Reopening "The Closer," Trying to Save "Grace," Diving Into TCA Press Tour

Before lunch in Los Angeles today, Fox is holding a press conference tied to the most anticipated series of the fall: Fringe, the new series co-created by J.J. Abrams of Lost. So check back around 3 p.m. ET, and I'll provide breaking coverage of what I expect will be the biggest hit of the opening half of the 2008-09 TV season.

Meanwhile, tonight's best TV news is about the fourth-season return of The Closer on TNT...

To prime the pump, and stoke the appetites of viewers, TNT is preceding the season premiere with a nine-hour marathon, beginning at noon ET, of previous Closer episodes. Then comes the new one, which has a fire in the hills around Los Angeles raging out of control, and turning into one basic hell of a crime scene.

The prime suspect for Sedgwick's Brenda? A previous adversary from season one, a pyromaniac murderer who was seen on the other side of the police tape as the fire raged. He's played by Jason O'Mara, who's about to star in the American remake of Life on Mars... and his scenes with Sedgwick are tantalizing, like Vincent D'Onofrio's many heated interrogations with Olivia D'Abo, as the murderous Nicole, on Law & Order: Criminal Intent.

There are plenty of nice grace notes in tonight's episode -- Brenda complaining about her lover's shower usage, hiding her cat from her landlord, and asked, in an icky sequence, to slip on the rehydrated skin from two fingers of a burn victim, like a death glove, to literally flesh out some fingerprints. All of it works for, and is true to, the character, and makes the show lots of fun to watch.

The grace notes in Saving Grace, however, which follows at 10 p.m. ET on TNT, are worthwhile only to watch the way Holly Hunter, as the troubled Grace, attacks her role with a vengeance. Tonight that's literal too, as she imprisons the priest (Rene Auberjonois) who molested her as a child, and torments her captive in a variety of often twisted ways.

For me, this whole series never has, and still doesn't, fall together well. The guardian angel conceit isn't presented persuasively or convincingly, and the show, like the title character, has little or internal logic or dramatic consistency. All that said, Hunter does a lot with her material, tonight especially.

But in this TNT doubleheader of female leads, it's The Closer who comes out way, way ahead.