Saving Grace with Holly Hunter

Okay, back in July I mentioned in a blog post that there was a new show coming out with a spiritual angle and I was curious about it. It's called Saving Grace and it airs on TNT on Monday nights at 10pm (9 Central). I've been really busy and haven't had time to post about it until now. That's probably a good thing because I'll admit I've had to work my way into liking it.

I've checked out a couple of other online reviews about the show. Here's one at MovieWeb and another at SFGate.com. If you read these, you'll get an idea of what the show is about.

I have to say that my first reaction to the first episode was lukewarm. The very first scene of the first episode (and several of the later episodes) was a fairly graphic sex scene. Yes, it gets your attention right off the bat. I was a little thrown, however, and had to hit pause and shoo my kids out of the room. So now I am frustrated by the fact that I can only watch my recorded episodes when the kids aren't around - a rare occurrence and inconvenient truth in my household. To me it seemed like gratuitous sex for ratings' sake, but not being one who is turned away easily, I stayed with it. I have now watched 5 or 6 episodes and the show is growing on me.

I am generally not a fan of the late-evening one-hour drama. First of all, I prefer comedies in general. Secondly, by 10pm or so I get too tired to commit to an entire hour. Thankfully I have DVR, but then I have to find time to watch the recorded episode. I think because I am not used to watching shows like The Closer (which is the lead-in show for Grace and is cited by reviewers as a comparison), I was probably a harder sell than other fans may be. But I'm a sucker for anything spiritual so they already had a nibble on the line. They only needed to reel me in.

And they have. Grace is a very troubled soul. Dealing with the death of her sister in the Oklahoma City bombing and her resulting guilt (she feels responsible for the fact that her sister was in the building that day), she is acting out in all the wrong ways - covering her pain in alcohol, distancing herself from real relationships while sleeping with a different man (including her married partner) most nights, lying, etc. Her "last chance" angel, Earl, is there to help her turn her life around. He has his work cut out for him because she just isn't buying it. She is a skeptic, to say the least. But Earl isn't giving up on her. And the more I watch, the less I want to give up on her. She's a likeable character and you find yourself wanting her to change - not for God (which is what she thinks) but for herself. If she can only finally see "the light" and turn her life around, I think the character would find real peace.

Of course that won't happen anytime soon because without her troubled existence there wouldn't be a show. But I really hope that the writers lead us there gradually. We won't be seeing any "road to Damascus" changes of heart overnight. But maybe Grace will find faith after all.