SAVING GRACE provokes more discussions than any other TV show between my husband and me.
I like Grace. I don't mind the angel, the spirituality, her free-spiritedness, the emphasis on the lives of the police officers, the high emotional arc to each episode, the sobbing.
My husband really dislikes all these things. He wants it to be about Grace solving crimes, not f******* men, nor leaning on the shoulder of her guardian angel, not sobbing over life with her friend, or getting bombed in their favorite bar.
I don't want any more by the numbers shows like Law and Order or CSI. I am bored with that approach.
How do you feel about shows that have a high emotional content? Do you prefer that shows be about crime or about life. Can't the two mix? And what's wrong with an angel here or there?
P.S. Next year will be the last for this show. Too bad.
33 comments:
Haven't watched Saving Grace, but will have to side with your husband here. While I have grown bored with the Law & Orders, CSIs, I much prefer crime solving to whatever.
I don't care for Ghost Whisperer(or whatever the name) or others of that ilk.
Depends upon the mood I'm in.
If I'm in the mood for a mystery, then I want to read something that focuses on solving the mystery.
If I want to read something that centers on human relationships, then I will choose a book that does that, not a mystery.
If I want to go beyond the everyday, then I want something that concentrates on that--a good SF or sometimes even a fantasy novel.
I find it irritating to settle down with a book that's supposed to be one thing, and find out the author is really doing something else.
Why not something that does two things at once? That usually turns out to be a disaster as both themes are shortchanged if a short book, and if done well, it's a huge book, if both themes are treated equally well. Usually one theme predominates, and if it's listed as a mystery, the mystery theme should predominate.
I think in the past mysteries were more reliably mysteries-a crime got solved, someone was brought to justice. But many fine writers got bored with that box and tried to expand the genre. Of course, there is room for both.
Grace does solve crimes; she's a hard-nosed police detective. She's just damaged goods because of her past.
I'm with Phil, in part. I find the angel annoying. I have no problem with Grace screwing men (or women) or the emotionalism. The drinking and smoking bothers me a bit (they could dial that back a bit). I love Holly Hunter as Grace, but the program just doesn't jell for me. Is it about crime or is it a religious allegory>
I like to see writers/producers create shows "outside" of what has gone before. For the most part, tv dramas have always rehashed the tried and true. I have seen an episode of Saving Grace, and while it is not for me, I appreciate the creative team coming up with a new twist on the the tv crime show.
But, IMO while it my be new to TV, it is what drives many contemporary mystery books these days, where the mystery or crime is no longer enough for the story, there has to be all the personal life elements of all the characters, so that, as Fred stated earlier, you really have multiple stories and an inflated page count.
A lot of folks like this. For me, i prefer the old Gold Medals clocking in at 150 pages, one story told straight forward like a rifle shot.
I guess the majority is with you guys since it's being canceled.
Maybe the solving crime and religious allegory go hand in hand, trying to save people.
I haven't seen the show, so I'm not qualified to comment. (LIke that ever stops a writer.) I can see where the combination of crime story and religious allegory could get old pretty quickly, though.
I'm also tired of the formulaic crime stories, but the damaged hero has worn out its welcome with me, as well. Let's get a relatively normal person and see how working around crime every day affects him, or wears her down. That's a story I'd sign up for.
I agree with your husband about Grace. I can't even tolerate the commercials for the show!
I prefer the early episodes of "CSI" for the forensics. The show lost me when personalities began to creep in.
However, we do watch "CSI: Miami" just so we can laugh at David Caruso.
I love Kyra Sedgwick as "The Closer," and I love "Burn Notice."
...
THE CLOSER is mostly pretty good. And laughing at David Caruso seems like a good thing--I actually liked once upon a time--now he seems ludicrous to me at least.
Yes, a cop show like Rockford Files would be very welcome. No intuitive solving of crimes, no gimmicks. Just one man out there doing his best.
I haven't seen the show, haven't watched a "crime drama" in years as I prefer to read them. But repeated emotional crying, sobbing, woe is me stuff is a huge turn off, whether it's in news coverage (using the term "news" advisedly), reality TV, drama, sports, anywhere.
Sure there's a place for emotional responses, but like many other things, it all doesn't have to be on stage.
Watched (well, re-watched) the first two parts of the television adaptation of P.D. James' A TASTE FOR MURDER last night, with Roy Marsdon. Now THAT is fine crime drama!
I'm still wondering why there isn't a Stephenie Plum TV series. The books sell a zillion copies. There's a big fan base. There's a market for humor and crime-solving. I don't get it.
Hi Patti,
I love this post and the comments. As one of the last people in America to get cable tv, (The government made me finally do it.) I would not know what shows you are all talking about a few months ago. Over this summer, I have seen episodes of many of these "new to me" shows as well as re-runs of Rockford, Magnum and Murder She Wrote.
I think there is room for all types of mystery and/or cop shows, otherwise why would I have hundreds of channels?
