DVD Review: Saving Grace: Season 1

By Jeff Swindoll Jul 16, 2008, 15:41 GMT

Grace Hanadarko (Hunter) is a hard-living Oklahoma City detective whose life is careening dangerously out of control. After killing a man in a drunken car crash, Grace is given a second chance in the unlikely form of a gruff, tobacco-chewing angel named Earl whose job is to help her turn her life around. But divine intervention doesn’t come easily. As dark secrets are revealed, Grace must come to grips with ...more

“I’m busy.  There’s a lot of people going to hell.”  

Academy Award winner Holly Hunter starts out on the Highway to Hell until an auto accident puts her on the highway going the opposite way.  Well sorta, since she’s not exactly Michael Landon.  

Grace Hanadarko (Holly Hunter) is a hard drinking, hard smoking, and promiscuous Oklahoma City police detective.  She’s sleeping with Ham (Kenneth Johnson), her married coworker. 

After a night of boozing she’s driving drunk home, not exactly a paragon of virtue, when she hits a pedestrian on the street.  As she tries to revive the guy she prays to God for help. 

That’s when tobacco-chewing Earl (Leon Rippy) appears.  After hearing he’s an angel Grace pulls her gun on him, but when he unfurls his wings and transports her to the Grand Canyon she’s given a crash course in faith. 

She awakens to find that the dead pedestrian has vanished as has all signs of an auto accident.  That is until some red dirt falls out of her coat and she finds a bloodstain on one of the buttons of her shirt. 

She takes her shirt to her best friend and forensics investigator Rhetta Rodriguez (Laura San Giacomo) and finds that the dirt is indigenous to the Grand Canyon and that the blood is human and belongs to Leon Cooley (Bokeem Woodbine), an inmate at the local prison.  

Those looking for something similar to Highway to Heaven will drop to the floor when they get a gander at the lead character in this television series and the drawling, tobacco juice stained angel that appears to her.

The series is all Holly Hunter’s show though and she gives it her all in the acting department and bares all as well.  She gives Grace a boozy charm and also makes her a driven detective that will stop at nothing to solve the cases that come her way. 

Don’t’ expect her to fall on her knees and start praying though as she’d rather drop to her knees in front of Ham and… well, I think you can figure it out.  The show does have its ruminations on faith, though not one particular religion is not promoted, but they’re wrapped up in the various cases that Grace and her co-workers are investigating. 

Earl is also not your typical angel, as he appears both homey and gruff.  It call comes back to Hunter and that’s where the show shines.  

Saving Grace is presented in anamorphic widescreen (1.78:1) and is enhanced for 16x9 televisions. 

Disc one has a commentary by series creator/executive producer Nancy Miller, executive producer Gary Randall, and director/executive producer Artie Mandelberg on the Pilot and disc four has commentary with the same participants on “Tacos, Tulips, Ducks, and Spices.” 

Disc four also features the 4-minute “Rapid Recap” that boils down season one into this quick summary.  Next is the 4 minute “Behind the Scenes with Holly Hunter,” 3 minutes of “On the Set” footage, a 7 minute “Conversation with executive producer Gary Randall,” the 3 minute “No Ordinary Angel: Behind-the-scenes with Leon Rippy,” the 3 minute “Rhetta” with Giacomo on her character, the 5 minute “Series Overview,” and the 3 minute Everlast “Saving Grace” music video.

Holly Hunter is a house on fire with her performance on Saving Grace.  She’s the reason that you’ll keep tuning in to the show.  The mystery storylines in each episode helps as she works her way through each episode.  Hunter’s Grace is just as flawed as the rest of us and reminds us that sometimes we need one more chance to set things right. 

Saving Grace: Season 1 is now available at Amazon. As of yet, there is not a release date for the UK. Visit the DVD database for more information. Click Here to enter to win a copy of the DVD set! Click Here to read M&C's interview with the Saving Grace cast about the upcoming season of the show.