---

There was some apprehension when TNT announced it was turning its hip 2000 TV movie "Witchblade" into a series for this summer. Last year's film, based on the Top Cow comic book about a female cop with a magic bracelet, was one of a handful of TV properties able to translate the cool special optical and physical effects of "The Matrix" onto the small screen. 

UPN's "Freedom," a TV variation inspired by the hit flick and even produced by "The Matrix's" Joel Silver, couldn't pull it off. But the highly rated "Witchblade" worked. 

Does "Witchblade" the series work? You bet, judging from Tuesday's premiere. 

Debuting at 9 p.m. ET on TNT, the series is a seamless continuation of the film, complete with captivating action sequences, moody lighting and camera angles, and that dizzying 360-degree viewpoint that made "The Matrix" one of the most innovative films of its kind. 

"Naturally, people were very worried about the production value (of the series), and naturally so, because the (movie) just blew everybody out of the water," says "Witchblade's" star, Yancy Butler. "And we've really been able to maintain, visually and story-wise, a lot of the same kind of oomph." 

Butler credits "Witchblade's" unique style to veteran director and producer Ralph Hemecker, who directed both the TV movie and Tuesday's premiere, as well as episodes of "The X-Files" and "Millennium." 

But it doesn't matter how cool the effects. If there isn't a central character to humanize a special-effects extravaganza, there's no reason to watch. 

The hero to root for here is Butler's maverick detective Sara Pezzini, who has inherited the mystical jewelry from a long line of warrior women. It can turn into a sword-wielding gauntlet, cover its wearer in armor, and bless that person with enhanced physical abilities. 

Butler infuses Sara with a world weariness that makes you wish she could take a break and enjoy life. But how can she, when she wields a powerful, symbiotic weapon? 

"Hey, it's just another boring day: enlarged reptilian brains, ghosts, nightmares, hallucinations, the Witchblade _ nothing confusing there," Sara deadpans to her ex-partner Danny Woo (Will Yun Lee), whose death in the TV movie doesn't stop him from advising her. 

Talking to ghosts is just one offshoot of the power of the Witchblade that Sara will learn about as the weeks go on. Viewers will also learn about the weapon as the character does. 

"A lot of times, everybody else seems to know what's going on in a series except for the audience," explains Butler, 30. "With ours, the audience, along with my character, is kind of going through this mythology of where she came from, where this thing came from, and how long it's been around and how to use it. She's learning along with everybody else. And I think that that's what makes make it kind of different and cool." 

In the movie, Sara was constantly in a foul mood, heightened by the murder of her best friend _ an event that led her to the Witchblade. But some of that grumpiness should disappear in subsequent episodes. 

"She needed to have something that was present with her, whether it be a girlfriend that she goes out shopping with, or a turtle or something," Butler says. Instead of a turtle, Butler says, Sara will have a love interest on the series. 

"It was a side of her that we needed to see," she says. 

No giggles in Tuesday's premiere, as Sara's overall skepticism isn't helped by her suspension from the New York Police Department for her part in a shoot-out with gangsters that was seen in the film _ circumstances that look stranger to her superiors because they don't realize a huge part of the carnage took place while she was wearing the Witchblade. 

While on suspension, Sara finds out she has a new boss who doesn't seem to have her best interest at heart, and she and fresh-faced new partner Jake McCartey (David Chokachi) find out an ex-Special Forces operative is trying to kill enigmatic billionaire Kenneth Irons (series regular Anthony Cistaro), who wants to possess the Witchblade _ and if Sara comes with the package, sweet. 

"Witchblade," which is scheduled for an 11-episode run, is a nice action series to enjoy in the summer, full of atmospheric characters and situations, and led by a variation of the wave of female action heroes inspired by "Xena: Warrior Princess."