The Calling Season 1 Review: An Unconventional Crime Drama With Potential
Peacock’s original content uses the familiarity of NBC shows to grab audiences. However, it makes choices that are bolder and more unique than NBC’s typical programming.
The Calling feels familiar and foreign at the same time. It works within the realm of procedural crime dramas but strays from the format. Instead of an episodic formula with the crimes, it takes a season-long approach to the mysteries.
The Calling Season 1 follows three major mysteries. The first mystery plays out throughout the first four episodes. The second and third ones happen in the final four episodes.
Each crime has an illegal element and a morally wrong aspect.
Greed, pride, lust, and infidelity are just a few of the sins that face judgment day in this season. The season-long mysteries compel you to keep watching because you want to know who did it.
It’s a show full of red herrings.
It’s also full of twists, turns, and unpredictable conclusions. Even the most observant viewer will likely find themselves shocked by the end of The Calling Season 1 Episode 4, “The Break.”
The latter mysteries also have plenty of twists, turns, and red herrings, but around The Calling Season 1 Episode 7, “The Hand of the Diligent,” you can kind of predict how it all ends. The last two mysteries aren’t as captivating as the first, but everything else about the second half of the season becomes stronger as it continues.
David E. Kelley acts as the showrunner and executive producer of The Calling. Kelley created some of the most well-known TV shows of all time, and he has a reputation for creating a certain kind of crime drama. This makes The Calling one of his biggest departures from convention.
Kelley shows a different side of the procedural world with The Calling. The protagonist of the show, Avraham ‘Avi,’ played by Jeff Wilbusch, isn’t your typical TV cop.
Avi doesn’t hide his emotions. He isn’t hardened by this world. Instead, his biggest flaw and strength is his ability to grow too attached to the victims and connect deeply with solving the crime.
Avi also doesn’t follow the typical cop code. His religion, as a Jewish man, often guides him more than his belief in the law. His new partner Janine Harris, played by Juliana Canfield, finds herself at first fascinated by him.
However, later she comes to understand him and respects his method. Many shows would have Janine, and the other two main cop characters, Captain Kathleen Davies (Karen Robinson) and Dect. Earl Malzone (Michael Mosley), judge him for being so religious. However, all the other characters embrace it, even if they don’t share his beliefs.
His faith isn’t persecuted but accepted. This is a nice change from what could have been a cliche approach to others’ reactions to an extremely religious character.
The Calling gives you just enough to want to know more about the characters. We get a glimpse of their past, issues, and character flaws, but it leaves us wanting more and still unsure of them.
It seems as if David E. Kelley and crew have a multiple-season plan in mind because the conclusion of the season feels unfinished. There is definitely more story to tell and more mysteries to solve.
The start of the season left me unsure of whether this is a show I want to add to my schedule. I am a sometimes procedural fan, not a dedicated one. However, by the end of the season, I found myself wanting more.
The characters grow on you. They all become more interesting as you learn more. The mysteries are really intriguing and keep you guessing. It’s not easy for a TV show to surprise me, but this show manages it.
Avi is also a peculiar lead in a way that’s very fascinating to watch.
I want to learn more about these characters, see the next mystery, and watch the show’s growth from season to season. I am hooked enough that I’ll be disappointed if it’s a one-season show.
The Calling is a show for viewers who enjoy procedural dramas but may have grown tired of the usual format. It starts off a little insecure in its identity but grows confidence and clarity as the season progresses. It gets you hooked and leaves you wanting more.
Stray Thoughts
- I went from not wanting a romance between Avi and Janine to now wanting to see if it plays out.
- There are some great guest stars, including Noel Fisher, Chris Sullivan, and Constance Zimmer.
- As a Schitt’s Creek fan, I am delighted to know that Karen Robinson can do it all.
- I’m curious how closely the show follows Dror Mishani’s book series because Avi doesn’t feel like a typical TV or book detective.
What did you think of The Calling Season 1? Share your thoughts in the comments below!
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The Calling premieres on November 10 on Peacock.
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Jerrica Tisdale
Jerrica Tisdale is your favorite neighborhood pop culture junkie. She will annoy you with random TV and film facts, while complaining about whatever is the hottest new book. She has been a TV fan all her life but writing about it for over a decade. You may find her work all over the internet especially reality TV rants. She is a senior writer at Tell-Tale TV.
One thought on “The Calling Season 1 Review: An Unconventional Crime Drama With Potential”
Excellent character development throughout the cast especially with Avi. To watch and see him pray in Hebrew with such deep conviction allows the character to be spiritual and mystical simultaneously. For Avi -there’s more to death than finding a dead body for he’s searching for souls not dead people so his interrogation scenes rip with power because he knows the suspects are withholding both what they know about the crime and what they don’t know and Avi is about finding out Both.
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