The latest ABC series, although somehow coming as a breath of fresh air amidst all those dramas, terrorist and police shows, can not but be classified a mediocre comedy, situated a little above all the other mediocre ones.

While FOX's ''Till Death' was more than disappointing, ABC's 'Men in Trees' stands a good chance of entertaining you, if you're desperate enough to watch some TV and there's nothing else available. The plot if filled with situations that probably made sense only in the script, lame lines and many, many scenes that are funny only due to their ridiculousness.

Anne Heche plays an active New Yorker, a best selling author of women's books. This far, the character of Marin Frist sounds believable enough. But the writers tented to get a little carried away, when they devised the script and sent such a fashionable 'novelist' (who, besides, makes very good money by telling women how to act around men and presenting her books to sold-out auditoriums) to a forgotten town in Alaska, where the men women ratio is of 10 to 1.

On the way there, Marin discovers that she had taken her fiancé's laptop by mistake and, of course, on it she finds many compromising pictures that prove to her that maybe, just maybe, men are not to be judged so easily as she had done until now.

Heart broken and devastated that her lover chose her best friend over her, she decides to remain in the Alaska town, to start her life all over again. And from her first 15 minutes there, the viewer can already predict which is going to be Marin's next love interest. We're not going to tell, because that would mean spoiling all the fun of you finding out by yourselves.

All in all, 'Men in Trees' brings nothing new to what has already been done and said in television, and especially in such kind of comedy series. If the warning that it would be disappointing has not discouraged you yet, you can catch the special pilot episode, which airs tonight at 10.02 P.M, on Channel 7.