Jonathan Storm | Transplant expert has elusive heart

Heartland

premieres tonight at 10 on TNT. It's set in Pittsburgh, which may not seem like the Heartland to you, but then it's not called

The Heartland

, is it?

The series is about what the boss calls "the pre-eminent transplant hospital in the country, the world," and they weren't about to call it Lungland or Liverland.

The boss is Treat Williams, a doctor again, but instead of a caring dad and family physician like he was on Everwood, he's an emotionally muddled transplanting fool, Dr. Nathaniel Grant. He can do all the previously mentioned organs, as well as kidneys, corneas and who-knows-what-all.

You don't see the more mundane transplants, petunias and pachysandra, and, at least in the first two episodes, you don't see any of Dr. Grant's patients pushing up daisies, either.

The organ donors, well, that's a different story, and it's part of what makes Heartland a surprisingly effective personal drama. Ryan Hurst will give you a clue of what's to come in this series, as a bereaved young husband who, as the driver, emerged unscathed, while his beloved wife, his passenger, was killed in a car crash.

Her heart goes into the chest of a little girl, but the main little girl in the show is Dr. Grant's daughter. Gage Golightly, 13, (Brothers & Sisters) plays Thea, 14, whom we first meet after she's collared stealing condoms from the Rite Aid, so you can see there will be plenty of dramatic fodder there.

Grant's ex-wife (Kari Matchett, the president's two-timing mistress this season on 24) is also the gal at the hospital who's in charge of getting the dead folks' relatives to sign the papers, so the father of her daughter can do his transplanting.

Dabney Coleman is the retiring head honcho, who could stand to have just about everything transplanted, but hasn't got the stomach for it. There's a newbie sawbones and a couple of hot-number nurses, one of whom is Dr. Grant's latest lover, and next week you'll meet Dr. Jonas, smart, strong-willed and long-ago ex-student of Grant's. C-Note must be free and clear on Prison Break because Rockmond Dunbar plays Jonas.

Grant is a workaholic. He smokes, and he refuses to call his assistants by name, and he's frequently brusque and unpleasant, House light.

So Heartland has all the elements of the typical TV medical drama, but it's more compelling because of the ethical and personal dilemmas involved in getting some people's organs into other people.

And the acting - Williams, Matchett, young Golightly, despite her silly name - sometimes gets close to breathtaking, clearly better than what you get in your usual medical dramas, and if you want to throw ER and Grey's Anatomy in there as not-so-hot, go right ahead. Even if the principals' relationships are well-lubricated with soap suds, there's a lot more meat on the bones in Heartland.

Television

Heartland

Series premieres tonight at

10 on TNT.