i’m literally just here to gush bc i’m in a “let’s love grace van pelt mood” tonight but:
i also really love how the show treats grace. WELL. i like how the show treats her beliefs, there are a few bones i’d like to pick with heller about how her character as a whole is treated, but at least her beliefs are handled nicely.
i love that the show could have easily made her out to be the joke character, the doe-eyed religious girl who constantly gets put down by the smart cynic for having faith in something that isn’t scientific or logical. she believes in god, and the occult, and is admittedly a little gullible... but she’s not punished for it, nor is it seen as a “bad thing”. it’s neither 100% a positive or a negative, it’s just part of who she is. tbh sometimes it’s even shown as being one of the things that makes her so compassionate and good at her job rather than a hindrance. her spirituality makes her come off as a bit holier-than-thou at times but it’s one of the driving forces behind why she believes life is sacred and why she tries so hard to help people.
i enjoy that she and patrick are each other’s foils and that they did bump heads a little at the beginning, but i appreciate even more that their great differences in opinion on spirituality was never a point of any real contention between them. they disagree, they move on. neither are constantly trying to prove to the other that they’re right. they don’t treat the other any differently.
it’s so refreshing to see that sort of respect not just from the show toward her character, but between the characters themselves as well.