I like to think I have pretty thick skin and wouldn’t consider myself a prude. For some reason the show “Saving Grace” had the ability to make me really uncomfortable with some moments. Maybe it’s because I watch a lot of it (well anything I saw, I’m admitting to seeing all of this show) with my girlfriend and her mom. The sex scenes weren’t that gratuitous but it was still weird. And I’ll know they will be reading this so “hi.” The mix of religion and bare man behind didn’t sit right with me and I blame Ted Turner entirely for airing this. Absolutely none of the men in this show are good actors and for some reason are all unwaveringly attracted to this rail thin, 50 year old, chain smoking booze hound. Combine bad acting, an unlikeable lead and a completely unsatisfying premise and finale….and you’ve got “Saving Grace”.
Special note to the FAN PODCAST, (if you read this) I believe reviewing a show that you don’t like is fun. It saves other people from having to suffer like I did. Now let this be seared into your memory!
Ham BUTT!
I’ll admit the series opener actually had me a little intrigued. Grace Hanadarko, being the drunken idiot she is, hit a guy with her car and kills him. Out of nowhere some hick named Earl tells her he’s an angel and that she will go to hell unless she changes her ways. He then cleans up the wreck, but Grace recovered some blood and found the guy she hit is on death row. It’s later revealed he’s also a ward to the angel and he wants to save Grace and the inmate Leon. It’s not earth shattering but I thought it was an interesting enough angle to keep me into it. Turns out I was wrong. Go figure the show with a millennia old angel that has an accent that didn’t exist until at most 200 years doesn’t jive with me. This didn’t either:
Despite meeting a freaking angel who’s telling her she’s going to go to hell, Grace continues to drink, smoke, have one night stands, ruins marriages and her best friend’s life. But we’re supposed to like her because she cares a lot about her nephew and her dog. Not since Dr. Zhivago have I refused to feel for such an awful protagonist.
The only thing I really got out of this show was reading about the Oklahoma City bombing. I was 6 when that happened, so the references in the show were a little above me. Grace’s sister died in the bombing when she was picking up her son Clay’s birth certificate. It’s super dramatic because Grace was involved and was supposed to babysit or something. Honestly I don’t know. His mom dying is the reason that poor kid has to hang out with his awful aunt so much. That poor kid’s suffering will never cease.
Great, now he has herpes too
The Hanadarko family is really varied. They’ve got detective Grace, a firefighter, a priest and whatever he sister did other than explode. There were more I think. But again, I’m going from memory because I don’t want to relive any of this more. Mainly Grace is dealing with her best pal Rhetta and the rest of their coworkers at the least professional and worst police office in Oklahoma.
Rhetta is about the only person in the show that I sympathize with. I might take that statement back immediately because she chooses to be around awful people. Her husband, who cheated on her, ran her family’s farm into the ground and sells it. Her best friend is freakin’ (awesome) Grace so she has that problem all the time. She also works with a bunch of other crap people. Please Rhetta, get out of Oklahoma and work for some magazine with David Spade. Please for me if anything.
There is some cowboy guy who’s slept with Grace named Butch. There is a guy named Stillwater that’s a native American. Right. Those two can get bothersome, but mainly they didn’t make me cringe. The two people (other than Grace of course) that make me the most nauseous are these two:
Seen here with the lead
Let’s talk about the oddly named Ham Dewey. Yeah, his first name is Ham. He is married but for some reason can’t resist his detective partner Grace. I don’t know why after talking to her for 5 minutes he would feel that way and be willing to leave his wife. Luckily for the viewers though you get to see his bare ass approximately every other episode it seems. So there you go ladies. He dumps his wife for a tryst with a floozy. Glad your life sucks by the finale guy.
The second is the captain. I don’t even remember her name. She’s terrible. The character is broadly drawn empowered woman type that also plays the stereotypical “in charge” captain. I don’t know the actresses name either, but hopefully she’s done better work than this because she’s close to the worst one behind Mr. Stillwater.
What else can be said? A bad television network aired a bad show. Thankfully we were all saved when it got cancelled. I for one enjoyed the extremely confusing finale. It’s a chain of events that makes no sense. The human manifestation of evil or something is trying to kill her or something. She kills someone else with her car then she blows herself up and bunches of letters survive. Ding Dong the drunken witch is dead. Now everyone move on to much happier lives. I guess Earl got what he wanted because Leon and Grace are dead. If either are in heaven though good news because those gates are wide open.
The best actor on set