I was glad they didn't do a last-minute reprieve. I liked Leon's last words. And I wonder what was said between Grace and the governor.

I found myself quite moved by the end, because they didn't pull off a last-ditch rescue, and Leon did die, and there wasn't some sort of deathbed redemption, either.

I very much liked the end. Grace thinking "look at me. look at me. look at me." and then he did, and he died looking into her eyes.

I am a little less pleased that apparently the character that she is next supposed to save is also black.

I am a little less pleased that apparently the character that she is next supposed to save is also black.

The guy who shot her was white--I was wondering if the black girl was a path to him.

::sigh::. It's technically spoilery--Hardison's in costume for a con. Uh, not a convention, I don't think. I hope he doesn't do like Michael Vartan on Alias and hit a well-hidden kink.

Laughs and laughs and laughs.

Sorry ita, but that's too TOO funny.

Damn.

Leverage is a heist show, right? I've not seen it, but if it is, then I'd argue it's a procedural. Saving Grace is about a cop, procedural. Damages, also procedural. Hmm. Yes, they're on expanded basic cable, but that distinction is starting to matter less and less. Wasn't someone saying just the other day that she discontinued paying for cable and watches everything on her computer? I think it was beej in procedurals. Anyway. Food for thought.

The way we've traditionally defined procedurals, though, isn't just that there's cops or that there's a mystery someone's trying to solve. It has more to do with the episode structure, opening up a new mystery more or less every ep and wrapping it up at the end of the hour.

Leverage straddles that line. Saving Grace doesn't seem like it fits, but I don't watch so I could be wrong. I wouldn't put Damages in that category at all. Closer, Monk, Psych, like Leverage, could easily go in either thread, and will likely pop up from time to time in both (as well as Natter).

I'd argue against Leverage being a procedural. As for Saving Grace, it's a pretty awful example of the genre--their mysteries, when they have them, are weak as all hell. And we could fit it into Boxed Set too, couldn't we?

But what you're doing, JC, is ranking the Procedural thread over the Cable Drama thread, and that's subjective--I rank Boxed Set first, so supernatural procedurals fit very nicely there for me.

Leverage and Damages have no weekly mysteries to solve in the hour--problems, for Leverage, and nothing of the sort for Damages.

I'd add that part of the reason for separating out Cable Drama is to leave the Procedurals thread safer territory for people who don't have cable or prefer to wait for DVD. So there's that.

Overall, though, while I like making it easier to find where a show has landed, they're going to land one by one where they seem to fit for the people in those threads. I don't think we need a hard and fast rule here.