I find Holly Hunter completely compelling doing pretty much anything at any time, but compulsively engaging on this show, which is terrific.
I am so disappointed that so many people I know gave this show a pass at the outset because of preconceived notions about the premise. I would have skipped it for the same reason, except that it was Holly Hunter, and while I love her as just noted, I also trusted her judgment; I didn’t believe that she would stoop to participating in some roughed up rehash of “Touched by An Angel” and I was dead right. this show is way smarter than that.
Please watch this show. She’s terrific, the show is terrific. I want it to stay around, and I have no idea how healthy it is, but since no one talks about it, I worry.
I’ve seen a couple episodes (the wife LOVES “The Closer”), but I can’t watch it. Holly Hunter irritates me, and her character on the show is so…nasty (in every conceivable way) that I think I can actually smell her through the TV screen.
Right now the show isn’t very good. The Closer has also gone downhill. (Brenda Lee deliberately committed murder with her whole staff; this was never mentioned again but made it real hard for me to look at her the same.)
I love Holly Hunter and watched the first season of this show. But, that was more than enough. It’s a very uneven show with some stupid stories some good stories. The only consistency is Holly Hunter. I just couldn’t wait for some episodes to end. I won’t go back.
My boyfriend loves “Saving Grace”, so I watched about a half a dozen episodes.
I have grown to hate the character of Grace because she’s dirty. In all senses (heh) of the word. I agree with Merijeek, there are times when I swear I can smell her through the TV.
She’s also an adherent to the Blue Wall of Silence. I have no sympathy for dirty cops, in real life or on TV.
Grace is an amazing, flawed, flesh-and-blood character. I’d never spend time with her, but I enjoy watching her. Unfortunately, they’ve taken this character and her charming guardian angel and marooned them in a tedious cop show.
Good things about the show
_ Holly Hunter. Wonderful, fully committed actress.
_ the relationships. The characters come across as people who have known each for years, have their little in-jokes and grudges, know what the others are thinking. Makes the show’s "world’ very real
_ the setting. An Oklahoma show is a nice twist, bringing different attitudes and character points to the mix.
_ the angel. What’s his name is a great, calm presence. Wish they’d give him something to do.
But who cares about the crime of the week? And why introduce all the religion and mysticism and then never GO anywhere with it?
I’ll admit I watch and like Saving Grace, although the actual character of Grace frustrates me. Her hair always looks like crap (and I wonder how damaging it is on Holly Hunter’s actual hair to have to get her hair to look that bad), she eats like crap and that’s not to mention that she’s rather…free…with her sexual favors, which bothers my prudish ethics. She never does it to be vengeful, hurtful or mean though–no punishment through sex for her. She drinks like a fish and the alcohol screws up her life in so many ways, she doesn’t even see half of them. She “runs over” Cooley (is that his name?) when she’s drunk, encounters Earl for the first time, yet she still is completely willing to get behind the wheel of a car when she knows she’s drunk. A couple episodes ago, Loretta took her keys while at a bar and Grace had too many drinks. What does Grace do? Picks up some dude at the bars pool table and spends the drunken night with him in her car. Seriously? Isn’t she ever concerned that this will be the guy who gives her herpes/AIDS/chalmydia or slits her throat and dump her in a ditch?
What I do like is that she forms relationships with people (Earl and her dog included)–deep, binding, sacrifice it all because you love them type of relationships. She’s determined to stick through it, regardless of what it takes or requires to do so. I think her professional (cop) ethics can be shady at times, but yet then again I’ve never been a cop and have no idea how I would react when faced with some of the shit cops are faced with. (I know how I’d LIKE to react, but rather I could or not is another story.)
I think it’s worth investing 60 minutes every week and will keep watching it for a bit longer. I really like Earl (and the weird guy who plays him) and want to see where it’s going with Grace.
It bothers me in an irrational way that her house is so dirty. Drink, screw, whatever – just stop living like darn pig!
Saving Grace is one of those shows where I am much more committed to the supporting characters. I love her friends and coworkers! Earl is annoying and Grace, besides being a bad housekeeper, is too much of a whiner.
I’ve liked Saving Grace whenever I’ve caught it, but there’s just something about it that will never make me a regular viewer. It’s not so much the raw, in-your-face aspect of Holly Hunter’s character than it is…I don’t quite know how to put it other than, to me, it seems horribly disjointed. The editing, maybe?
I love it. I love Holly Hunter. I love that it’s set in Oklahoma. I freaks me out sometimes though because I grew up in Oklahoma and every time they mention a street name or shopping center, etc. I know right where it is (Lake Hefner, Quail Springs, Cross Roads Mall to name a few). It’s to the point now where my wife says “I know, I know, you know exactly where that is!”
They do go overboard just a bit on the OU stuff though. Every mug, computer screen saver, poster seems to be about Oklahoma football. On the flip side of that is the magnetic Bevo (U of Texas mascot) that is on one of the desks that gets turned upside down all the time… That’s TOTALLY what would happen in real life.
Did anyone see the episodes with Christina Ricci? Those were especially good. I was disappointed to learn that she was just trying to fast track her career by working for internal affairs.
Wow, The Closer doesn’t even compare to Saving Grace. I admit, I enjoyed watching both at first but the Closer has insipid antics and a loathsome main character, it has all worn thin and the supporting cast can no longer save the show from complete mediocrity.
Saving Grace is a great show! I agree, the personal relationships keep me watching while the crime of the week is a bit of a snooze. The upshot is that SG seems to focus a lot more on the characters than the individual stories.
There are legitimate gripes though; Grace’s bad behavior is difficult to watch. The show’s premise depends on Grace remaining confilcted and acting out; if she shapes up, is there really a point to having Earl stick around? Was it last week that she screwed the Tantric sex guy? I really didn’t enjoy that bit.
All in all, I’d say the good far outweighs the bad. I’d encourage people to give it another shot.
I randomly caught a tiny part of one episode. I believe they were saying something about Sodom and Gomorrah as if the story were actual fact. This is one of my least favorite Bible stories, mainly because I think Lot’s wife got a raw deal. I decided “too much religion for me”, and changed the channel.
[spoiler]Can’t recall the title. Brenda Lee decided, after having obtained ample evidence that a certain individual was not Mexican police but rather a drug-crook impersonatng one, to lock him up to be killed for the money his gang had put out on an innocent man’s head. They knew what would happen and deliberately arrested and booked him as someone he wasn’t. He was killed within hours of being sent to holding. They did this because he wouldn’t confess to his true identity. Th real target of the gang was then able to disappear. This was never mentioned again and there was no fallout at all (including from anyone who should have quickly discovered there was no cause for the arrest).
Now, I could imagine Grace Darko from Saving Grace to do this. She’s always been a bit shady and wouldn’t go any further. Brenda Lee Johnson…l not so much. If she had encountered anyone else who did this, she wouldn’t hesitate with her righteous fury to lock them up.
Ah well. This episode definitely came out of the writer’s strike and I think that’s exactly why the show has been pretty weak lately. Saving Grace is still recoring from it, too, I think.
