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PEARSON: Licensed to hunt and dish

Published October 11, 2007 at midnight

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Women's Murder Club

• When and where: 8 p.m. Friday, Denver's 7

If Murder, She Wrote were recast as a coffee klatch, it probably would be a lot like Women's Murder Club.

No, the title doesn't refer to women who kill people, but to four best friends who solve crimes.

There's detective Lindsay Boxer (Angie Harmon), pretty and tough. There's deputy D.A. Jill Bernhardt (Laura Harris), pretty and feisty. And there's no-nonsense medical examiner Claire Washburne (Paula Newsome), the only one with a stable home life and stable relationship. There's also budding crime reporter Cindy Thomas (Aubrey Dollar); she may be young, but she's determined to get in on the action.

In Friday's premiere, a San Francisco journalist is murdered just as she's supposed to be meeting with Boxer. The deceased still "drops" in for the meeting - from atop a 30-story building.

Whodunit? That's what Harmon and her gal pals determine to find out, despite the fact that Lindsay's ex-husband (Rob Estes) is now her new boss in homicide. Can you say "unresolved issues?"

Based on James Patterson's best-selling novels, Women's Murder Club has moxie if not, based on first glance, an abundance of originality.

It's a police procedural with a twist: Even as they try to unmask a killer, these women dish about their love lives, the uselessness of men and their dreams.

On the plus side, Harmon returns to series television as attractive and appealing as ever. Her homicide inspector is no shrinking violet; she's just itching to kick a little butt.

Will the show fly amid a crowded field of cop shows? Probably. Next week brings on the hunt for a serial killer, who likes to sew his victims' mouths shut.

Friday is a tough night to draw an audience. But if you've gotta be home, Women's Murder Club will keep you entertained.Titanic's Tragic Sister

• When and where: 8 p.m. Sunday, The History Channel

Hubris notwithstanding, television often has something to teach us.

For instance, I never knew the fabled Titanic had two sister ships, the Olympic and the Britannic. I never knew that the Britannic also sank, taking dozens, rather than hundreds, of lives with it.

The History Channel sets out to rectify that lack of knowledge Sunday with Titanic's Tragic Sister, the story of the Britannic, launched in 1914, only two years after the Titanic struck an iceberg and sank in the North Atlantic.

The Britannic was almost an exact duplicate of the Titanic, except the designers went back and strengthened the hull and made other safety changes after the first ship went down. The Britannic was first pressed into service as a passenger ship, but during the waning days of World War I it was converted to a hospital ship to transport wounded soldiers between Greece and England.

On one of these runs - only its sixth voyage overall - the Britannic struck German mines in the Aegean Sea and sank in an hour, three times faster than the Titanic. How was this possible for a ship said to be unsinkable?

Experts Richie Kohler and John Chatterton dive on the Britannic's remains in the Kea Channel, trying to understand precisely what happened. This show is all about that dive - the ship lies in 400 feet of water - while offering viewers a bit of perspective on the ship's construction, its captain and the wartime environment that allowed a vessel of mercy to be targeted for destruction.

When the Britannic sank on Nov. 21, 1916, 30 people died (there were 339 survivors) - a far cry from the 1, 517 who failed to be rescued from the Titanic.

If you're a history buff or a fan of nautical lore, you'll find this hourlong documentary compelling. The divers are frustrated by silt, debris blocking entries to the wreck and Turkish authorities in whose water it lies.

Who knows? A few years from now, we might be visiting a museum exhibit on the Britannic, much as today we visit the hagiographic salute to its sister.

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