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SAVING GRACE |
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Grace Hanadarko - Holly Hunter Earl - Leon Rippy Rhetta Rodriguez - Laura San Giacomo Ham Dewey - Kenneth Johnson Bobby Stillwater - Gregory Cruz Butch Ada - Bailey Chase Leon Cooley - Bokeem Woodbine 
OTHER SAVING GRACE Season 1 OTHER HEAVEN AND HELL SHOWS Supernatural Revelations Point Pleasant The Stand 
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Have A Seat, EarlGrace has the priest that raped her when she was a child locked up in her house as she tries to work up to killing him. TV's most self-destructive cop is back on the road to redemption at the hands of TV's least conventional angel. Except that Earl really doesn't show up in this opening episode of season 2. Instead, there's an ill-constrained plot that goes racing off in a dozen directions at once and so doesn't manage to do any one of them any real justice. Grace torturing her torturer is the best, but there's an internal affairs investigation, a dying dog, abuse begetting abuse and the vengeance of a friend all to be covered. The performances are all still earnest, but when there's nobody to like then it's hard to care. TopA Survivor Lives HereThe girlfriend of a boy that Grace helped after the disaster that also took her sister disappears and he is the main suspect. Grace also needs to find her dog. The second episode of the new season and Earl the angel is still more noticeable by his absence than anything else. He's also an angel that apparently can't locate a missing dog, which seems somehow unlikely. Without the angel there is a bog standard police mystery made marginally less uninteresting by the personal connection and the guest role for Dee Wallace, but really this is a not very good cop show that is abandoning its one defining feature. TopA Little Hometown LoveA much-disliked civilian evidence controller is killed in a cop bar's toilets when Ham and Grace are getting it on in the stalls. Earl is giving Grace and Leon dreams about each other. The criminal investigation here is predictable and not very interesting at all. Amy Madigan guest stars as the dead man's wife and proves to be fun in an eccentric role, but that's as far as it goes. Earl at least is given a role in this episode and the connection between Grace and Leon starts to look like it might actually be going somewhere. TopIt's a Fierce, White-Hot, Mighty LoveGrace and the team look into a missing woman's case whilst Grace's nephew takes part in a police cadet scheme. Another dull and uninteresting, not to mention unoriginal and predictable, police case is barely enlivened by a practical joke played on one of the team that is cruel to say the least. Earl is once again given nothing to do and the rest of the characters are just too unlikeable to make up for his absence. TopDo You Love Him?Grace's beloved Porsche is involved in a collision that reveals nearly a quarter of million dollars hidden in it. Meanwhile, one of Ham's brothers goes missing in Afghanistan. There are two strands to this storyline and neither of them involves Earl the angel. The investigation into the money stashed in Grace's car is a pretty standard one that wouldn't light up any cop show, but the strand involving Ham's brother does give the episode some emotional heft that it really doesn't deserve. TopAre You An Indian Princess?A woman has been murdered and a child has gone missing. Ham is dealing with his loss by pulling away from Grace and Bobby has gone undercover. Human emotions are messy things, even if you're not as screwed up as Grace Hanadarko. What with Ham's condition and her being unable to give him the support that she wants, allied to a particularly nasty case involving a burned child, the emotional turmoil going on is pretty thick. The direction is fly-on-the-wall documentary style and the playing is in full earnest, but with Earl sidelined yet again it is increasingly clear that the makers wanted a cop show and don't know what to do with the supernatural element. TopYou Are My PartnerHam's behaviour is heading him for suspension and the case of a Mexican woman apparently killed by white supremacists is too political to risk. The focus on Ham's downward spiral gives the show its human drama, but this is simply another case on another cop show. Earl is once again sidelined with little input and a bit pointless. TopHeart Of A CopGrace has a new temporary partner, but it's unlikely that she's going to work out when she's late for her first day on a case involving DIY mastectomies. Christina Ricci guests as the new partner, but the relationship between her and Grace is predictable in the extreme and can be charted from pretty much the moment that they meet on screen. The case is superficially interesting, but just becomes another generic cop story, but at least Leon Cooley's case and Earl's involvement between Grace and the convict are signs that the show is remembering that it has a supernatural side. TopDo You Believe In Second Chances?Grace's niece shows up at a party where drugs were taken and a girl died. Grace has to find the supplier of the drugs whilst keeping her family member out of jail. It's hard to care about Grace's niece since we've barely, if ever, met her before. This undermines the attempt to make the case personal. More interesting is the continuing story of Grace's new partner (Christina Ricci) trying to prove herself as a cop. The stand off siege at the end is tense, but these situations have tension built in. The subplot in which Grace's priest brother learns of Earl and his interest in Leon Cooley is a sideshow that nobody really seems interested in. TopTake Me Somewhere EarlA drug dealer is thrown from the roof of an apartment block and nobody seems to know anything about it. An overheard remark makes Grace more curious about her temporary partner. Forget the drug dealer story, which is straightforward and rather uninteresting cop procedural stuff. The interesting story is the conclusion of the mini-arc regarding Grace's partner. It's not great, but at least it has a surprise up its sleeve. TopThe Live OnesBobby comes back after his undercover operation and insists that Butch is sleeping with his wife. A case of murder between free loving types brings matters to a head. Elias Koteas manages to bring a sense of danger and gravitas to a character who could have been ridiculous if played wrong. Not that it matters because this is police procedural through and through and only Earl's attempts to comfort a suicidal Leon Cooley make it anything that we haven't seen many a time. TopBut There's ClayA case involving a dead jogger sheds some light onto one of Grace's old unsolved crimes. No review is currently available for this episode. If you want to add one, please click here to e-mail it to us. TopSo What's The Purpose Of The Platypus?Grace's friends start to petition for Leon not to be executed. She, meanwhile, investigates a crime in the bar where everyone hangs out. The police investigation is pretty uninteresting and run-of-the-mill and too close to Grace's family for the sake of realism. On the other hand, the race to save a man's life from a scheduled execution has all the tension that it should have despite being something we've seen far too many times. TopI Believe In AngelsThe team find it hard to believe that an elderly woman was responsible for a shooting. The hour of Leon's execution draws near. The shooting story is a lighter one to balance the steady darkening of the Leon plotline. As it becomes increasingly clear that there is no way out for him, the point of his presence at all is raised. The big step in this season to SAVING GRACE is for her to find it within herself to do something bit for someone else. It's a powerful ending that doesn't make up for much of the rest of the show. Top |
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