Cable offerings show promise

ONCE the great waste- land of rerun televi- sion, the summer season has become a rich time for cable channels to take advantage of tired network programming, in the process earning decent ratings with new series of their own.

This week, I got to take a look at a strange new police drama, TNT's "Saving Grace," an uneven vehicle for the always interesting Holly Hunter.

I also got to view a sweet, but still developing sitcom that stars one of the Blue Collar Comedy boys, the star of TBS' "The Bill Engvall Show."

While both have promise, these shows which debut the week of July 17 aren't quite all-stars yet.

But they both have enough talent in the cast to be around for a while.

"Saving Grace," which debuts Wednesday, July 18, at 10 p.m. on TNT, is the more intriguing of the two, but also the more maddening.

That's partly because of a premise that includes not just a tobacco-chewing angel named Earl, but also a tenuous link to the bombing of a federal building in Oklahoma City, where the story is set.

The premise creates a pretty tough hole for Hunter to crawl out of as Grace Hanadarko. She's a detective who's not just drinking her way into a stupor, but driving with wild abandon and sleeping with anyone who gets in her way.

Swilling bourbon in a glass one morning to swallow an aspirin, she searches the wreckage of her apartment to find her badge, her gun and her self-respect.

Once she's into her first case, that of a missing girl, we see that she's a pretty darned good detective.

Of course, that comes after a wild night when she might have died, if it weren't for an angel who comes out of nowhere.

With his chaw of tobacco and some pretty impressive wings, Earl transports her from what's potentially the end of her career to an awe- and faith-inspiring moment atop the Grand Canyon.

It's pretty strange stuff, threatening to get in the way of the story. In the hands of a lesser actress, it would have.

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