FX’s juicy new drama Dirt is filled with the sorts of sordid and sexy story lines one would expect from a show about tabloid magazines, but it’s also surprisingly engaging and classy. Plus, it features one of the strongest female characters ever seen on the small screen, played by Courtney Cox in her first regular TV role since the end of Friends. Keeping Cox company is a lesbian character with the mysterious name of Garbo, played by Carly Pope (who also appears in the upcoming Itty Bitty Titty Committee). Throw in a surreal turn from a schizophrenic photographer, and no one has an excuse to stay clean this winter.

The show focuses on Lucy Spiller (Cox), the cunning head of a high-class gossip rag. Lucy is sexy, smart and utterly ruthless, and she moves with ease through the high-powered — and male-dominated — Hollywood landscape. She makes and breaks celebrity careers with her reporting, fires insubordinate writers without blinking, and gets her stories regardless of the cost.

The extent of her power is certainly not lost on her, and despite a very attractive, feminine appearance, Lucy’s character behaves in surprisingly masculine ways. She walks with an impressive swagger, kicks men out of bed when she tires of them, and even declares that she would give her “left nut” to get a certain photo. It’s wonderful to see a woman — regardless of sexual orientation — enjoying her power in such a kick-ass manner.

Like FX’s other soapy offering, Nip/Tuck, Dirt certainly doesn’t shy away from the sex lives of its various characters, gay, straight or even alone. In fact, in one early episode, there are two scenes of Ms. Spiller enjoying a quiet evening with her magazine, a glass of wine and a vibrator. As she says to one of her hapless paramours, “I have better luck on my own.” On this show, the sisters are doing it for themselves.

Like Nip/Tuck, Dirt provides a vivid rainbow of colliding story lines. Early on, Lucy ropes a struggling young actor, Holt (Josh Stewart), into becoming an informant, setting into motion a series of events that leads to suicide, a car accident, a major movie deal and a spiraling drug addiction — all within the first two episodes. Lucy also struggles with editorial and financial politics within the office, not to mention the adventures of Don (Ian Hart), Lucy’s superstar photographer and a full-blown schizophrenic.

Don’s life and his various delusions comprise a fascinating and thoroughly bizarre element of Dirt. While having a schizophrenic character working for the top tabloid paper in America sounds a bit contrived, it actually works. Don is like a younger brother to Lucy; the fact that she nurtures him and cares for him proves that there is, in fact, a heart beating inside her chest. And Don is an incredibly talented and dedicated photographer despite persistent delusions that steer him toward misadventure.

Other characters fall more within more traditional parameters. On the reporting side, there’s Willa (Alex Breckenridge, who had a role in the short film version of D.E.B.S.), an ambitious young reporter trying to impress Lucy; Brent (Jeffrey Nordling), the smarmy advertising director; and Gibson Horne (Timothy Bottoms), the cold businessman who owns the magazine.

Lucy’s early dealings with her co-workers (and her boss) prove both her skills and her raw ambition. When it comes to office politics, she’s just as tough and smart as she is with Hollywood’s elite, which is well represented on Dirt by a myriad of actors, singers, sports stars and other celebrities that keep Lucy’s magazine flying off the shelves. Especially fun are the characters who are obviously based upon recent real-life tabloid headliners such as Britney Spears and Tom Cruise.