Wednesday, August 6, 2008

SAVING GRACE and THE CLEANER

I was waiting...waiting for at least 3 episodes of The Cleaner on A & E...before I started to rave about it. I was hooked on the first episode...but then I have an addictive personality...I'm not making light of it's subject matter when I say that- far from it ! The Cleaner, like Saving Grace on TNT are two of the best shows on TV but they are an aquired taste. They are about broken people trying to make things right...trying to fix themselves. Not just broke($) people or people breaking up,confused people or out of work people- I'm talkin' about the kind of broken people where nothing ever heals correctly , people destroying themselves from the inside out and taking everyone within arms reach down with them...but the shows are not constrained by the political correctness of network censors so they're raw and frightenly authentic...and among my favorite parts ; Each of the shows main characters has a real and at times dysfunctional relationship with GOD. To have God in the mix-and he somehow always is - with this kind of subject matter is what makes both Holly Hunter of Grace and Bejamin Bratt of The Cleaner not just a couple of cable cliches using profanity and finding themselves in horrific situations. I'm worried about Holly Hunter though...she needs to gain some weight...maybe she's working to hard...but that woman can act like nobody's business. Considering the backdrop subject matter of both shows...drug addiction & crime...they usually end with hope....after taking the viewer to some very dark places. The big play week after week is the family dynamic and how it is affected by these bad things and the struggle. It's real and that's the ticket.

1 comment:

So do I recommend Saving Grace? Episodes ... I'll put in this way - if you're a fan of The Closer then check it out. Saving Grace isn't for everyone, but I know there are people out there who will love it.