I am – Hercules!!


It’s a half-baked supernatural drama, from writer-producer Nancy Miller (“The Closer”), about a libidinous, hard-drinking, two-fisted, middle-aged female Oklahoma City police detective (Holly Hunter) who gets a drawling, middle-aged “last-chance angel” with a fondness for chewing tobacconamed Earl (Leon Rippy). Earl will make many long for “It’s A Wonderful Life’s” Clarence, who was a lot more entertaining and a lot longer on charm.

"Saving Grace's" tentative stabs at comedy feel like reheated Oklahoma corn, and the “Saving Grace” creators could learn a thing or two about timing from the old Carl Reiner/George Burns comedy “Oh, God.” As spiritual dramas go, I sense “Grace” is far more likely to please fans of “Joan of Arcadia” than disciples of “John From Cincinnati.”

On the upside, the 49-year-old Hunter, now two decades beyond “Raising Arizona” and “Broadcast News,” repeatedly doffs her duds, and displays a body a lot of twentysomething men would be pretty excited to get their hands on. When fully clothed, Grace repeatedly grabs and kisses the cheek of her best friend (Laura San Giacomo) with much drunken abandon -- more perhaps than might have been specified in the scripts. Which is fun.

But what matters Herc’s opinion?

USA Today gives it a star and a half (out of four) and says:

… squirm-inducing … Every angry act is countered by some cutesy joke or trick from Earl, who represents your standard, vague, interdenominational Supreme Being. The real sin here is the way the show wastes Hunter, a terrific actress with a proven ability to make tough women compelling. So far, however, Grace defeats her. The character and the performance are so self-satisfied, angular and hard-edged that they become wearing.

The Wall Street Journal says:

… While no other human in the show can begin to rival the hamminess of Ms. Hunter's performance, [Hunter’s] hair comes a close second. … "Saving Grace" goes out of its way to extinguish any spark of the divine. We're left with a heap of hocus-pocus that will offend some viewers and seem pretentious or silly to others. …

TV Guide says:

… Self-consciously edgy while flirting with cosmic schmaltz, Saving Grace is overdone, but not run-of-the-mill. Same goes for its electrifying star, who chews the scenery like it's beef jerky. Atta girl.…

Entertainment Weekly gives it a “B-minus” and says:

… one of the most frustrating shows to hit the small screen in a while: Somewhere inside of all this is a terrific series trying to establish itself, but the producers will be damned if they're going to write it. …

The Los Angeles Times says:

… The setup is trite (how many hard-drinkin', freely fornicatin' police detectives is one expected to endure in a lifetime?) and the theology highly suspect — surely, in this time of terrorism, war, corporate greed and political corruption, God could find better employment even for Earl. But, mercifully, Grace is played by Holly Hunter, and that alone may just be enough to save "Grace." … But much of the rest of the show is tediously familiar — Grace's maverick, hot-headed tendencies put her at odds with her superiors; her use of sex as a cure for pain makes true intimacy almost impossible; and she's always almost blowing whatever case she's working on because she Won't Play by the Rules. Isn't that the territory covered by Chapters 2, 3 and 4 of "Police Shows for Dummies"? …

The Chicago Tribune says:

… There's no doubt that the shorthand description of this show -- "a troubled cop is visited by an angel" -- sounds nauseating. And given the wrong execution, it could be an unwatchable, treacly mess. The good news is that the smartly written "Saving Grace" is not a mess. In fact, it's one of the most distinctive new shows of the year, because its central mysteries aren't really about the dead bodies Hanadarko comes across on the job, but about the salvation of one charismatic woman's very troubled soul.…

The Washington Post says:

… [Creator Nancy Miller has] saddled Grace with enough baggage to tax a camel, and some of it seems arbitrary and gimmicky. … If Hunter can rise above the muck and melee and keep the focus on Grace and her issues -- of which there may be dozens -- "Saving Grace" could turn out to be a hot and spicy dish, but at present it suffers from a problem that predates not only television but radio and theater as well: Too many cooks, or at least too many ingredients bubbling to a busy and irritating boil.

The Seattle Post-Intelligencer says:

… There are a lot of reasons to give yourself over to "Saving Grace," whether you watch for the performances, the week-by-week nature of the cases, or the tete-a-tetes during Earl's frequent visitations. This is not a shoot-the-moon, wholly unique story, but it's comforting and thoughtful. …

The Houston Chronicle says:

… star wattage alone may not be able to save Saving Grace from its ham-handed ways. …

The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette says:

… Writer/creator Nancy Miller ("Any Day Now") imbues the show with touches both subtle -- Grace has an elderly, harmless peeping-tom neighbor -- and a little overwrought -- the show is set in Oklahoma, so of course Grace's sister died in the 1995 Oklahoma City federal office building bombing -- but the divine "Grace" still offers stronger characters and better stories than many other summer series.

The Boston Herald says:

… A series about a woman stumbling on the path to redemption is intriguing. "Saving Grace" is a creative struggle, as subtle as opening a bedroom closet and finding a gospel choir in full force. The mix of supernatural and earthly criminal investigations is unconvincing. …

The Boston Globe says:

… All the warnings about damnation are particularly odd on a show that's as explicit as some of FX's racier dramas. They ring hollow on a show that's so marvelously textured, with filmic cinematography that brings the rural Midwest to life, right down to the cow poo. And they feel unbearably simplistic on a show that revolves around such a richly drawn and wholeheartedly portrayed woman. I'd rather watch Grace burp in concert with her pet bulldog than watch her submit to Earl's sanctimonious will any day.

Variety says:

… a dark, mesmerizing drama anchored by Holly Hunter's delicious star performance, the sort of showy role that compensates for a multitude of sins. …

The Hollywood Reporter says:

… when the execution is ham-fisted and clumsy, you get TNT's "Saving Grace," which practically drools at the prospect of preaching salvation and redemption through God. It is a series that divides the world into two categories: those who have put their faith and trust in the Lord and those who simply don't know better yet. Agnostics, atheists and humanists, if they exist at all, might be decent enough people but they are terribly misguided. …

10 p.m. Monday. TNT.

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