Live Hard. Regret Nothing.
The road to redemption is about to come to an abrupt end for Holly Hunter when TNT confirmed over the weekend that Saving Grace will not be renewed for another season. The series has been following the redemptive journey of Grace Hanadarko, an Oklahoma City police detective with a “last chance angel” named Earl (Leon Rippy), who tells Grace that God has a plan for her and she must be ready when the time comes.
Saving Grace debuted two years ago in the summer of 2007, and became a critical and ratings hit for TNT — earning Oscar winner Hunter awards nominations that includes this year’s Emmy nod for Lead Actress in a Drama. According to The Hollywood Reporter, TNT wanted the show to go on, but the studio turned it down for financial reasons despite strong ratings.
Currently in its third season on Tuesday nights at 10pm, the series will return for its fourth and final season next winter and Grace’s fate will be determined by summer 2010.
Saving Grace is definitely not like Highway to Heaven or Touched by an Angel. Grace Hanadarko is a tragic anti-hero: strong, sensitive, tough, hardened, bitter, angry, cynical, compassionate, funny, sexy, driven, determined, sarcastic, wisecracking, flawed, loyal, honest (sometimes), unapologetic, and more.
As Hunter said in the promo before the show’s premiere, Saving Grace is the struggle between faith and being human, and Grace represents that as much as we do. With the way the economy is right now, it is hard to have faith when it comes to living in a complex world of crime, corruption, ambiguity, poverty, and so forth — asking ourselves beyond “Is there a God?” but why would a God allow the innocent to suffer and the guilty go free and prosper? Still, it’s not that God hears you, because He does; the answers we seek, though, aren’t the answers we weren’t expecting. Though God moves in mysterious ways, in conclusion, we just have to have faith.
As Steve Harvey said in a recent magazine article, he’s an imperfect soldier for Christ, but he’s still a soldier for Christ, and so we are.
Like Leverage, Saving Grace is another show for the Great Recession, so embrace your grace with seasons one and two on DVD, plus recent episodes onto the show’s website at TNT.
