy for its character development. One compromise (of many) is the limited arc (Character arcs, for example), wherein certain elements develop in a meaningful and interesting way over the series, while individual episodes work reasonably well on their own. Firefly was attempting something like that in its first season. Of course, we’ll never know how that might’ve turned out.

          • Re: Random Bits, in no particular order

            Of course, longtime viewers remember Buffy for its character development. One compromise (of many) is the limited arc (Character arcs, for example), wherein certain elements develop in a meaningful and interesting way over the series, while individual episodes work reasonably well on their own. Firefly was attempting something like that in its first season. Of course, we’ll never know how that might’ve turned out.

            Another example that occured to me in the shower of a well used arcs was Babylon 5. The first season had some arc elements, seeds dropped here and there, but unless you were looking, you wouldn’t know or care. Season 2 started phase in multi eppisode arcs, a la Garabaldi’s recovery process, Nightwatch, etc, but for the most part the eppisodes were mostly independant, with bits building towards the larger goal. Seasons 3 & 4 is where the arcs really got heavy and important, but in those cases most of what you needed to know about previous events was often conveyed in dialog. Sure you lacked the particulars, but you knew that President Clark was a “bad person” and need a sound thwacking.

            I try not to let my liking for the content of the show bias my opinion of the mechanics of the writing, but I would call B5 one of the best balanced story arcs I’ve seen to date.

            BTW, in my first post I asked about the song played during the preview for next week; I heard a little bit of it on the radio today, I didn’t get the name amd it is driving me nuts! It has a passage to the effect of “If you want to/I can save you/I can take you away from here.” that sounds like it could be in the chorus. Please help me out here.

            • Michelle Branch Title: All You Wanted

              BTW, in my first post I asked about the song played during the preview for next week; I heard a little bit of it on the radio today, I didn’t get the name amd it is driving me nuts! It has a passage to the effect of “If you want to/I can save you/I can take you away from here.” that sounds like it could be in the chorus. Please help me out here.

              Michelle Branch

              CD: The Spirit Room

              Title: All You Wanted

              I had not heard it before but from the lyrics you gave and the preview at the iTunes Music Store, this should be the song

              Moonfrost at the Tru Calling web site posted this answer so she/he deserves the credit.

              Ouija

  4. Aw, crap…

    …I completely forgot this was on tonight.

    Oh well, it is Fox so perhaps I’m better off not getting into a
    show only to see it cancelled halfway through the season.

    But I do loves me some Eliza Dushku! Maybe that’s incentive enough
    right there…

  5. just my $0.02
    I thought it was prety lousy and unoriginal.
    This was like a mix of quantum leap and the Sixth sense… Obviously using whats-her-face as sex appeal. Pretty cliche.

    but thats just me.

    • Re: just my $0.02
      I thought it was more like Early Edition as mentioned above with a part of Run Lola Run… then just a smidge of Buffy with that kick near the end. Although it was somewhat enjoyable… it is on Fox and will not last so there is no reason to get too invested in it.

      I also see no room for a story arc which would kill this show ala Quantum Leap (i.e. individual shows I liked but as a series it blew due to lack of any character/plot progression).

Comments are closed.