STUDIO: Fox
RELEASE DATE: July 15, 2008
STARRING: Holly Hunter, Leon Rippy, Kenny Johnson, Bailey Chase, Bokeem Woodbine, Laura San Giacomo, Gregory Cruz, Lorraine Toussaint, Mark L. Taylor, and Dylan Minnette
CREATED BY: Nancy Miller
FEATURES: 5 Behind-the-Scenes Featurettes
Commentary on Select Episodes
Everlast Music Video and More!

Maybe Holly Hunter is too electric for television. Can an actress have so much energy and passion that the small screen can't hold her in? Or, more likely, that she overshadows everything else on the program and make flawed writing and a poorly-developed ensemble look even worse in the glare of her spotlight? Not everyone can pull off the transition that Glenn Close made to Damages or that Kyra Sedgwick made to The Closer. They're both likely to hear their names announced on Thursday when the Emmy nods come out and they deserve it. But their shows work WITH their leads. Holly Hunter has reportedly made the short list for Best Actress in a Drama and I won't be upset if she gets nominated, but unlike those of Close and Sedgwick, her show, Saving Grace, is one of the most deeply flawed on television. It SHOULD work. Hunter is one of the best actresses alive and the supporting cast have done good work in the past, especially Laura San Giacomo and The Shield's Kenny Johnson. Honestly, it's the writing. It just doesn't work. The "Touched By An Angel for a hip, new audience" isn't the worst concept, but the execution of it very rarely works. Episodes are often based on a faulty premise and even Hunter can't escape some of the horrendous dialogue. I want to like Saving Grace. I really do. I just can't.

THE DVD: If you're unfamiliar, Hunter stars as Grace Hanadarko (for some reason, even her name doesn't ring true to me), an Okalahoma City detective who has lived a VERY hard life. In the series premiere, she hit a man in a drunk-driving accident and looked to be on the last of her nine lives. Then she met Earl. Played by the great Leon Rippy (Deadwood), Earl is an honest-to-God angel and Grace's only hope for salvation. Saving Grace is about a tough-as-nails Southern cop who happens to have a gruff, tobacco-chewing angel to help turn her life around and solve the crime. A tough-talking cop and a tough-talking angel? Not a bad idea, but the way it's played drives me crazy. Saving Grace is trying to be provocative at every turn, which, naturally makes it less so. The dark secrets revealed feel forced and over-written. It's as if everyone is racing to catch up to the fire that Hunter naturally brings to everything she does and they just can't match her. Hunter almost makes Saving Grace worth watching, but she's the only reason. The DVD also includes a commentary on the first and last episode of the first season and featurettes that allow fans behind-the-scenes.

THE SHOW: The first season ended with Grace confronting the priest that molested her as a child. Did she kill him? That's only part of the season premiere and that plotline actually works, but, in typical Grace fashion, the writers graft another plotline on. Angels and the possibility of deadly retribution aren't enough? No, the season premiere of Saving Grace opens with its lead gunning down one of the FBI's Most Wanted on the streets of Oklahoma City. The problem is that Grace was off-duty and had a few drinks earlier in the day, so Internal Affairs decides to go after her for the few bystanders wounded during the shoot-out. Are they kidding? Does anyone think IA is going to seriously pester a cop who had a beer-and-a-half before taking down one of the most wanted criminals in the country? Like way too much of Saving Grace it just doesn't feel right and is completely unnecessary considering the dramatic weight of the other action in the show. It's something to say that the Earl-Grace dynamic feels more believable than the procedural cop stuff. That's a problem that doesn't need a higher power, just better writing.

SEASON TWO PREMIERE: July 14th, 2008 on TNT