WHAT IS WITH THIS GUY?

Byline: David Kronke TV Critic

There's a subtle but tacit acknowledgment emanating from every frame of ``The Chris Isaak Show'' that something is faintly absurd about all of this. That not only are the story lines little more than slightly perverse variations of sitcom standbys - in tonight's premiere, a guy quits dating a horse trainer because he fears he can't compete with her familiarity with equine equipment - but the whole enterprise is something of a charade.

Rock musicians aren't actors - music videos are edited by Cuisinart to conceal that very fact - and rock musicians sure as heck aren't supposed to have such highly developed senses of humor toward themselves.

And yet, in its unassuming, deadpan (and fairly naughty) way, ``The Chris Isaak Show'' is smashingly entertaining. Isaak plays a variation on himself, a popular pop star with a good-ol'-boy backing band (except for Jed Rees as Anson, the perpetually bewildered keyboardist, his real band members play themselves). He deals (usually badly) with groupies, stalkers, actresses, exhibitionists, women of every conceivable stripe of desirability. Heck, his father-confessor figure is a nude woman whose job is to appear to swim in an aquarium at a San Francisco bar called Bimbo's (actually, she's lounging, generally bored to distraction, on a circular bed in the bar's basement and is visible via mirrors).

His cohorts - the aforementioned Jason and Yola (the very funny Kristin Dattilo), his manager - fare no better in affairs of the heart, either. In future episodes, Chris bungles relationships with Minnie Driver and a lady cop, while Anson is tormented by a religious woman unable to reconcile her sins of the flesh and Yola goes to a sleep therapist for help with her insomnia, then can't sleep because she's too busy fantasizing about the doctor.

Other celebrities turn up playing themselves - Bai Ling guest-stars tonight, and Joe Walsh, Bret Michaels of the band Poison, Stevie Nicks, Shawn Colvin, Adam Arkin and Jay Leno, among others, appear in future episodes. But this isn't intended to be the music world's answer to ``The Larry Sanders Show'' - there's very little about the sinister, Machiavellian dealings of the music world. Instead, ``The Chris Isaak Show'' is more like Garry Shandling's other sitcom, the self-conscious ``It's Garry Shandling's Show,'' which likewise understood and reveled in the silliness of its plot mechanics (characters don't directly address the camera here, though; it just seems that way).

The show's producers, Andrew Schneider and Diane Frolov, previously worked on ``Northern Exposure,'' so naturally there's a lot of eccentric behavior and breezy, pithy dialogue; alas, there's not so much that'd find its way into a family newspaper. But the show creates such an easygoing atmosphere - as opposed to the manic tone of borderline desperation and palpable fear of flop sweat that emanates from so many other sitcoms - that it's easy to get comfortable with Chris and his pals.

And the music's not bad, either.

``THE CHRIS ISAAK SHOW''

What: Hourlong comedy about a rock star and his neurotic band members.

The stars: Chris Isaak, Kristin Dattilo, Jed Rees, Kenney Dale Johnson, Rowland Salley, Hershel Yatovitz.

Where: Showtime.

When: 10 tonight.

Our rating: Three and one half stars

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Photo:

Chris Isaak, left, Rowland Salley and Hershel Yatovitz in ``The Chris Isaak Show,'' premiering tonight on Showtime.