By Curt Schleier

Imagine Denis Leary as a woman. Stay with me, here. Then, imagine this woman in TOUCHED BY AN ANGEL. And, there you have SAVING GRACE, the brilliant new series from TNT (Mondays at 10 p.m.).

Dennis Leary is played by Holly Hunter, who has never been better. She’s already won an Oscar and two Emmys; she may want to make some room on her mantle for additional trophies. She is brilliant as Grace Hanadarko, a cynical and tortured Oklahoma City detective who tries to escape her demons through promiscuity and booze.
   
The show starts with Grace in bed with her married partner, Ham Dewey (Kenneth Johnson); when he feels guilt and walks out contemplating an end to their affair, Grace is left talking to her dog, the only one who’ll listen. Because of a family problem, there are no relatives to whine to. Grace keeps avoiding them, anyway, despite a series of invitations to an upcoming gathering of the clan. All she has left is her friend, Jack Daniels.
   
Driving home from work one dark night, Grace becomes preoccupied trying to shift the gears of her Porsche and balance her buddy, JD, when she hits and kills someone. Grace jumps out of the car and tries to revive the victim. When that fails, she asks God for help. That’s when the angel appears.
   
He’s a tobacco chewin’ last-chance angel named Earl (Leon Rippy), who knows Grace is going to be a hard case. It turns out the homicide was only a figment of her imagination. The victim is really a prisoner on death row — another of Earl’s clients who experienced the accident in a dream.
   
Grace’s isn’t particularly pleased. “I’m supposed to do what,” she asks. “Change my life? Go to church?  Be nice to people? This is bulls**t.”
   
Grace fights redemption with the same ferocity that she attacks crime. There’s a missing child, and she’s stone cold sober about that. There’s no sexism in this department. Her opinion is respected and she’s well-liked, though everyone knows her personal life is spiraling out of control. 
   
It makes sense when she has a conversation with her nephew. Her sister, the nephew’s mother, was supposed to go to the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building to apply for a passport on April 18, 1995. Grace was going to babysit, but she didn’t feel well. So, her sister went the next day — and was killed in the terrorist attack. The invitations she’d been avoiding were to a memorial.
   
It’s a poignant moment and adds a dimension of reality to a show about a tobacco-chewing angel. There are very few actresses who can pull off the full range of motions Grace demonstrates in one episode; she runs the gamut from needy to sexy hot to guilty.  Did I mention sexy hot?   
   
It helps that Hunter doesn’t shoulder the load herself. She is surrounded by an excellent supporting cast, including the wonderful Laura San Giacomo as lab tech Rhetta Rodriguez.
   
SAVING GRACE is a winner and a perfect complement for THE CLOSER, the show it follows, about a strong (albeit far straighter) female cop.  TNT’s motto is “We know drama.” They also know scheduling.