Saving Grace returns tonight with what are billed as "final episodes"

The final-season premiere of Saving Grace takes place tonight at 10pm ET/PT, 9pm CT.

"Grace is a woman of extremes, and it's been written for me to go to extremes."

-- Holly Hunter, about her Saving Grace character

by Ken

I can't begin to explain why I've remained devoted to Saving Grace through its remarkable run. Obviously Holly Hunter's fearless, fascinating portrayal of Oklahoma City police detective Grace Hanadarko stands front and center. In the course of the video interview montage, she says she's never going to have a job like this again, and I can't imagine a character like Grace being imagined either in film or more conventional network TV. But she's backed up here by awfully good teams of writers and actors, who compel a lot of attention.

There's Grace's large roster of siblings, perhaps most importantly the sister who doesn't appear, because she was killed in the Murrah Building bombing, which looms large in the show's consciousness, as it apparently does in that of its creator, Nancy Miller. (I was startled to find that Saving Grace has apparently been featured on DWT before, and wondered if I'd written about it without remembering. Hey, there's a lot of stuff I've done that I don't remember these days. But no, it turns out that it was Howie reporting on an NPR interview he'd heard with Nancy Miller last August, in which " she mentioned that she couldn't understand how God could let Timothy McVeigh drive up to the Alfred Murrah Federal Building with a truckful of explosives and blow the place up.")

There's Grace's detective-squad colleagues, including Ham (Kenneth Johnson). with whom she's carried on such a torrid affair and the even-better-looking Butch (Bailey Chase), and including lab technician Rhetta (Laura San Giacomo), Grace's childhood friend. And of course there's her angel, Earl (Leon Rippy), and a strange assortment of charcters who come into Grace's life by virtue of having an angel trying to "save" her.

If you haven't watched the show before, it's still worth giving it a shot at this late date, even though you'll be playing catchup figuring out how it works. But these days it's safe to say that the earlier episodes aren't going to die. Between DVD and the insatiable need for cable programming, you'll always be able to catch up with what you've missed. One thing I can assure you: It's not like anything you've watched before.

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Is The Republican Jihad Making The Party More Popular And Electable?

The Republican playbook on disinformation, obstruction, racial hatred, and disruption hasn't been working. In fact, the newest biannual national-wide, state by state polling data from Gallup, shows it's been backfiring. I wonder if the Republicans will change their strategy from "stand up and shout to rattle the Democrat whose town hall meeting you are trying to muck up" to "start screaming Obama was born in Kenya or Indonesia or Mexico and start throwing feces at everyone in the room." The have plenty to be upset about.

Their hopes to avoid a replay of the 1934 midterm congressional election and to replicate the 1966 midterms that followed the long hot summer of racial explosions and simmering Vietnam tensions, seem to be working out badly for them so far, although Republican candidates in Utah, Wyoming and Idaho have nothing to worry about. The Gallup survey seeks to gage party affiliation changes in each state.

Earlier today I listened to pieces of an NPR interview with Nancy Miller, the creator and writer of the TV show Saving Grace, which is set in her native Oklahoma City. I was especially struck by the juxtaposition of two statements that I wouldn't have thought would come from a Wellesley graduate. After the Oklahoma City bombing she was happy to imagine that no one would refer to people from her state as "dumb Okies." A few seconds later she mentioned that she couldn't understand how God could let Timothy McVeigh drive up to the Alfred Murrah Federal Building with a truckful of explosives and blow the place up. Above I mentioned the three most self-identifying Republicans states in the country. 65% of the voters in Wyoming cast their ballots for McCain last year; 63% did likewise in Utah and the percentage was 61% in Idaho. But even in the aftermath of the country's worst ever right-wing terror attack, Oklahomans voted for the right-wing candidate in greater numbers than anywhere else-- 66% voted for McCain (or against Obama). In the newest survey 47% of Oklahomans claim a Democratic Party identity (as opposed to 42% Republican).

One 9 states had significant changes since 2008:


Gallup summarizes the data by pointing to a growth in independent voters, most of whom are favoring Democrats and Democratic policies. "[T]he Democratic Party continues to hold a solid advantage in party identification in most states and in the nation as a whole. While the size of the Democratic advantage at the national level shrunk in recent months, this has been due to an increase in independent identification rather than an increase in Republican support. That finding is echoed here given that the total number of solid and leaning Republican states remains unchanged from last year. While the Republican Party is still able to compete in elections if they enjoy greater turnout from their supporters or greater support for its candidates from independent voters, the deck is clearly stacked in the Democratic Party's favor for now." They're certainly doing a bit better in Alabama.

Somehow they expect their support for Insurance Industry CEOs to save their asses at the polls next year. Sure, they'll have lots of money flowing in from special interests but are Americans really going to vote for THIS?