Saving Grace: 'It's a Fierce, White-Hot, Mighty Love' Preview (8-4-08)
July 31, 2008 by Chandra
The August 4 episode of Saving Grace has the cool, if lengthy, title “It’s a Fierce, White-Hot, Mighty Love.”
Maybe the title is so long because there’s so many plotlines. Grace will become involved with the disappearance of a mother of two, and one of the children’s story about the disappearance will set off alarm bells in the cop.
Meanwhile, Grace’s young nephew Clay will ignore his father’s wishes and join the Oklahoma City Police Department’s Police Explorer program.
And elsewhere, Grace’s colleague Butch will find himself the focus of a stalker who seems affiliated with the squad. Now that’s scary.
The sneak peek after the jump features Grace interviewing one of the vanished mother’s children, a teenage girl whom Grace eventually suspects is involved, along with her drug addict boyfriend.
Playing the teen is Hallee Hirsh, whom ER fans might recognize as one of the actresses that played Jennifer Greene, the daughter of Anthony Edwards’ popular character Dr. Mark Greene. She also played Mattie Grace Johnson during JAG’s final two seasons.
Saving Grace: 2.3 'A Little Hometown Love' Review
Original Air Date: July 28, 2008
I don’t know if it was because I was coming off of the intense high of The Closer’s preceding episode “Cherry Bomb” or if it was because something is changing on Saving Grace, but to my great surprise, I actually enjoyed an episode of Holly Hunter’s show all the way through. This is a first, and an amazing one at that, at least for a TV watcher like me who didn’t last past the halfway mark of Saving Grace’s first season.
The episode opens with Grace having a recurring dream about her and Leon Cooley “shooting the shit” at Louie’s before the convict grabs her and she tries to stop something from dragging him away. Rhetta later visits Cooley on Death Row and learns he’s been having dreams about Grace, as well, where he helps the cop retrieve a kite from a roof and an apple from a tree. The point, Rhetta rationalizes, is that they both need each other’s help.
After Grace recounts her dream to Rhetta at Louie’s, she and Ham retreat to the bathroom because you know every episode of Saving Grace must have at least one off-putting sex scene with the two; that’s how we know this is an “edgy” show for adults only (and some people are actually buying that).
The Closer: 4.3 ‘Cherry Bomb’ Review
Original Air Date: July 28, 2008
What a harrowing, nasty, infuriating, chilling episode of The Closer this is. It also gives central character Deputy Chief Brenda Johnson and the actress who plays her — Kyra Sedgwick, of course — a chance to shine as the transplanted Southern cop sets her sights on getting a confession out of a wealthy and connected teenage rapist after his 16-year-old victim Michelle Clarke, played by Desperate Housewives’ Andrea Bowen, commits suicide.
Rape cases are hard enough to resolve in the victim’s favor when the injured party is alive. But Commander Taylor is especially moved by this tragedy because he was the officer who took the statement from the reluctant victim just a week before she killed herself … or did she?
That’s the question Taylor presents to Brenda when he seeks her assistance to seal a conviction against Darren Yates, the fellow high school student Michelle identified as her attacker. The question then becomes can Brenda prove a murder, let alone the rape of a dead victim?
Saving Grace: 'A Little Hometown Love' Preview (7-28-08)
July 25, 2008 by Chandra
Murder, war, and dreams all figure into “A Little Hometown Love,” the July 28 episode of Saving Grace.
Things are set in motion when an integral member of the staff for Grace’s squad ends up dead mere feet away from where the cop and her married partner and lover Ham are getting busy. Ham’s brother, who’s in the service, also pays a visit during the episode, and Grace and Leon Cooley (Bokeem Woodbine) dream about each other.
If the spoilers alone aren’t enough to make you eager to see this installment, the sneak peek after the jump most definitely will. It shows Grace and Ham getting a good talking to from their boss and friend Kate Perry (Lorraine Toussaint).
The Closer: 'Cherry Bomb' Preview (7-28-08)
July 25, 2008 by Chandra
Desperate Housewives actress Andrea Bowen (Julie Mayer) has a pivotal role on the July 28 episode of The Closer called “Cherry Bomb.”
She plays a young apparent suicide victim whose death raises suspicion when Commander Taylor reveals she had recently filed a rape complaint against the son of a high-profile law enforcement officer played by the other big guest star of the episode, Daniel Baldwin.
Sneak a peek at a scene from the episode after the jump featuring Brenda and Commander Taylor having one of their typical friendly chats (yes — that’s a joke).
