I can't tell whether the new TNT series Saving Grace starring Holly Hunter will be a fresh take on spirituality or a repeat of humans being inappropriately touched and pawed over by an angel.
Turner Broadcasting describes the series as "a cynical Oklahoma City police detective facing a personal crisis of divine proportions." Grace Hanadarko (Hunter) chain-smokes, pops pills, drives recklessly, drinks heavily and sleeps around. One night, driving drunk, she drives right through a man walking along the road. Grace asks for help, and she gets it, in the form of an angel named Earl. 
Earl tells Grace that she is in trouble and running out of chances, and wants to guide her back to the right path.
Hunter has interacted with angels before. In Always (1989), Richard Dreyfuss plays a fire-fighting pilot who dies after saving the life of his best friend. His girlfriend (Hunter) continues to mourn for him. Dreyfuss returns to earth as an invisible angel, instructed by an another angel in white, played by Audrey Hepburn.
Not sure about Hunter's religious affiliation, but she's had some roles recently with some spiritual depth. Her character in the 2003 film Levity helped Billy Bob Thornton gain redemption from a terrible crime. Thornton’s character’s refers to 12th century rabbi Maimonides who spoke of five levels to redemption. That's a good sign.
I noticed the telephone pole/Cross motif in the ads for the new show was also used in the 1999 film Jesus' Son, in which Hunter had a small role as an eccentric woman who has suffered from dreadful things that keep happening to her husbands and has become a born-again Christian.
Um, let's see. Sarah Paulson, the actress who plays Christian character Harriet Hayes on Studio 60, does a great Holly Hunter impression. There's a connection.
I even discovered a Holly Hunter Church in Huntersville, N.C. I think I'm moving my membership.
What does it all mean? I guess we'll find out when Saving Grace premieres July 23. (Actually, my rabbit-ears don't pick up cable TV, so... somebody tell me how it turns out, OK?)
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Saving Grace, Christian humor, satire, humor
Thursday, July 5, 2007
TV: Holly Hunter's Saving Grace
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1 comment:
My take is that the key is in her line +/- "it's not about religion, it's about God."
That's a classic view, in my experience, of the self-proclaimed "non denominational" fundamentalists I first encountered on campuses not too long after the Summer of Love. The focus on the interactive living God who's as reliable as a light switch seems compatible with these angel/grace kinds of shows.
Every decade or so this movement gets smarter, bigger and more complex. Opening a God/angel TV series with naked daylight sex was very edgy & adult, but the series could easily go pretty fundamentalist from here.
I couldn't make it through the first show; I'll spot check the next pair or so and given some of the talent I hope I'm mistaken.
BTW, religion apart, it strikes me pretty reminiscent of Canada's "Tom Stone" detective series.
--Uselessboy
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