REVIEW: "Men in Trees"

Here's my Tuesday review, posted too late for the "sneak peek" but just in time for Friday's second (and final?) episode.

On “Men in Trees,” Anne Heche plays Marin Frist, a confident, successful author of a series of books on healthy relationships whose world is turned upside down when she discovers she isn’t in one.

As a premise for a TV show, “Men in Trees,” which gets a “sneak preview” in the “Boston Legal” time slot at 9 tonight on ABC (KMBC-9), seems very much of the moment. Indeed, another premiere today is “The Greg Behrendt Show,” a daily talk show hosted by the author of the best-selling breakup book He’s Just Not That Into You.

And that is exactly what Frist discovers about her fiancé halfway through tonight’s episode. She gets the message when she is thousands of miles away from her beau in a small Alaska town accessible mainly by single-engine plane. It’s not quirky, the way “Northern Exposure’s” Cicely, Alaska, was, but it is isolated, untamed … and full of men. They are unlike any men Frist has ever seen. As a local advises her, “The odds are good, but the goods are odd.”

But they also are willing to speak the unvarnished truth to her, and I don’t think it’s giving anything away to say that given her recent track record with the opposite sex, she’s going to try some unvarnished truth for a while.

Heche really shines in this role, which isn’t surprising given her well-publicized moments of embarrassment. Unfortunately, “Men in Trees” is heading to the obscurity of Friday nights on ABC, so tonight may well be your last chance to see this promising show.