Saving Grace: 2.2 'A Survivor Lives Here' Review
July 22, 2008 by Chandra
Original Air Date: July 21, 2008
Let’s get the big Ham news right out of the way — at the beginning of this episode of Saving Grace, he informs Grace he left his wife Darleen two months ago and now has his own apartment. After Grace learns the news and we viewers get to endure a disgusting prolonged scene featuring the couple playing around while drenching each other in ketchup, mustard, and milk, we head to the crime scene the next morning.
A 21-year-old college student named Paul Shapiro has disappeared from his filthy and bloody apartment. Grace actually knows the student because she pulled his father out of the rubble the morning after Timothy McVeigh bombed the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building. Before she realizes she knows him, Grace takes one look at a piece of stone given only to those affiliated with the tragedy and announces to Rhetta that a survivor lives her, hence the episode’s title.
Grace is close to the entire family, or rather what’s left of it (just Paul and his mother), and the team quickly determines that the blood in the apartment belongs to Paul’s girlfriend Karen Smith, a talented rower who’s friends and family dislike Paul with a passion because they believe he’s ruining her chances of making it to the Olympics by getting her mixed up with drugs and crooks, such as his best friend Keith Kingson.
The Closer: 4.2 'Speed Bump' Review
July 22, 2008 by Chandra
Original Air Date: July 21, 2008
After Fritz throws out his back — although he calls it a back spasm due to an old football injury — while he and Brenda are fooling around one morning, Brenda gets called to the scene of the main crime on this episode of The Closer. It’s a back alley, where the body of recent parolee Roy Wilkinson has been left dead and stinking of alcohol following a hit and run.
It turns out the deceased is fairly famous, something that everyone on the priority homicide team knows, except for Brenda. He murdered a 22-year-old woman named Carly Mayhan, the daughter of producer David Mayhan, while having sex with her, but only received a sentence of eight years instead of life. Flynn, who worked the original case, is still profoundly pissed over the injustice.
Forensics and the scene of the crime help Tao and Provenza determine that whoever ran over Wilkinson the first time circled all the way around the block to finish the job on a second impact. In other words, it was double-kill.
Saving Grace: 'A Survivor Lives Here' Preview (7-21-08)
July 19, 2008 by Chandra
How about the second-season premiere for Saving Grace last Monday — was that intense or what? It looks like more darkness is in store on the July 21 episode called “A Survivor Lives Here.”
After a college athlete vanishes into thin air following an argument with her boyfriend, a troubled guy with some very unusual and surprising ties to Grace, the police set out to locate her.
Also, adulterer Ham reveals a development in his marriage that allows him to get even busier with his mistress and colleague, who is Grace, of course. And the police get caught up in a frenzied hunt for Gus when Grace’s nephew Clay loses him in a park.
The two-minute sneak peek after the jump features Grace and her best friend Rhetta in investigative action.
The Closer: 'Speed Bump' Preview (7-21-08)
July 18, 2008 by Chandra
Coming up on “Speed Bump,” the July 21 episode of The Closer, Brenda and her team take on the case of a newly paroled murderer found murdered in an alley, thanks to a hit and run. Talk about sweet justice, huh?
But the case isn’t so simple. It’s complicated not only by the high-profile crime the deceased committed, but also because Detective Andy Flynn was the lead investigator on the original case that sent him to the slammer. Since we all know how touchy and volatile Flynn can be, it’s no surprise that the new case opens old wounds.
And for the requisite comic relief, poor Fritz hurts his back and has an awful time as a result.
Take a look at a two-minute preview of the episode after the jump.
'The Closer' Welcomes Jennifer Coolidge
It’s official — American Pie and Legally Blonde scene stealer Jennifer Coolidge (pictured at left with talk show host Craig Ferguson) will guest star on an upcoming installment of TNT’s hit crime drama The Closer.
The name of the August 11 episode, the fifth of the current season, is “Dial M for Provenza,” and Coolidge will play Angie Serabian, a dimwitted woman who becomes mixed up in an undercover investigation.
As the title indicates, G.W. Bailey’s lovable curmudgeon Detective Lieutenant Provenza has an integral role in the episode, as well. He’ll go undercover as a hitman to trap Angie for paying big bucks to have her husband, the owner of a car dealership, killed.
It seems the show is aiming for some comic relief with Coolidge’s role, which the actress will have absolutely no problem providing. I’m looking forward to her appearance.