By Curt Schleier

The good news is that Holly Hunter was nominated for a Golden Globe for her portrayal of Grace Hanadarko in SAVING GRACE.  Hunter has done a lot of good work over the years, but this role, of a tortured Oklahoma City Police detective, is the part she was born to play.

The bad news is that there also has been a grave injustice done with the nominations.  Somehow the Hollywood Foreign Press Association overlooked SAVING GRACE, the show itself, in the best TV drama category.  I know stuff happens – and for the record, I don’t really mean “stuff.”  Perhaps TNT put its promotional muscle behind THE CLOSER.  But that’s not sufficient explanation considering that TELL ME YOU LOVE ME was nominated.

TELL ME YOU LOVE ME offered nothing but a lot needy people, psychobabble and extremely graphic sex scenes.   Therefore I must conclude that members of the FPA don’t speak English well – or maybe not at all – but do look at pictures.  Even I have to admit the pictures were very pretty – except for that couple in their 60s.  Still, (mostly) good copulation shots alone shouldn’t earn a series a nomination.


Ironically, it’s not like SAVING GRACE didn’t have its share of sack scenes.  In fact, that’s partly what this episode is about.  It starts when some big shot attorney, Harper Addison (Vyto Ruginis), comes to Oklahoma City to defend some low-life murderer.  And it ends with a declaration of love.

The entry into the case of this high-powered attorney means the entire investigative team needs to go over their casework with a fine-tooth comb.  Suddenly everything they’ve done (or not done) is open to scrutiny and it will all be done in the public eye.  Understandably, it sets everyone on edge and frays tense nerves further, as everyone looks over their own shoulders and checks out others involved, too. 

Assistant prosecutor Morgan Byers (Erin Daniels) warns the troops that Addison is trying to make them the story and that they have to be on guard, even about their personal behavior.  She’s right, of course.  Not long after, supposedly as part of his investigation, Addison walks into the squad room with about a dozen men.  All of them were Grace’s recent lovers.  It shocks pretty much everyone but Grace, who claims:

“That was summer.  He brings in fall and winter and we’re gonna need a bigger office.”  She jokes, but the point was made.  He plans to suggest that she offered the crook sex in exchange for a confession. 

All this could not happen at a worse time for Grace.  Her nephew Clay has his confirmation coming up and he wants Aunt Grace to attend.  And the nuns are hovering around the lapsed Catholic to be sure she attends.  Going in, the chances are 50-50

Meanwhile death row inmate Leon Cooley (Bokeem Woodbine) has converted to Islam, but that doesn’t mean that his (and Grace’s) last chance angel, Earl’s (Leon Rippy) work is done.  “Calling women bitches and lying about one of God’s angels,” all of which Cooley did, is not the road to redemption Earl tells him.


By the way, in the ecumenical spirit of this show, Earl wears a t-shirt with the Hebrew word Mazel or luck emblazoned on it, along with a Star of David.  As the producers will tell you, this is not a show about religion. It’s about faith.  Trust me.

Then to add to the pressure Grace is under, her married partner and main squeeze Ham Dewey (Kenneth Johnson) says the “L” word.  “I love you Grace.”

Ultimately, of course, Grace decides to go to the confirmation, surprising Earl.  “You need more faith,” she tells him.