Summer TV Series Starring Your Favorite Actresses

This summer, three returning series and two new series will star women as leads. The Closer, Weeds, and My Boys will return to basic cable while Saving Grace and Damages will begin their first seasons. If you're looking for a summer alternative to reruns and reality, you might enjoy these shows.

The Closer stars Kyra Sedgwick as the deputy chief running LAPD's Priority Homicide squad. Brenda Johnson is smart and covers her razor-sharp crime-solving mind with a southern drawl and a love of sugar. Sedgwick has been Emmy-nominated for her role and leads an impressive and fun cast that includes JK Simmons, Jon Tenney, Anthony Denison and G.W. Baily. S. Epatha Merekeson, Lt Van Buren of Law & Order, will play a recurring role this season. The Closer airs on TNT Mondays at 10PM beginning June 16th.

Weeds stars Mary Louise Parker, also an Emmy nominee, as Nancy Botwin, a single suburban mom who has a weed business - as in marijuana - working out of her home. The series, which started in 2005, airs on HBO beginning in August. Elizabeth Perkins co-stars as Nancy's friend. The big news with this show is that Mary Kate Olsen, of the Olsen twins, is set to co-star as one of Nancy's son's born-again girlfriend.

My Boys is a sitcom airing on TBS, which has sought lately to expand its comedic content. The show stars Jordan Spiro as PJ, a sportswriter in Chicago. Her life is filled with men, but none of them of the 'boyfriend' type ( well, maybe one of them is, given a hook-up last year...) But mainly, they're pals, or relatives- her brother is played by comedian Jeff Gaffigan. The show returns in July.

In the new series category, two bigtime movie actress are making the move to cable drama. Why? Probably because you have to be about 22 to get a movie role as a woman these days. But I digress.

Glenn Close will star in Damages, a legal drama with an emphasis on character coming to FX, a network known for hits edgy male-skewing shows like Rescue Me and The Shield. Close will be joined by another female character played by Aussie Rose Byrne, but the other knowns attached to the story are guys: Tate Donovan, late of The OC; Broadway vets Zeljko Ivanek and Phillip Bosco, and Ted Danson, whose best known for his roles on sitcoms like Cheers and Becker. The series, set in New York City, is about a law firm at war with a corporation- Close is the lawyer, Danson is the corporate guy. The series begins on July 24th.

On TNT, Holly Hunter, Oscar-winner for The Piano, will star in the series Saving Grace. Her character is a cop in Oklahoma- a character named Grace, thus the title, I guess. Grace drinks, has bad relationships, and, basically, her personal life, according to press releases, is a mess. She gets in an accident, almost dies, and this angel comes to her - an unorthodox angel, apparently- and tells her to get her act together, which apparently, she struggles to do even with his help. Laura San Giacomo from Just Shoot Me and Bokeem Woodbine also star in this series which starts on July 18th.

These are not the only woman-centered shows on cable this summer. Lifetime is premiering two series about women. Army Wives is about, well, wives of men serving in the Army. Sounds a little like David Mamet and Shawn Ryan's CBS series "The Unit" except without the guys blowing up stuff part. Lifetime will also premiere State of Mind which will star Lili Taylor (Ransom) and Lolita Davidovich (Blaze) as two therapists whose own personal issues the series will explore. Kathy Griffith will also return with her life on the D-List on Bravo. Janel Moloney, late of The West Wing, will also be adding some more feminine energy to Showtime's The Brotherhood.