Maximum Bob ABC, Tuesdays

By JAMES COLLINS

As the director of Men in Black and Get Shorty and the cinematographer on three Coen brothers films, Barry Sonnenfeld has had lots of experience with a genre you could call bizarre noir. Now he has created his first TV show, and it has--in milder form--the surreality and edge of his earlier work. Based on an Elmore Leonard novel, Maximum Bob stars Beau Bridges as a colorful, corrupt judge in a small Florida town. He's the kind of guy who will avoid paying his ex-wife alimony by putting her in jail. Amusing, smoothly put together and featuring a likable cast, this summer series augurs well for Sonnenfeld's next (and very curious) TV project, a revamped Fantasy Island, which has won a place on ABC's fall schedule.

--By James Collins