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"Tru Calling": Clockwise from center: Eliza Dushku, Zach Galifianakis, Jessica Collins, A.J. Cook, Shawn Reaves. (AP Photo)

FALL TV

To extend its life, 'Tru Calling' must bury some story lines

By Matthew Gilbert, Globe Staff, 10/30/2003

It's a good thing Tru Davies was a track star in college. She spends an inordinate amount of time running through the streets of New York in "Tru Calling," pumping her arms "Run Lola Run" style, rushing to prevent the occurrence of deaths foretold. Tru runs, her long hair flowing down, but she doesn't sweat, nor does she get winded. Tru runs like a sleek superhero, and that's no lie.

Her viewers, on the other hand, might find themselves a little breathless. "Tru Calling," which premieres tonight at 8 on WFXT-TV (Channel 25), is a crowded new drama that blends talking corpses, time travel, crime solving, family dysfunction, and tortured 20-something romance. Notable as Eliza Dushku's solo vehicle after her years developing a fan base as Faith on "Buffy the Vampire Slayer," it's a hodgepodge of gloomy ideas that don't fall together naturally. Dushku is solid enough as the burdened Tru, but the show's many constructs consistently threaten to crash around her. To be the spooky "Alias" it wants to be, "Tru Calling" needs some serious streamlining and electricity.

It also needs another time slot. The show is up against two of TV's top 10 blockbusters, CBS's "Survivor" and NBC's "Friends."

A future medical student, Tru gets a job at the city morgue on the graveyard shift. And sometimes, late at night, in the dark, cold, airy room -- boo! -- a fresh cadaver turns to her and mutters, "Help me." At that moment, Tru travels back in time to the previous day, when she must figure out how to save the life of the talking cadaver. It's kind of like "Early Edition" meets "Six Feet Under." Meanwhile, she has a lot of heavy personal melodrama to contend with: Her high-powered sister is a coke addict, her brother is a gambling addict, and her professor boyfriend may be an innocent-female-student addict. Let's just say her intervention docket is full.

Tru is a caretaker by nature, which is why she's in the business of helping strangers and family members and which is probably why she never smiles. Her mother was murdered in front of her a decade ago, and she's still trying to work out her irrational guilt. Tru's true calling is to save the world, although she might have a future in marathoning if the talking-cadaver thing doesn't work out.

Matthew Gilbert can be reached at gilbert@globe.com.

Tru Calling

Starring: Eliza Dushku, Jessica Collins, Shawn Reaves

On: Fox, Ch.25

Time: Tonight, 8-9

Rated: Rating: TVPG

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