Angie Harmon Back on the Crime Beat in Rizzoli

You can take the girl out of crime TV, but you can’t take crime TV out of the girl. Wait, what? That doesn’t make any sense. Anyways, Angie Harmon is returning to crime TV with a new show, but this time she’s the female lead. Unlike her stint on “Law and Order” (the original one, not one of the 52 spin-offs), Harmon will be slipping on the police badge as a Boston Detective on the new TV show “Rizzoli” for TNT, the go-to home of tough TV chicks with badges.

Harmon’s character, Jane Rizzoli, is based on the popular mystery novels by writer Tess Gerritsen. Rizzoli is a tough but sensitive Detective who works on her cases with fellow mystery solver Maura Isles, the resident medical examiner. The role of Isles has still to be cast.

The “Rizzoli” pilot was written by Janet Tamaro (”Bones”) and will be directed by Michael M. Robin, who executive produces and helmed the pilot for “The Closer”, TNT’s ratings hit, also about a tough but sensitive female cop with a weakness for sweets. The network is probably looking for a replacement for the Holly Hunter cop show “Saving Grace”, which hasn’t come anywhere close to matching “The Closer’s” numbers, and is being put out to pasture. I guess there’s no saving, er, Grace. Ahem.

This is Harmon’s second TV show where she plays a cop, counting last year’s failed “Women’s Murder Club”, about a bunch of women who solve crimes. I always thought the reason that showed failed was because it just didn’t have enough Angie Harmon. Then again, I am a Harmon fan, so maybe I’m a little bias. There won’t be that problem with “Rizzoli”, though.

Bye, women's murder club. Hello, Angie Harmon's murder club.