My goodness, this character on the next episode of "The Closer" certainly is vile

TNT's "The Closer" will introduce on its next episode a character who will serve as the Moriarty to Brenda Johnson's (Kyra Sedgwick) Sherlock Holmes, a scuzzy lawyer who turns out to be extravagantly scuzzy indeed.

It all begins when a pretty woman is murdered (they're always pretty women - here's a social experiment for all you homicidal maniacs out there: Will the police not work as hard to solve the case if the victim is a homely woman?). (Just to rub it in, she's killed on her birthday, to boot.)

The responding cops don't exactly do stellar work, but they do manage to run a suspected but exonerated sex offender up a tree. The bad guy is one of those sniveling, whiny type bad guys you just sort of want to smack around in order to give him something to really snivel about, but his attorney is the previously mentioned scuzball, played by Bill Burke.

Burke's none too subtle - you peg this guy for a bad egg from the first frame of his appearance - but he fairly revels in his sociopathy, offering up luxuriant, high-minded justifications for defending lowlifes. "It gives purpose to my life," he says, soaringly and queasily.

There's a twist that's either really brilliant or utter nonsense - if there exists a legal loophole that allows for the sort of travesty of justice, you'd think someone would close it and quick. (Honestly, could this really happen? Someone with the show - we want answers, dammit!) And Brenda and the Gang seem to give up awfully easily on this one.

But it sets up future clashes between Brenda and the Attorney from Hell that should be fairly satisfying.

Now for the small-world portion of the story: TNT was established by Ted Turner. Ted Turner recently wrote a book, "Call Me Ted" (OK, Ted), which was co-written by - you guessed it, Bill Burke. (Sample sentences: "After our children grew older, Janie and I weren't on the same wavelength when it came to thinking about the big picture and as I became more involved in working on global issues, we had less in common. ... Divorce is always difficult but in this case the settlement negotiations were fair and went smoothly." Heartwrenching stuff.)

Mere coincidence? You be the judge.

- "The Closer:" 9 p.m. Monday, TNT.