Customer Reviews

Saving Grace: Season One

5 star:		(42)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

This series deals with such intense, fascinating topics as to make it WAY ABOVE the typical lightweight stuff we get on the tube. We follow the adventures of a not-very-sorry sinning police officer, haunted by the ghosts of the Oklahoma bombing, as she navigates the tricky depths of saving her immortal soul. Grace is all about unemotional sex, too much alcohol and cigarettes and a furious temper at the unjustice she daily sees in her job. Added to mix, is the unsolved emotional turmoil of the Oklahoma City Bombing and Timothy McViegh including deaths of her family members. So at this changepoint in her life, Grace is visited by the "archangel Earl". The genuine article, as demonstrated by many miracles, who is sent to Grace and expects her to change her ways. Or is he simply the figment of her over-heated mental/emotional distress? This is tough adult drama with nudity, no easy answers and absolutely worth your time if you are looking for excellence in acting, writing, directing--every detail is rich with meaning. Highest rating.

This is not a show for children. There is too much sex, foul language, nudity and disturbing issues for the young viewer. However, this is really deep - even for the Christian viewer. There are many people that believe they are Christians that are more flawed in that belief (believing they don't need to change or re-evaluate their lives) than those that recognize they fall short and are truly flawed. Grace is a "damaged" young woman that is fighting all the hypocrisy in her life and her own self-hatred. I'd like to believe that this shows that it is never too late...

"Saving Grace" is a marvelous showcase for the talents of Holly Hunter. She's fearless in her portrayal of Oklahoma City detective Grace Hanadarko. The way her emotions play across her face - threatening sudden violence like a summer tornado or breaking into a smile that would crack ice - is testimony to a carefully honed talent. There's magic in Holly's voice, whether she's yelling at a suspect to get on the ground or whispering to a friend about a barely repressed childhood trauma.
She's got her finger on the pulse of something elemental.

Of course, that performance wouldn't count if she couldn't rely on a staff of writers who've crafted a character who, despite a sackload of flaws and failures and weaknesses, is a jewel, the kind of person you'd be proud to call a friend. They allow Grace to fail spectacularly, but they never strip her of her basic humanity.

"Saving Grace" is a compelling drama that manages to ask hard, basic questions about existence and the presence and absence of God, all in the context of a police drama. That's pretty heady stuff for network television, even an edgy network like TNT.

When I see the commercials for the second season, I feel like a long lost friend is coming home again. I am so drawn to her character. But more than that, I am impressed by the struggle of finding faith. I love the best friend who believes and still wants to look at the scientific data. And then there's Earl. How can you not relate to him? He's "real", yet you can see his struggle with Grace's stubborn-ness.
I am buying this series so I can see my friends whenever I want.

I love Holly Hunter and this show is saved from being a confusing mess by her performance. But the show ultimately relies on lots of nude scenes and a convoluted storyline about redemption via a personal angel that makes no sense whatsoever. Grace is a cop and a good cop but at the age of 50 is still acting like a 25 year old. She gets drunk almost every night, is seeing a married man and picks up strangers for sex. For a woman of 50 with a responsible job and career I found her behavior disturbing and not something to emulate. I like having heroes. Grace is not my hero. I know the inevitable comparison will be made to male heroes who exhibit this kind of behavior, but they were never my heroes. The story of Grace's angel "Earl" seems like a deliberate add-on to the usual cop story and the writers/producers don't really seem to know what to do with him other than have him appear out of nowhere and chastise Grace without giving her any support or insight into her life or beliefs. The angel insists that she has to believe in God--why? I do believe in God so it's not a question of my not liking that premise, but where's the rationale? Just because he says so? In other shows where God and angels play a role, such as "Touched by an Angel", the angels serve to guide and help people make choices--in this show "Earl" doesn't seem to have a clue why he is there with Grace except that he has been told he has to save her. The first season is probably the best, but after that I found the show so repetitive and silly and Grace's behavior so unbelievable (50 year olds can't get drunk every night and still perform their jobs well) that I stopped watching it.

I'm not much on new television shows. Most, based on script writing alone, cannot hold my interest. Be that the case, I have always had a passionate feeling toward Holly Hunter, so I gave her TV show a shot. I love the premise. She's great, and sometimes quite naked. I love her cigarette smoking, her hard drinking, her Porsche, her tight jeans, her belt buckles, her cowboy boots, her tough southern drawl, her long blond hair, her leather jackets, her questioning the reality of God based upon her personal experiences. This show is great! I sat through it twice over the course of 2 weekends. I recommend this series to those who have trouble believing in God because of bad experiences in their lives. Halleluiah!

