diff --git a/Snakefile b/Snakefile
index 3c93382..8dd0ef1 100644
--- a/Snakefile
+++ b/Snakefile
@@ -4518,6 +4518,11 @@ rule critical_scaling_pointplot:
         with open(log[0], 'w', buffering=1) as log_file:
             with contextlib.redirect_stdout(log_file), contextlib.redirect_stderr(log_file):
                 style, fig_width = fov.style.plotting_style(wildcards.context, figsize='half')
+                # some modifications to the style, because we want the gridlines
+                mpl.rcParams['axes.grid'] = True
+                mpl.rcParams['axes.grid.axis'] = 'y'
+                mpl.rcParams['axes.grid.which'] = 'both'
+                mpl.rcParams['axes.axisbelow'] = True
                 crit_scaling = []
                 for f in input:
                     tmp = az.from_netcdf(f)
diff --git a/foveated_metamers/plotting.py b/foveated_metamers/plotting.py
index 6710f38..8fcba04 100644
--- a/foveated_metamers/plotting.py
+++ b/foveated_metamers/plotting.py
@@ -2165,8 +2165,8 @@ def vertical_pointplot(data, x, y, norm_y=False, **kwargs):
         data = data.groupby(['model', 'trial_type']).critical_scaling.mean().reset_index()
     if norm_y:
         data[y] = data[y] / data[y].min()
-    # want the line to be under the points, so set zorder=0
-    ax.plot(data[x].values, data[y].values, linewidth=lw, zorder=0, **kwargs)
+    # want the line to be under the points but above the gridlines
+    ax.plot(data[x].values, data[y].values, linewidth=lw, zorder=1, **kwargs)
     if kwargs['label'] == 'Luminance\n(this study)':
         marker = {'metamer_vs_reference': 'o', 'metamer_vs_metamer': r'$\bigwedge$'}
     else: