I watched 46 episodes of Saving Grace in 10 days this summer. I don’t know if you remember it. It was on about 7 years ago TNT, with Holly Hunter as a hard-living detective who was sent a “last-chance” angel because of all the bad choices she’s made. She’s having an affair with her partner, a married man. She’s hard-drinking, and has some questionable police tactics, a definite anti-hero. The shows balance between the interaction between the disbelieving detective and her angel, named Earl, and police procedurals. Some of the cases were absolutely heartbreaking.
The story takes place in Oklahoma City, and there are a lot of references to the Murrah Building bombing. Holly Hunter’s character, Grace Hanadarko, had a sister who died in the bombing, and it was Grace’s fault, which is part of the reason she’s so reckless with her life and career.
She was a really hard character to like. In fact, the first three or so episodes, I almost turned it off, despite my reason for watching (Bailey Chase as Butch Ada, the Longhorn working in Sooner country). I couldn’t understand why these people liked her. She fought with her family, she was abrasive. Her only soft spots were her nephew Clay, the son of the sister who died in the bombing, and her best friend Rhetta, who is also the criminologist at the police station. As the show progressed, you saw how good she was with witnesses and victims, and you could see why she was getting this second-chance angel.
It became an obsession for me at this point. What was going to happen to Grace? What was going to happen to the people with whom she shared her last-chance angel? Some days I’d watch 6 episodes, not my best days.
And then came the end. I HATED THE END. HATED the last few episodes. I understand, after reading online, that they found out the show was canceled when they had 3 episodes to go, and they wanted to wrap it up. But I totally didn’t buy it. I was upset for days.
Has anyone out there seen it? Can someone share my outrage? My love? Because I’m about to start watching it again.
MJ Fredrick 
marybethlee
Aug 13, 2013 @ 22:43:40
Yep. I loved the show. I almost quit watching too, but something kept me coming back. Maybe it was the little pieces of information they gave showing her motivation. Loved, loved, loved the show.
mjfredrick
Aug 13, 2013 @ 22:50:34
There were so many things that turned me off of her, but it was like crack–one more episode, and then I’d be rooting for her. It was really a compelling show.