I became a Holly Hunter fan back in 1993 when she starred in “The Piano” as a mute woman who leaves her native Scotland with her daughter and her piano. Music was the way to her soul, and Holly Hunter played the part with such emotion that I couldn’t help see parts of my intensity in her.
Fourteen years later, watching episodes of “Saving Grace,” I still see glimpses of my passion, stubbornness, skepticism, and sarcasm in the character of Grace (Holly Hunter), a chain-smoking Oklahoma City police officer with a very dysfunctional past. For example, in one of the first scenes of the series, Grace is shown jumping rope in her home. The producers are introducing you to this intense and neurotic character, who happens to burn off calories and blow off steam the same way I did in high school.
Each episode of “Saving Grace” that I’ve watched so far presented spirituality and morality so subtly that viewers have no idea that they have just spent an hour in catechesis. Such complicated subjects as addiction, sex, marriage, family strains, friendship, and divine intervention are creatively threaded into the series that you don’t want to go to the bathroom during any scene. Because the angel, Earl, might appear at any time. Or someone may get shot. And you don’t want to miss that either. None of the characters in “Saving Grace” are simple; they are all extremely complex, struggling with how to be good and make a difference, and how to believe in God and heaven, when our world is so messed up.
I like that.
Since one of the core themes of “Saving Grace” is the presence of an angel, Earl, in the life of a neurotic chick (Holly Hunter), I have decided to blog about the first four episodes of the new series starting December 3, during a season in which we are reminded of the role of angels not only in the nativity story, but in our story as well.
I’d be posting blogs on the Tuesday morning after each show.
If you can stay up on Monday nights, watch it with me. That way we’ll have a lot to talk about.