DON'T BE AFRAID OF 'MONK'.

Byline: David Kronke TV Critic

RAY ROMANO has a good line about his making a joke that offended obsessive-compulsives - ``If they start writing letters, they don't quit.''

The producers of ``Monk'' might consider getting a larger mailbox. The series stars Tony Shalhoub as Adrian Monk, a brilliant detective who in the wake of his wife's unsolved murder has a full battery of obsessive-compulsive neuroses: He's wary of germs, and anything bigger, which of course comprises all of existence. He's a neat freak: His shirts all look exactly the same, but they must be kept in a certain order in his closet; his socks are stored in plastic bags. He counts everything, even his steps when a car is trying to run him down.

Monk wants to win his job back on the police force, which he lost after going bonkers following his wife's murder. Thanks to his acute powers of perception, however, he's brought in on special investigations. His not- always-patient nurse, Sharona (Bitty Schram), must constantly talk sense into him and keep him from leaping headlong off the deep end - they make for a nice little comedy team; his former boss (Ted Levine) routinely expresses his exasperation with this jittery gumshoe.

Tonight's two-hour pilot concerns an assassination attempt during a mayoral campaign. The wealthy candidate's gold-digging wife complains of Monk, ``Someone tries to kill my husband and you send in Rain Man?''

Unperturbed by the criticisms - about the only thing that doesn't disturb him - he goes about his investigation, which Sharona describes as ``this Zen Sherlock Holmes thing.'' As in the old ``Ellery Queen'' series, Monk solves his crimes with canny re-enactments that sucker the perpetrators.

Not all of ``Monk'' works - it tends to get shticky and slapsticky, and let's hope that Sharona, who secretly digs her role as Dr. Watson, mustn't always play a damsel in distress in the final act. But one can easily see why Shalhoub (who also serves as one of the series' producers) was drawn to the role: His character is simultaneously comic, poignant and, against all odds, heroic. Shalhoub, who has been wasted in TV in the past (``Wings,'' ``Stark Raving Mad'') but used to good effect in films like ``Big Night'' and ``The Man Who Wasn't There,'' turns in a performance that's both nuanced and highly empathetic.

TV has been successful with variously-challenged detectives in the past (``Ironside,'' ``Longstreet''); ``Monk'' offers a variation that's fresh and potentially very entertaining.

MONK - Three stars

What: Dramedy starring Tony Shalhoub as an obsessive-compulsive detective.

Where: USA Network.

When: 9 tonight.

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Tony Shalhoub stars as an obsessive-compulsive detective in the new USA Network series ``Monk.''