Gellar pulls double duty on The CW's 'Ringer'

In the opening moments of "Ringer," a masked man chases star Sarah Michelle Gellar through a deserted loft space as Patsy Cline’s "I Fall to Pieces" plays on a nearby radio.

Those of us who know (and revere) Gellar as a certain vampire slayer expect her to fare just fine in this predicament.

But she doesn’t meet him Buffy-style, with a few punches and roundhouse kicks. She cuts and runs.

It’s hard to shake such an iconic role, but Gellar is off to a good start here as both troubled former stripper and recovering addict Bridget and her rich, not-so-nice twin sister Siobhan.

In the pilot, which premieres at 9 p.m. Tuesday, the sisters meet up after being out of touch for six years, though we don’t know what caused their estrangement. They seem to have little in common except for all the secrets they’re keeping from each other and those around them.

Talk about skeletons in the closet; Bridget is on the run from the FBI and a cartoonish mob boss, whom she was supposed to testify against. So when it appears that Siobhan has committed suicide, Bridget makes the split second decision to take over her sister’s life to protect her own.

Now she has to navigate that muddled life, which includes Siobhan’s distant husband (Ioan Gruffudd), who didn’t know she had a sister, let alone a twin; a lover (Kristoffer Polaha) who also happens to be her best friend’s husband; a bratty stepdaughter; and, oh yeah, an assassin (cue the masked man).

There are a few clunky moments in the first episode. The background music tends to be overly melodramatic — but I watched an early cut of the pilot, and it could be different by the time you tune in — and it gets awkward when Gellar is tasked to play both sisters in the same scene.

But, overall, the show is good. It’s dark and full of twists that can easily sustain an entire season and, hopefully, more.

Buffy would be proud.