"State of Grace" was a Family Channel coming-of-age show that lasted 44 episodes (back in 2001 and 2002). If you watched the Family Channel regularly back then you probably saw all but the last few episodes because they were repeated many times each week.
Like "Freaks and Geeks" and "Firefly" (from the same period) it was sophisticated in a unique and quirky way; making it surprising that it lasted as long as it did given the limited demographic for this type of programming. It managed to be very age inclusive, the whole family could enjoy the universal themes in the episodes and the humor worked nicely on several levels.
The show centers on Hannah, the repressed 12-year old daughter of a Jewish family that has just moved to North Carolina in the mid-60's. She attends a Catholic girl's school where she becomes friends with the title character (Grace), a rich southern belle in training who is anything but repressed. The production design nicely captures the period details; language, clothes, and music.
Each episode of the show had a central theme, with 2-3 seemingly unrelated stores illustrating that central idea. At the end the narrator (a grown-up Hannah) would do a voice-over commentary tying the stories together under that episode's theme.
For example, a episode appropriately titled "Crime and Self-Punishment" has a theme about doing (and not doing) the right thing. Tattie (Grace's mother) can't help listening in on private phone conversations when the local phone lines become crossed; Hanna gives into peer pressure and shoplifts a sweater; and Evie and David (Hannah's parents) promote a black employee to foreman and weather racist reactions from many of the white employees-something that made them hesitate over making the deserved promotion-this is after all set in1965 North Carolina.
In the end, despite finding a way to pay for the stolen sweater, Hannah donates it to the thrift store where it is displayed in the window as she starts her end of episode voice-over. "Everyday of our lives we have to make decisions about what's right and what's wrong. Sometimes because we're human we can't stop ourselves from doing the wrong thing (shot of Tattie trying to listen in on another phone conversation). Other times we can't stop ourselves from doing what is right (shot of black foreman helping white machine operator). And sometimes if we're lucky, even a wrong decision can lead to something good (shot of a poor girl leaving the thrift store proudly wearing Hannah's donated sweater).
Then again, what do I know? I'm only a child.
Like "Freaks and Geeks" and "Firefly" (from the same period) it was sophisticated in a unique and quirky way; making it surprising that it lasted as long as it did given the limited demographic for this type of programming. It managed to be very age inclusive, the whole family could enjoy the universal themes in the episodes and the humor worked nicely on several levels.
The show centers on Hannah, the repressed 12-year old daughter of a Jewish family that has just moved to North Carolina in the mid-60's. She attends a Catholic girl's school where she becomes friends with the title character (Grace), a rich southern belle in training who is anything but repressed. The production design nicely captures the period details; language, clothes, and music.
Each episode of the show had a central theme, with 2-3 seemingly unrelated stores illustrating that central idea. At the end the narrator (a grown-up Hannah) would do a voice-over commentary tying the stories together under that episode's theme.
For example, a episode appropriately titled "Crime and Self-Punishment" has a theme about doing (and not doing) the right thing. Tattie (Grace's mother) can't help listening in on private phone conversations when the local phone lines become crossed; Hanna gives into peer pressure and shoplifts a sweater; and Evie and David (Hannah's parents) promote a black employee to foreman and weather racist reactions from many of the white employees-something that made them hesitate over making the deserved promotion-this is after all set in1965 North Carolina.
In the end, despite finding a way to pay for the stolen sweater, Hannah donates it to the thrift store where it is displayed in the window as she starts her end of episode voice-over. "Everyday of our lives we have to make decisions about what's right and what's wrong. Sometimes because we're human we can't stop ourselves from doing the wrong thing (shot of Tattie trying to listen in on another phone conversation). Other times we can't stop ourselves from doing what is right (shot of black foreman helping white machine operator). And sometimes if we're lucky, even a wrong decision can lead to something good (shot of a poor girl leaving the thrift store proudly wearing Hannah's donated sweater).
Then again, what do I know? I'm only a child.