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Meet Sara Pezzini (call her Pezz for short), a New York City cop with a chip on her shoulder and an ancient mysterious bracelet around her arm that can morph into incredible weapons when her emotions get boiling. 

Pezz (played by Yancy Butler) is the hero of TNT's new weekly action-drama "Witchblade," which refers to the equipment on her wrist, and she's caught in a show that emphasizes stunts and chases more than dialogue, story or character development. 

There's lots of breathless razzle-dazzle, but you often don't know who anyone is or what's going on. Filmmakers just leap into the middle of the action, assuming we know all about Sara and the witchblade. 

If you saw "Witchblade," the movie, last year, then you've got a clue. For those who didn't, good luck in catching up. 

The new summer series cropped up because the made-for-cable movie turned out to be the highest-rated movie on basic cable for its week and it attracted more of that golden demographic of age 25-54 than any other movie that year. 

That prompted TNT folks to rush this series into production, seemingly before anybody had figured out where it's going week after week. 

From the first show, which premieres at 8 p.m. Tuesday (cable Channel 30), there's a lot of water-treading going on. The series opens with two mysterious men in long black coats chasing each other over rooftops, then leaping several stories to the street below unhurt. 

Then, there's a motorcycle chase that features some "Matrix-like" stop-action in midair as the drivers assess each other like jousting knights. It sets the tone for a show that's going to be short on explanations because there probably aren't any. 

The idea is just to go with the action flow, whether it makes any sense or not. 

Butler, who also starred in the movie, continues her role as a cop with an attitude, which has only gotten worse because her partner, Danny Woo (Will Yun Lee), was killed in the original tale. 

Not to worry, Danny comes back as Pezz's spiritual -- and very enigmatic -- guide, who advises her with philosophical mumbo-jumbo like "You need to work on your confusion tolerance" or "There's a fine line between clarity and insanity." 

Pezz begins this new series with a new flesh-and-blood partner, Jake McCartey (David Chokachi), a blond, spiky-haired hunk who promptly gets himself shot and confined to desk duty while Pezz is out prowling the mean streets on her own. 

She's trying to fight crime while figuring out her own mysterious origins (she's an orphan) and how to control the powers of the witchblade (no explanation how she got it in this series) that makes her, if not exactly immortal, at least pretty invincible. 

It morphs into everything from a gauntlet that deflects bullets to a full shield of armor like a medieval knight. You'd think trying to fight crime in a suit of armor would be a little inhibiting, but Pezz is up to the challenge. It's all mental, you see. The armor is apparently as elastic as a force field. 

Perhaps only the audience can see the armor in the first place. Nobody else seems to see anything other than Pezz in her best romping, stomping form. 

Butler as Pezz is a beautiful woman but an oddball actress with a husky voice, a swagger and eyes that stare and squint like she's either trying constantly to focus or to hypnotize someone. 

She always seems a little too eager, a little too hyper. Just watching her will exhaust you -- and maybe entertain a little bit as well.