Thanks for a great discussion.
Terrie
it's funny to see which books make it to the screen big or small. Right now vampires keep turning up. Or people who solve crimes in unusual ways.
Hundreds of channels and nothing to watch a lot of the time. And with my husband that means the food channel gets turned on. Or a baseball game so here I turn up.
I think I have falsely made it seem like the entire show is a weep fest when actually it's only 5% of it. It's set in Oklahoma so the bombing in '95 fuels a lot of the angst.
I love Holly Hunter and felt sure I could watch her in anything, but this show defeated me around the middle of the second season, hard as I tried to like it. The plots are so badly written they frequently don't even make sense, which would be OK if the people were more interesting, but they aren't. What they mostly are, including Grace, is loud and obnoxious. The angel was the most interesting character in the show.
I guess I can see why the show is going off. It depends on a tolerance for quirky-I think.
Why don't you have more TVs? We have four TVs so if someone wants to watch the Food Network or a ball game the other person can watch something else on one of the other TVs. Or go online.
"Watched (well, re-watched) the first two parts of the television adaptation of P.D. James' A TASTE FOR MURDER last night, with Roy Marsdon. Now THAT is fine crime drama!"
No argument there. She's a favorite writer, and the TV adaptations, with Roy Marsden, are excellent. I don't care for the new Dalgleish, though. However, I think he does an excellent job in the _George Gently_ TV mysteries.
We have two TVs, but one is in the kitchen and only eight inches big. No one likes to watch there. Getting offline is my problem.
Is there any facet of my life I won't reveal?
I know I weep every time I see Diners, Drive In's and Dives. Just brings a tear to my eye when I see the emotion Guy has over a greasy sandwich.
Oh Lord don't get me started on Property ladder...makes me mist up just thinking about it.
We love those details of your life, Patti. But, I'd still buy another TV.
Where to put it is the problem? I can't have one in my bedroom because of insomnia. All the rest of the rooms are offices or bathrooms. The third floor is too cold in winter, too hot in summer. We will just have to learn to get along.
Coming in late here, but I kind of like this show. The emotional content takes it a little far at times, but I shrug that off.
What I like most is that it's not set in NY, LA, SF, or Miami, or anywhere else cool, but in Oklahoma. It has a flavor I can't find anywhere else.
Yes, I like the setting too. And it seems like Oklahoma--whereas some shows supposedly set in certain cities, do not.
Maybe you need a new house for the second TV, Patti.
The TV shed! Though a tv in an office isn't the most outrageous thing in the world.
Not to mention the siren song of Hulu, etc...tv on your computer (though for reasons I'm unaware of I can't currently bring it up on my office computer, which is a drag since I like to hear THE DAILY SHOW and COLBERT as I work, having usually missed them the night before).
I like the King of thing SAVING GRACE is, but didn't like this series very much, nor THE CLOSER, nor IN PLAIN SIGHT (I'm trying to reassure myself that it's not just because in the last case it's because a guy from my HS homeroom is one of the producers, which if anything might make me fonder of it). The unfairly strangled THE HUNTRESS and KAREN SISCO both struck me as impressive crime drama with female protags that fit your description, and so do the ensemble dramas such as HOMICIDE and THE WIRE (and ROCKFORD, though that one did lean a little heavier on procedure).
USA's ROYAL PAINS didn't look promising at all, but is relatively snappy.
urg. My dental anesthetic-driven typing (i mean tpinyg) is remarkable today. I meant the Kind of thing GRACE is...
Todd-responded under the bad endings post. But liked KC a lot, will try Royal Pains. I wish my dental hygienist had given me something today. My gums throb.
Indeed, if you ever find yourself nearby a showing of THE HUNTRESS, you should definitely give that a try...not at all different in appeal from SISCO, and even features James Remar in a very similar role to Robert Forster's in SISCO. Annette O'Toole and Jordana Spiro (of late of MY BOYS) were fine as mother and daughter bounty hunters by default.
Sorry about the gums. Better luck with your hygienists in the future! (Ibuprofen after the fact hasn't hurt, so to write.)
And...at lesst TNT gave this one several seasons. ABC Family didn't even pay to have the last episode of the first and only season of THE MIDDLEMAN filmed.
Regarding the cancellation of SG, it is not a lack of viewers, but a disagreement on the episode fee. It is actually drawing some of it's best audiences to date.
I really enjoy SG if only because Grace is one of better written female characters on television today.
Personally, I want a show that is not afraid to wander around, not simply sticking to a tried and true formula. If I want that, I will watch NCIS or Cold Case.
Watching Leon slowly prepare to be executed was both brutal and facinating...right up til the very end.
And this year the story with the abused woman who disappeared has been compelling...to me, at least. I like that they're not afraid to insert a bit of both darkness and light into the show. And I like the high emotional content. And Holly Hunter is terrific.
Great show with a mix of spirituality as well as many shots of Hunter naked.
I can only hope to be in half the condition she is at 50.
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