That's one of the things I've long been thankful for about Hunter (besides her being a beautiful, hot, sexy woman, and one of my favorite actresses):Her choice of roles is the best. From The Incredibles to Raising Arizona to The Piano to Thirteen to Broadcast News, she always plays well-rounded women who have their own interests.
(Though they may also be a wife or a mother or a girlfriend, they are rarely if ever solely defined by those roles.)
Grace Hanadarko, Hunter's character on the new TNT series Saving Grace, is no exception. She's got to be one of the most original characters you'll ever see on television: A hard-fucking, hard-drink-and-drugging, hard-cursing (for basic cable), hard-hitting, charm-oozing woman police detective.
Hunter's elevated acting abilities were expected, but everyone else is good too among the actors. And much of the writing is strong...especially when focused on the second word in the title instead of the first.
I wish Grace's show thought she was as awesome as I do, or at least that she was a little less in need of divine guidance.
One of the things I appreciated about the freshman year of Huff was the graceful way it weaved the possibility of spiritual intervention into the fucked-up life of its protaganist. It did this in the form of a Homeless Hungarian whose identity was never definitively established, but I came to believe was the spirit of Huff's compassion.
If he'd been on Saving Grace, he would have introduced himself to the viewers as exactly that within the first five minutes, as Grace's visiting angel does here.
That's the problem with the series, or at least its pilot. As Peter David once wrote-of Batman & Robin screenwriter Akiva Goldsman, I believe: It thinks subtext is something spray-painted on the side of the Red October.
And that's a shame, because when it's not bashing us over the head with its Power Of Faith message, it's got more than one thing going for it.
3 comments:
And did you notice Tara's dad playing the part of the sleazy cattle rancher that Holly keeps punching out? That's Steve Rankin, who just happens to be married to one of the sopranos in my choir. He's a very nice guy in real life.
i didn't notice that, but I haven't seen "Family" in a long while.
He does a good job playing someone you want to see Holly keep punching out...
Well, his wife says it's a recurring role, so you'll probably get to see Holly punch him out a few more times.
He popped up on Veronica Mars a few times, too, playing Keith's reporter buddy.
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