I didn’t want to like this show. In fact, it seems that the
show was rooting against itself -- shooting itself in the
foot with mixed messages and genre-bending humor. But (and I
will probably regret saying this when they cancel it) but
Save Me isn’t so bad.
In fact, despite of his obvious flaws, I like it quite a
bit.
Save Me is about a
suburban, hard-partying mom, (the youthful and extremely
talented, Anne Heche) who chokes to death on a sandwich,
miraculously wakes up and begins hearing the voice of God.
Yes, you heard me right, the character, Beth, is a
self-proclaimed prophet of God with a cheating husband,
played by the affable Michael Landes and very smart-mouthed
teenaged daughter, played by Madison Davenport. Beth has
turned her friends and neighbors against her with her self
destructive and selfish ways, and we see who Beth was
through a series of flashbacks, (think
Samantha Who but with
way more Jesus).. We are meant to forgive everyone else in
her life for all the naughty things they’ve done because
Beth, being the nasty person that she was, drove them to
this behavior -- I am looking at you
husband-with-a-mistress. However; things start to tidy up
pretty quickly after the pilot; the mistress, Alexandra
Breckenrigde is struck by lightning and as Beth tries to
make amends to her family and friends we see the turnabout
start to coalesce and the premise takes a backseat to the
delightful shenanigans of Beth and the gang.
There are a lot of things wrong with this show, don’t get me
wrong. My main concern with this show is how confused it is
about what audience it must play to. It crosses genres in a
way that is confusing and contrary. For instance, religious
audiences probably aren’t going to find the thinly-veiled
oral sex joke, “Joe Blob” very funny; whereas an audience
that would, is not going to stomach the saccharine-sweet
Disney-princess impersonation (there is a scene in which
Beth is surrounded by animals, Cinderella-style). Along
those lines, it has quite a bit of physical humor that comes
off as artificial and cheesy, but then the audience is meant
to take her dramatic monologue at the end very seriously.
Its hard to know which way to turn.
But what IS great about this show is Anne Heche. She looks
amazing and, frankly, is the best part of the half hour. If
NBC decides to keep this show around, it would fare much
better, and to a much broader audience, if they play down
the religious element and focus on Beth’s hijinks. Her
quirky, sincere nature makes this show a diamond in the
rough, and although it may be mildly offensive to some
church-goers, I think its intentions are pure, and meant to
be inclusive. The family dynamic is funny, although a little
stilted, and will carry the other actors through until it
hits its stride, if it ever gets the chance to. But I like
it, and I will continue to watch it, as long as I am able,
because it is funny, and a little dirty, and a little nice,
and I find that endearing.
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