Driving by his deep will of saving Grace Hanadarko, a young police officer, who has a miserable and destroyed life, as she addicts alcoholism, has an affair with her partner, a married detective, and does nothing good in her life, Earl, an angel, saves her life from a car accident to give her another chance, the thing that inspires her life.
Saving Grace looks as though it can make it through many nights on the strength of Hunter's full-tilt performance. A lot is packed into its first uneven hour. Burning at its core, though, is a character that makes this show crackle.
[Holly] Hunter plays her role full-force; sometimes it seems like the acting is taking over the character, but then she pulls it back in and delivers powerful moment after moment.
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.
I'll stick around for Grace, who is perhaps the most fully realized nontraditional female character on TV at the moment. And for the overall hard-edged attitude, which is completely at odds with what we typically expect from, ahem, faith-based television.