I really fell in love with this show. Holly Hunter does a great job (as, in my opinion, she always does) portraying a hard hitting cop with a pretty set atheistic religious belief. This makes (SPOILER) the arrival of her own personal guardian angel somewhat of an ordeal for her. Is she losing her mind? Actually, the religious part of the show is somewhat of a side story to the excellent 'cop show' that this series is. I hesitate to call this show a comedy, but the angelic interruptions are quite humorous. The cop stuff is pretty gritty and this definately rates as an 'adult' show. I hope the series continues on for a long time!

Seeing the series is almost like coming home. My husband and I lived in Oklahoma City for nearly thirty years and yes, some of the places in the episodes are very familiar. Probably the most familiar even to non-Oklahomans is the Murrah Building Memorial.

The concept is interesting, Grace Hanadarko (Hunter) can't even be favorably described by an angel. She's an OKC-PD detective who drinks too much, sleeps around a lot including with two co-workers one of whom is married.

One night, while driving drunk she hits and kills a pedestrian. While trying to resuscitate him, she prays to God (whom she really doesn't believe in) for a miracle.

What God sends her is Earl (Leon Rippy), a tobacco chewing beat-up looking angel who's the last stop between her and Hell. It's Earl's job to help Grace save herself, but it's not going to be easy. The girl's got issues, including blaming herself for a sister who died in the Murrah Building bombing and dealing with abuse by a priest when she was a child.

As you can imagine, the show's pretty gritty. Grace has to redeem herself while dealing with one of the most stressful jobs in the world and her squad doesn't seem to do low profile cases. We're talking kidnapped little girls, witnesses under threat, hotel murders, etc. I don't think anyone but Holly Hunter could pull the performance off. Rippy is great as Earl, as well.

The show has some excellent elements, character, place, tension. The script occasionally bogs down and a bit of it is 'hokey.' One aspect that amuses me is giving the characters Oklahoma place names as their surnames, including: Hanadarko (Anadarko); Yukon, Purcell, Stillwater, Norman, etc. I'm looking forward to seeing what happens when they run out of names and start using Tahlequah, Tishomingo, Tonkawa and Pottawatomie. (Yes, those are also real Oklahoma place names as well!)

Rebecca Kyle, September 2008

SAVING GRACE, starring Holly Hunter and Leon Rippy, quite simply takes my breath away. This show is an unfiltered look at the life of police detective Grace Hanadarko (Hunter) who works in the Oklahoma City major crimes division. Grace feels responsible for the death of her sister in the Oklahoma City bombing, and she is well down the path of total self destruction, taking all of her guilt, anger, and frustration out on herself. While Grace excels at her job, is compassionate with victims and their families, is devoted to her nephew and her dog (Gus), and is a dedicated friend, she is also a hard-hitting, chain-smoking, foul-mouthed, booze-swilling, bed-hopping mess. Grace is almost beyond redemption.

Almost beyond redemption, but not quite. Into her life comes Earl. Earl was quite literally sent to Grace by God. He is her "last chance angel." Wings and all. It is Earl's job to help Grace redeem herself, and help her stop her tail-spin into Hell. And so the sparring begins. Let me make it clear that this is not a show about religion. It is not. SAVING GRACE is about faith, forgiveness, and healing.

Holly Hunter is brilliant in this role. She is gutsy, raw, honest, and in your face. She never pulls a single punch. She is not always likeable, but she is always real, believable, and passionate. Leon Rippy as Earl, a good ole boy who just happens to be one of God's handymen, is warm, friendly, and very likeable. Although he is not human, he likes to sample the tamer human pleasures (food, warm showers, shopping, world travel, etc.), and he provides the perfect counterpoint to Hunter's irrepressible Grace.

The rest of the cast are all superb (including Laura San Giacomo as the OKC version of CSI and Grace's devoted pal since childhood); a fantastic ensemble that rounds out the show and completes the total package. The interactions, the timing, the humor, and the emotions are all dead on. The camaraderie of this cast come shining through; they clearly enjoy what they are doing. The writing and the dialogue are tight and terrific. This is a superior show, week after week.

Please be advised that this IS a very adult show. Language, nudity, sex, uncomfortable topics; there are no holds barred. But that is part of what makes SAVING GRACE the out of the ballpark hit that it is.

Really 10 stars, but can only rate 5 cause that's all you get to rate with. Holly Hunter and the whole cast are Great! They have alot of Great points to think about and ponder about Grace and her life.