KIND of surprising seeing how it's doing so abysmally bad in the ratings....

EdDantes | November 26, 03:21 CET

Well just remember that Fox ordered extra episodes of Firefly before they cancelled it.

Simon | November 26, 03:42 CET

*thud*

Caroline | November 26, 03:43 CET

That's kind of annoying in light of Firefly, which was much better. Though it was more expensive I suppose.

ascii_102_117 | November 26, 05:07 CET

Or maybe a different sub-regime has taken over at Fox HQ, with the idea that "we're not gonna make any better shows, so let's stick with the Devil you know..."

"Flavor of the month" is the mantra for all corporate executives.

bookrats | November 26, 06:47 CET

I think it is due to the male demos being skewed this year thanks to some changes in the Nielsen ratings system. They have scared the networks, now that the system has completely thrown off the male demos. The demos that didn't change or weren't thrown off by the change was on the female side which surprisingly Tru did pretty well in the important 18-39 female demos ratings wise. Placing in the top 5 for the night.

RavenU | November 26, 07:05 CET

And it might have done better had hey not put it up againt the behemoths of Friends/Will&Grace/Scrubs and Survivor.

Personally I think it's okay as shows go, although some elements are just plain silly and repetition is setting in already. (Who are we gonna help THIS week?) Oh and has anyone noticed that ridiculous "5 minutes ago, on Tru:" thing they do?? Good grief, I think I can remember the beginning of this very episode. And it's hardly THAT complicated.

Honestly, if it didn't have Eliza, I don't think I would watch it.

EdDantes | November 26, 10:18 CET

They show a recap at the halfway mark for the 4 people in the US who tune in to the show after watching Friends.

The recapper at TWOP, whose recaps of the show are more entertaining than the show itself, pointed out one of the biggest plot holes in television history that I'm ashamed I didn't catch in the last episode . 5 corpses come in at the same time at the morgue, 4 of them had been drinking alcohol, 1 hadn't. The one who hadn't had any alcohol had poison in his system. Later, Tru believes the poison was in the alcohol. So either Tru is really dumb, or the writers are. Probably both.

prufrock | November 26, 16:55 CET

The thing that bothers me... what the hell does the brother do for a living?

Caroline | November 26, 17:05 CET

The only bright spot of last weeks episode was that the black actor who was Riley's buddy in season 4 of BtVS was in it.

vpecoraro | November 26, 19:54 CET

*looks up from a book*

That thing's still on the air? Eliza Dushku was the only reason why I saw the pilot. She was the only reason I saw the movie Wrong Turn. I tell ya. I'm startin' to not be all that excited when I see her name on something.

The characters are uninteresting. I honestly don't care if her brother loses a limb to the mob. In fact I think that'd be a character building exercise for him. Her sister is a reject from Sex In The City. Tru herself shows cojones in some situations but not in others, and appears to have the consistent personality of a plot device. Dushku can't save this thing. Heck, Anthony Stewart Head & Patrick Stewart guest starring together for sweeps couldn't save this thing.

The lighting is like a bulb in the refrigerator. As is the level of intelligence in the dialogue. To be honest, I walked away from the first episode feeling insulted; as if my grey matter were called names and poked at with a stick.

The setting's less exciting than my backyard but that's only cuz I haven't mowed all autumn, otherwise it'd be just as exciting as my backyard. The premise of Tru Calling "makes good copy" in that it's fun attempting to describe it, but beyond that it makes less sense than VR5, Strange Luck, Freaky Links and Lone Gunmen combined, and I actually LIKED all of them because they had other stuff going for them, and they all got cancelled in the first season.

If Tru Calling survives to a second season, there is no justice in this world. I'm not saying this cuz I want Faith The Series. At this point I don't. I want Eliza Dushku to get a new agent and a new publicist and maybe take a few classes in how to pick better material for herself. The woman can act. She just needs to pick better vehicles to display her ability. Tru Calling ain't it.

ZachsMind | November 26, 22:00 CET

Just want to add - the thing I hate the most about Tru Calling is always the "big reveal" scene at the end. You know, the one where Tru spends 10 minutes glaring self-righteously at the bad guy, explaining in detail his motives and methods, and the clues she found to unravel the whole sordid affair. Eesh! My appreciation for neat wrap-ups like "I'm Buffy and you're history!" increases 10 fold every time I have to endure one of those scenes.

wren | November 26, 22:11 CET

Haha, and to think I voiced my dislike in at least somewhat careful terms in case there were 'Tru' fans on here! Little did I know. Yeah pretty much agree with all things said. I caught the alcohol/poison gap. And boy aren't there a lot of gaps!

I'm also a bit annoyed by the fact Eliza has basically one facial expression on for most of the show. You know the one, it's a mix of 'puzzled' and 'concerned'.

The only hope I had was that they would go into HOW and WHY it is happening, instead of just 'save corpse of the week', but it doesn't look like they want to go there. Would probably be too complicated.

And anyone ever notice how the police is NEVER questioning her after the 'event' of the week happened? (Arson, murder, etc)They never wonder who she is or how she knew what she knew. If she was wearing a mask and a costume and made sure she was over a rooftop before the cops arrived, the show would actually make MORE sense.

EdDantes | November 27, 01:56 CET

I haven't seen the show - all the bad hype before it started and the fact that Fox usually doesn't give shows a chance and that they put it up against Friends and Survivor all were good enough reasons for me not to watch it. But it really, really bothers me that Firefly which had better Nielson numbers and was a loved by the critics who watched past the first episode was cancelled and a show that obviously is not getting good press is being kept. I like Eliza and want to see everyone involved in Joss's world to be successful but only if it's earned. Firefly was brilliant and well loved by it's fan base. Maybe they (Fox) are trying to change by giving this show a chance and change their image of a network that cancels shows so quickly or maybe it's because they've already had a string of failures this season that they've got nothing else left to show.

Firefly Flanatic | November 27, 02:01 CET

I've wondered about that. Fox is puzzling. It seems clear Firefly was just not the show they wanted and they went out of their way to 'nix' it. But with 'Tru' they are either doing the same thing, or they were ridiculously optimistic about it, putting it in that time slot.

Then again, has Fox ever had anything worthwhile that ran for a longer time besides X-Files and Simpsons?

EdDantes | November 27, 03:38 CET

Fox needs to realize that they need to stop over-promoting their shows. I don't know how many of you watched the Baseball playoffs in October, but if you did, you got sick of Joe Millionaire and Skin weeks before they premiered.

prufrock | November 27, 04:31 CET

That's why it seems obvious to me that someone at Fox didn't want Firefly to succeed - they just didn't really promote it much at all like they seem to do with all their other shows. A little bit of promotion may have helped the show! And speaking of X-Files - their numbers were really bad in the beginning and if it had been a new show starting now, most likely Fox would've cancelled it after a few episodes!

Firefly Flanatic | November 27, 20:05 CET

You completely right, profrock, I watched all of the World Series, and by the time Game 6 ended, I wanted the head of the advertising exec who allowed all those damn Skin ads to go on the air. At least advertise something good you air, like the Simpsons and...wait, they advertised that too into the ground!!

voodoo_daddy | November 28, 03:18 CET