`CLOSER,' `SAVED' ARE TNT DYNAMITE.

Byline: David Kronke Television Critic

Brenda Johnson, as played by Kyra Sedgwick, is an inspired character; she elevates ``The Closer'' from its rote cop-show origins.

As much as she's a genius in the interrogation room, where she assiduously and ingeniously extracts confessions from perpetrators who haven't the foggiest what has hit them, she's pretty much a mess outside it.

She routinely infuriates her superiors and colleagues in the LAPD with her brusque demeanor, and her personal life is cluttered with, shall we say, issues.

``The Closer'' was an out-of-the-box hit last summer for TNT, thanks to Sedgwick. It returns for a second season with incremental character changes, but the overall theme seems to be, if it ain't broke--

As the series returns, Brenda - who started the series in a fairly dowdy manner but has since been sexed-up a smidgen - is considering ratcheting up her relationship with FBI agent Fritz Howard (Jon Tenney). Naturally, all manner of incidents complicate this romantic course, not the least of which is her dogged commitment to her job.

Tonight, she pursues a cop-killer; next week; she's investigating the possible murder of a jury member while her mother inconveniently comes to visit. Truth be told, the show's mysteries aren't all that mysterious, but Sedgwick and her cast, particularly the charismatic J.K. Simmons as her beleaguered boss, bring the most to the material.

Meanwhile, TNT will premiere a new series, ``Saved,'' which seems like its effort to go toe-to-toe with the edgier content its cable competitor FX routinely proffers. ``Saved'' focuses on Wyatt Cole (Tom Everett Scott), a paramedic who is as spiritually damaged as those he rescues are physically.

Cole has a gambling jones, a disgruntled father disappointed that he dropped out of med school, and a former girlfriend (Elisabeth Reaser) who informs him, after a passionate tryst in his ambulance, that she's preparing to move in with a far more grounded, if 7/8 naturally 7/8 uninteresting man.

``Saved'' is, basically, ``Rescue Me''-lite; it's also a far more sanitized version of Martin Scorsese's film ``Bringing Out the Dead.''

Scott's appealing, as is his rapport with his colleague Sack (Omari Hardwick).

But at least one of the show's conceits 7/8 the shorthand series of snapshots that exposits how Cole's patients came to find themselves in need of emergency care 7/8 feels both contrived and cliched (here's guessing it'll disappear if the series doesn't).

And the show itself is reluctant to go out on those brilliant narrative and thematic limbs that makes ``Rescue Me'' so memorable.

Above all else, ``Saved'' is safe, edgy viewing with the edge removed so that viewers needn't feel its characters' pain.

David Kronke, [phone]

david.kronke(at)dailynews.com

THE CLOSER - Three stars

What: Kyra Sedgwick returns for a second season as brash crime-stopper Brenda Johnson.

Where: TNT.

When: 9 tonight.

In a nutshell: Sedgwick's - and her supporting cast's - work elevates a foursquare cop show.

SAVED - Two and one half stars

What: Tom Everett Scott stars as a black-sheep but dedicated paramedic.

Where: TNT.

When: 10 tonight.

In a nutshell: ``Rescue Me''-lite.

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Kyra Sedgwick returns as quirky crime-solver Brenda Johnson in the second season of ``The Closer.''