In her first starring role in a TV series, Oscar winner Holly Hunter is playing a flawed, cynical cop. This Oklahoma City detective drinks too much, is having an affair with a married man and is driving down the road to self-destruction.

Heaven help her.

In fact, "heaven help her" is the whole point of "Saving Grace," which will premiere at 10 p.m. July 23 on TNT. Earl (Leon Rippy), a blunt angel with a fast wit and a love for chewing tobacco, has come down to Earth to help equally blunt detective Grace Hanadarko (Hunter). They're both stubborn, and by the second episode, they're wrestling each other. (Watch out, Grace; the angel cheats.)

"I have no idea how the audience will react to it," Hunter said during a conference call with reporters. "The show is original in ways that are very unpredictable in terms of each story. I'm just very excited."

Before "Saving Grace," Hunter developed a long, award-winning career. Her movies include "Raising Arizona" (1987), "Broadcast News" (1987); "Roe v. Wade," a TV movie for which she won an Emmy (1989); "Always" (1989); "The Piano" (1993), for which she won her Oscar; "The Firm" (1993); "O Brother, Where Art Thou?" (2000); and "When Billie Beat Bobby," a 2001 ABC movie in which she starred as Billie Jean King and was nominated for an Emmy. And she was the voice of Helen Parr, aka Elastigirl, in "The Incredibles" (2004).

The list of her movies is much longer than that. But Hunter, a 49-year-old Conyers, Ga., native, said she has been missing something: the chance to focus on one character and work with the same cast over an extended period.

"The intimacy, safety and comfort you feel with some actors is something you don't want to walk away from," she said. "In a way, we're a repertory company. It's something I never had in the movies, but I'm getting it now."

Checking with another star

Still, Hunter had her questions about TV.

"I called Dylan McDermott and asked: How do you do this? It's an ambitious thing,'" Hunter said. "He said the most exciting thing is you have to be a very smart actor. You don't get two months to memorize lines (as on a movie). You might get a day. You might have to memorize lines on the set."

McDermott starred on ABC's "The Practice" and is returning to episodic TV this fall as he stars in another series for the network, "Big Shots." The drama-comedy is about the problems of corporate executives.

On "Saving Grace," Hunter works with a fictional angel, but away from the cameras, she said she doesn't believe angels exist.

"This is a story and I'm a storyteller," she said. "Everything I've ever done in my life is fiction.

"The relationship I have with Earl is very dynamic. It's a relationship that is based on love. It's hard to explain," Hunter said. "I just feel Earl really loves me. What we all want for Grace is peace. He wants Grace to find peace. I don't think he's particular about where she finds it.

"She wants Earl to go away," Hunter said.

Earl appears to Grace in the first episode after she drives drunk and kills a pedestrian. The angel magically changes history just enough so that the accident never happened.

As a detective, Grace is determined to figure out the truth about that night and Earl.

The cynic's affair

But besides wrestling with Earl, metaphorically and literally, she's also wrestling with her affair with her partner, Ham Dewey (Kenneth Johnson of "The Shield"). He's a married man, and they turn to each other to fill the holes in their lives.

Earl tries to show Grace there's a better way, but Grace seems more concerned about investigating Earl. She brings back evidence about Earl to her friend, criminalist Rhetta Rodriguez (Laura San Giacomo of "Just Shoot Me"). Rhetta, who's religious, examines the proof and concludes Earl must an angel.

Grace, though, remains somewhat cynical. But she shows her more compassionate side in helping her young nephew, who lost his mother in the April 19, 1995, Oklahoma City bombing. (Parts of the pilot episode were filmed in Oklahoma City.)

It's a quiet but strong side of Grace that she doesn't let human adults — or Earl — see.

Hunter said she's glad "Saving Grace" is on a cable channel, which allows it some freedoms it wouldn't have on a broadcast network.

"There's less money at risk. As soon as you're spending less money, you can take more chances because there's less money at risk," Hunter said. "It's been a fantastic, uncensored journey in developing the character, right from the time I was offered the pilot.

"I made up a lot of the (character's) past for myself. I got to collaborate with (executive producer) Nancy Miller, who created her. We've created this past for her that feels right," Hunter said. In addition to being the star, Hunter is one of the series' producers.

"Each story has a very original feeling. We're working on the 10th episode now. The show does not follow a formula," Hunter said.