A Note About Spoilers (sweetie).

Dear Cyber-Friends,

First off, as a Doctor Who fan, I will forever and all-the-time-always hear or see the word “spoilers”, and immediately think this:

Secondly, since I’m making reviewing stuff a thing, I want to lay some ground-rules about spoilers. Obviously in a review there’s going to be some mention of plot, and thus the potential to reveal secrets and surprises.

There is a school of thought that “age = fair game” with spoilers, which means the older movies, TV shows, and books can be fully discussed since everyone has had a chance to see or read it by now.

I do not share this philosophy, though I understand it. Since I haven’t watched and read ALL THE THINGS, I still discover great movies, TV shows, and books that have been around a while. I still like to be able to approach them fresh, knowing little or nothing in advance. I assume there are people out there like me who would also like to do that, and who might like getting recommendations from this blog.

In my Review Day posts, I will not talk in detail about anything not revealed in the pilot or summery. If I do, I’ll talk about it in vague terms that don’t spoil big reveals later on. And if you feel like leaving comments (please do if you want!), then I would appreciate the same respect for anyone who might still be new to whatever the discussion is about.

Links to websites containing spoilers will have a warning (Spoilers, sweetie), and any discussions about spoilers will be in rot13. If you are unfamiliar with rot13, it is a very simple internet cypher used thusly:

1) Text will look like gibberish. Highlight and copy the gibberish.

2) Go to rot13.com.

3) Paste the gibberish in the box and press the “cypher” button.

4) You can now read the text.

If you want to use rot13 to comment, just do the steps in reverse: type in box, cypher, copy, paste in comment.

Thanks for cooperating. It’s really easy, and it’s respectful.

Love,

GeGi.

Tru Calling.

Dear Cyber-Friends,

While I originally planned on my Review Day post to be about movies, I decided it would be more fun to make it a review of anything — whatever I happen to be into at the moment. So to kick things off with this topic, I’m going to review a TV show I just finished watching:

Tru Calling is a decade-old Fox Network series which was canceled shortly into the second season (as happens to pretty much half-to-all their good shows). I had never known about it back when it aired, and only heard of it when it was mentioned in a list of shows that were ended before their time.

The Hero of the show is Tru Davies, played by Eliza Dushku. Tru as a character is strong, stubborn, and extremely compassionate. She commits herself to her calling of helping people with admirable passion, if not much discretion.

While she might have benefited from some out-of-the-box thinking a few times, she approaches each problem and challenge with a head-on determination that quite often — though not always — wins the day eventually.

In the pilot episode, Tru graduates college and is planning on going on to medical school. To that end, she has lined up an internship, but it falls through and she winds up accepting a position as a city morgue attendant instead — because it will still look good on her application.

However, the proximity to dead bodies reveals that Tru unknowingly has the ability to hear the dead ask her for help, which “restarts” the day, giving her an opportunity to find and help the person who is going to die.

Morbid and potentially repetitive as the premise sounds, the writers do a great job of keeping each episode unique, fresh, and interesting — not an easy task, I’m sure. The first episode was fun, and got me hooked just enough to try the second. I was surprised and pleased to discover in the second episode that the show didn’t seem to be going to follow a formula or pattern, which gave me the encouragement to keep watching.

I’m glad I did; the writers do a good job of blending both story and character driven elements, and the “restarts” didn’t feel dragging or repetitive. They did, however, feel like they could be used to make a fun drinking game, if one felt so inclined.

After reading one of the writers’ Livejournal entries (Spoilers, sweetie, so don’t read if you haven’t watched yet.) about the plans for the second season and the mythology behind the stories, I’m really disappointment Fox Network canceled before that could all play out. They were heading in some very awesome-sounding directions, and I was fully invested in going there.

That said, despite loose ends the show does wrap up in a good place. It’s open-ended, but still a satisfying chapter in which to close the book (as it were). Don’t let the six-out-of-thirteen-with-no-warning episodes of the second season scare you off — Tru Calling is still worth watching as is.

If you have any recommendations or requests for future Review Days, leave a comment below.

Love,

GeGi.