{"id":1562,"date":"2007-12-19T12:07:34","date_gmt":"2007-12-19T12:07:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/idolchatter\/2007\/12\/saving-grace-a-parade-of-nunsa.html"},"modified":"2007-12-19T12:07:34","modified_gmt":"2007-12-19T12:07:34","slug":"saving-grace-a-parade-of-nunsa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2007\/12\/saving-grace-a-parade-of-nunsa.html","title":{"rendered":"\u201cSaving Grace\u201d: A Parade of Nuns\u2026.And then one Terrible Priest"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"hollyhuntersavinggrace.jpg\"I\u2019ve been obsessively catching up on the first season of TNT\u2019s \u201cSaving Grace\u201d just in time for its two-part, two-night finale. I figured it would combine one of my latest, favorite TV trends–the crime procedure starring the brilliant female heroine with the killer instincts (a la Brenda Lee Johnson from \u201cThe Closer\u201d and Temperance Brennan from \u201cBones\u201d)\u2014with my other favorite thing: faith.
\n\u201cSaving Grace\u201d doesn\u2019t disappoint. Thanks to a gritty ensemble cast, but especially the witty yet vulnerable Rhetta Rodriguez (Laura San Giacomo), each episode is filled with moments that captivate, make you laugh, and at times, take your breath away. But it\u2019s Holly Hunter\u2019s pitch-perfect acting as Grace Hanadarko makes the show.
\nAnd unlike my other favorite series, \u201cSaving Grace\u201d has another kind of mystery to be solved, which forms the driving arch of the season: why has Earl, Grace\u2019s guardian angel, come into her life? What exactly stands so firmly between Grace and God?<\/p>\n


\nPart 1 of the season finale, \u201cIs There a Scarlet Letter On My Breast,\u201d not only forces Grace to face up to her less than shiny past in the bedroom (which she does fearlessly), but also her Catholic past and her nephew Clay’s Catholic present and future. Clay is about to be confirmed, and Grace is his Godmother. She has responsibilities for his Confirmation, which she spends a good deal of time trying to weasel out of. It\u2019s the parade of nuns that show up a the police station\u2014all of whom Rhetta knows well, and greets with hugs and the kind of reverence you\u2019d expect from a girl still in Catholic school\u2014that twist Grace\u2019s arm in their own special nun-way, ensuring that she will be at Clay\u2019s confirmation not only with bells on but with treats for his feel confirmees.
\nThroughout the series, faith and all things faith-related are never simple, always layered and complex, and always respectful\u2014and this episode was no exception. Amid the parade of nuns is not only humor, and the funny stereotypes that any former Catholic school girl could recognize as Grace and Rhetta are confronted by each nun, but also a reverence that makes the humor in the situation genuinely enjoyable, never going over the line to disrespect.
\nAnd Earl may speak in clich\u00e9s (the one thing that really drives my eyes roll about the show\u2014though, happily, they\u2019ve really toned down the angel wing-flapping to mainly sounds not visuals since the first few episodes, which I really struggle to abide), but belief, faith, a relationship with God never comes easy for any of the show\u2019s characters. \u201cSaving Grace\u201d is filled with questions, doubts, the desire to believe, the hard reality of why some days, or even some years, God feels so far away that it\u2019s easy to stop believing God is even there.
\nWhich brings me to part two of the finale, which aired last night. This episode shines a whole new light on what\u2019s going on with Grace and her faith. There is quite a big reveal\u2014and I didn\u2019t see it coming.
\nThe fact that Grace comes from a deeply Catholic family is really the focus of the season finale. Part 1 sets up Grace\u2019s resistance to not only all things faith, belief, and God-related (despite Earl always showing up, her guardian angel), but particularly all things Catholic. Part 2 not only unearths Grace\u2019s enormous Catholic family (seven brothers and sisters! One a priest), bringing them to her house for a party, but solves at least a bit of the mystery of \u201cWhy Earl?\u201d
\nIs it clich\u00e9 that it turns out that Grace was abused by a priest from the time she was 9 years old? Is this supposed to explain why she throws her body at any guy who gives her a sideways glance at a bar now as an adult?
\nI have to admit, I was thrown for a loop with this reveal. I didn\u2019t want the show to go there.
\nBut then I wondered something far more interesting about how this all might fit in with Grace\u2019s faith struggles and Earl\u2019s, at times, maddening presence (both for Grace and certainly for me as a viewer). Is it possible, that God feels guilty for God\u2019s Church, one of God\u2019s priests, destroying a young girl\u2019s innocence? Depriving her of the faith she might have had as a teenager and now as an adult? Is this show not so much about Grace becoming a believer and finding faith?
\nIs it possible that it\u2019s God who wants redemption in Grace\u2019s eyes, not the reverse? After a lot thinking after last night\u2019s intense episode, I\u2019ve started to think that it\u2019s God who suffers Grace\u2019s loss, who wants to make up for mistakes begun long ago.
\nAnd that\u2019s what makes \u201cSaving Grace\u201d such a good show. I\u2019ll be back next season.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I\u2019ve been obsessively catching up on the first season of TNT\u2019s \u201cSaving Grace\u201d just in time for its two-part, two-night finale. I figured it would combine one of my latest, favorite TV trends–the crime procedure starring the brilliant female heroine with the killer instincts (a la Brenda Lee Johnson from \u201cThe Closer\u201d and Temperance Brennan…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":105,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fbia_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1562","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-television"],"yoast_head":"\n\u201cSaving Grace\u201d: A Parade of Nuns\u2026.And then one Terrible Priest<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2007\/12\/saving-grace-a-parade-of-nunsa.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"\u201cSaving Grace\u201d: A Parade of Nuns\u2026.And then one Terrible Priest\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I\u2019ve been obsessively catching up on the first season of TNT\u2019s \u201cSaving Grace\u201d just in time for its two-part, two-night finale. 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