Angie Harmon stars in TNT's new series 'Rizzoli & Isles'

TNT already has Kyra Sedgwick's "The Closer" and just ended Holly Hunter's "Saving Grace," both featuring strong women in the criminal field. But when's the last time (and perhaps only other time) two female co-leads solve crimes? You'd have to go back to "Cagney and Lacey" in the 1980s.

"I feel like an alien when I mention that to younger people," said Harmon in a phone interview last month. "But it's what I grew up with. I remember watching that show and looking at those women. I wanted to be tough like that."

The series is based on books written by Tess Gerritsen, a popular author from Maine. She watched the first episode being made. "I had a great time," she said, in an interview at the Four Seasons in Buckhead last week. "It's overwhelming how difficult it is to make a TV show versus writing a book. The hours. The effort. The armies of people! That was excruciating. I'm so glad I'm not an actor! It's hard work. But it was fun watching my story." [The first episode is based on her book "The Apprentice."]

Gerritsen's written version of Rizzoli is short and a bit homely. Harmon? Tall and attractive, Holllywood style. But Gerritsen said Harmon captures the essence of Rizzoli.

"She basically has few friends," Harmon said. "Everyone else can't stand her. It's a difficult thing to go to work to every single day. But she has a tough skin."

"The writers sit around the writing room and say, 'What is the most obnoxious thing Angie can say this week?' "

Harmon jumped right back into TV after ABC's "Women's Murder Club" lasted only 13 episodes  last year.

"It was a direct rehearsal to this," she said. "We're on cable. We can do a lot more than we could on that show. The crimes can be scarier, grittier, gorier. We can be sexier, too." She acknowledged some similarities between her characters in the two shows. "Lindsey [on 'Women's Murder Club'] was emotionally inept and hung up on Tom. Jane fully understands her situation what she looks like and what kinds of relationships she can have."

"I thought they'd keep that revolving door going," she said. "The revolving door became a character... New York is a very nostalgic place for Jason [her husband and former New York Giants player] and me. That's where we were dating. That's where we got engaged and fell in love. I hope they keep the stage and turn it into a Law & Order museum!"

On TV

"Rizzoli & Isles"

TNT, Mondays at 10 p.m.

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