Line #5 Series/TruCalling


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5	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/tru_calling.jpg]]
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7	'''''Help Me'''''
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9	''Tru Calling'' is an American [[SpeculativeFiction Spec-Fi]] series that aired on the Creator/{{Fox}} network from 2003-05. Despite grabbing a large cult following, the show was sadly cancelled.
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11	[[EpunymousTitle Tru Davies]] (Creator/ElizaDushku) is a hot young morgue worker who one day discovers she can hear the voices of the recently deceased. And they pretty much only say one (surprisingly cryptic) thing: "Help Me". This triggers a [[GroundhogDayLoop time reset]] to before they died, and Tru uses everything she knows about the deceased and her own skills in an attempt to save them. This also affords her the opportunity to fix mistakes in her and her brother's lives and to make sure she [[FailureIsTheOnlyOption never progresses]] with her LoveInterest by resetting any positive development.
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13	The plot - already surprisingly unpredictable at times - livened up late in the series with the addition of characters working against Tru's efforts, which eventually brought into question whether or not Tru's alterations to the timeline were really all that ethical. Many tantalizing twists and plot points were promised, but its untimely cancellation means we [[LeftHanging will never]] ''[[{{Pun}} Tru]]''-ly [[LeftHanging know]]...
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16	!!This show provides examples of:
17	%%* TheBadGuyWins: In some episodes where Jack Harper is present. (Though whether he's really the bad guy is left up in the air.)
18	* BillyNeedsAnOrgan: "The Longest Day" has [[spoiler:a gunshot victim try to save his daughter by finding a cure for her heart disease when it could be useless and an alternative would have been a heart transplant]].
19	* BittersweetEnding: Several episodes have Tru still unable to prevent the person who asked her for help from dying; rather, she's supposed to help accomplish some sort of goal for them before their death which was not fulfilled the first time around. [[spoiler:This occurs as early as the second episode, where she discovered that she wasn't supposed to prevent a firefighter's death, but instead help him save a little girl who died in the original timeline. Unfortunately, she'd never counted on falling for him in the process.]]
20	%%* BodyOfTheWeek: Asking for help, of course.
21	* ChristmasEpisode: "Literature/TwasTheNightBeforeChristmas... Again". Though the episode before it, "Enough", was the series finale on Fox, this Christmas episode is, sadly, the very last episode, and the only Christmas episode that aired on the [[Creator/{{Syfy}} Sci Fi Channel]] during the marathon on January 21, 2008 (even though it was a little late for Christmas).
22	* ClassReunion: A rather twisted one. Let's just say that Tru's powers activate during it, and leave it at that...
23	* CosmicChessGame: Tru is guided by an unknown spirit, which is opposed to TheGrimReaper and his servant.
24	* CutShort: One of the writers revealed later that they had planned through episode eight of the second season. Then they got the actual ''order'' for the second season... it was for ''six'' episodes.
25	* DeadpanSnarker: Tru and Jack.
26	%%* EnemyMine: Tru and Jack in the final episode.
27	* EvilCounterpart: Fulfilled by Jack Harper, though since the morality of Tru's own path was eventually brought into question, the "evil" part is probably relative...
28	* FamilyFriendlyStripClub: Tru and Harrison visit one as part of a rewind and Tru is mistaken for a stripper, as also happens when she later attends a bachelor party.
29	* ForensicDrama: Probably a bit easier when you work in a morgue... and a bit harder when one-way time travel means you can't, for instance, see the results of a DNA test or anything else that would have taken more than a couple of hours to do.
30	* GroundhogDayLoop: In addition to the basic "rewound day" premise, there was an episode from the first season that actually followed this trope closely, in which she relived the day at least four times over, thanks to [[spoiler:screwing up so many times that other victims' corpses had to ask for her help too]].
31	%%* HornyScientist: Davis.
32	* HospitalHottie: in order to help a soldier who has broken out of a military hospital Tru disguises herself as a nurse.
33	* IdiosyncraticWipes: To denote when a character's "Rewind" power was activating itself and when the viewer was going to or coming from commercial break.
34	%%** [[{{WMG}} By an odd coincidence,]] the rewinding effect is similar to that used at the start and end of each episode of ''{{Series/Dollhouse}}'', also starring Eliza Dushku.
35	* MentalTimeTravel: Dead body asks for help, whoosh. One chance to save them [[spoiler:unless someone else dies in the attempt]].
36	* MysteriousParent: Mom's dead, Dad's mostly away. She's met Davis, and Mom turns out to have [[spoiler:shared Tru's powers]]. Dad turns out to have [[spoiler:shared ''Jack's'' powers]].
37	* NecessaryFail: One episode has Tru tries to save a gunshot victim with the usual tactics, by preventing his death. Her efforts cause [[spoiler:two innocent bystanders (one on each day) to die when he shouldn't]]. Third time lucky, right? '''Wrong'''. [[spoiler:This time, a girl dies of a fatal heart condition and the initial victim had the compatible heart she needed.]] The reason the original scenario was a bad ending was because [[spoiler:his heart was damaged and thus rendered worthless]]. [[spoiler:The solution is make sure the first victim dies in a way that allows his heart to be salvaged and given to the girl with the disease.]]
38	%%* NotableNonSequitur: Happens in pretty much every episode.
39	%%* NotSoSmallRole: Jason Priestly.
40	%%* ParentalSubstitute: Davis is this towards Tru.
41	* PointOfDivergence: As with most time travel plots, small changes can have the biggest impacts... so this happens at least OncePerEpisode, and in a way is kind of an EveryEpisodeEnding type of theme.
42	* PutOnABus: Meredith. Went to rehab for her cocaine addiction.
43	* SetRightWhatOnceWentWrong: Tru attempts this, to varying degrees of success, in every episode.
44	* SexySurfacingShot: In "Reunion", Candance gets pushed into a pool as a prank, but she can't swim, so Tru jumps into the water to rescue her. They both get shot of them getting out of the pool in wet clothes, with Tru having a SexySoakedShirt.
45	%%* SmugSnake: Jack.
46	%%* TerminatorTwosome: When others work against Tru's attempts to change the timeline.
47	* WasItReallyWorthIt: Asked by Tru to Jack in one of the final episodes, where [[spoiler:Jack lets a woman fall to her death to make sure that she still dies the day she's supposed to even after he realized he was starting to have feelings for her]]. Jack's answer: [[spoiler:No. It definitely wasn't.]]
48	%%* WellIntentionedExtremist: Jack, of course... and possibly even Tru, depending on your perspective.
49	* YouHaveToBelieveMe: When all else fails (or Jack sabotages it), this is what Tru falls back on. It never works.

Context Series / TruCalling