After last month's release of a study that found teens who watch TV shows with sexual themes are more likely than others their age to start having sex, the timing for ABC's "life as we know it" (9 p.m. Thursday) couldn't be worse. Nor could a semi-positive review from yours truly.

	'life as we know it' When: 9 p.m. Thursday on ABC. Starring: Kelly Osbourne.

The pilot episode for "life" is really interesting; unfortunately two subsequent episodes are not as commendable.

There's a lot of talk about sex in Thursday's pilot episode, and some of the stories are over the top, not to mention similar to plots on the first season of "Dawson's Creek." But what I appreciate about the "life" pilot is how truly life-like it is.

In the past, teenage girls have been the ones to have their inner emotional lives explored with a microscope in TV dramas, particularly the ABC critical hit "My So-Called Life." This new "life" -- yes, the title is all lowercase out of a copyright necessity, according to producers -- trods the same ground as the previous "Life," but instead of focusing on girls, it's more about sex and relationships and friendship from a teenage boy's point of view.

Not that the guys on this show share their innermost feelings with one another; they most assuredly do not, just as most guys that age do not. Instead, the characters speak directly to the camera to reveal their roiling emotions.

Unlike the kids on "Dawson's Creek," the boys on "life" don't sound like they have degrees in psychology; they sound like real teenagers, which is to say, sometimes they're pretty profane, saying things I can't get away with quoting in a family newspaper.

Which brings us to this: Should teenagers be allowed to watch this show? That's up to parents, who obviously know the emotional maturity level of their children and their susceptibility to peer pressure inspired by fictional characters. As always, I'd advocate for parents to watch it with their teens in hopes of sparking a discussion.

It's also worth noting that, although the characters talk about having sex non-stop, none of them actually engage in anything more than making out in the first three episodes, although I expect that will change in future episodes.

But even though I liked the "life" pilot, my enthusiasm for the show has diminished since seeing two more episodes. The direct address to the camera begins to grate, and the whole show is not different enough from teen shows of the past.

Based on the British novel "Doing It" by Melvin Burgess (published in America this summer), "life as we know it" follows three primary characters: rising hockey star Dino (Sean Farris), a confident guy who knows he's attractive and knows how to use his looks to get what he wants; Jonathan (Chris Lowell), a creative and innately compassionate guy who's attracted to best friend Deborah (Kelly Osbourne) but afraid to act on that attraction because he doesn't want to be teased for dating a full-bodied girl; and Ben (Jon Foster), a smart kid whose background remains undefined in the pilot. He has the hots for a teacher (Marguerite Moreau) who's eight years older than him.

It's the Mary Kay Latourneau-like plot that makes me the most uneasy about "life as we know it," both because of the sensational nature of the story and because "Dawson's Creek" had the same plot its first season.

"It should give some people the creeps and other people it shouldn't," said executive producer Jeff Judah, who developed "life as we know it" with Gabe Sachs. Both are veterans of the best teen show ever, "Freaks and Geeks."

"We're trying to make it look like what if these people should have been together, if they were both 22. They share a lot, they have a lot in common, but they're not [both 22]. It is from the headlines and it is what's going on out there, and we're just investigating it."

It's that investigation of teenagers and sex that some viewers just don't want to see on TV. And I see that side. Parents want to keep their children innocent for as long as possible; they want to protect them from the ugliness of the world. But sooner or later, kids are going to see that side of things -- chances are they hear it every day in school hallways already -- and it might be better for parents to engage their teens in conversation about uncomfortable subjects rather than ignore certain realities while crossing their fingers and hoping all will turn out well.

The producers of "life" seem unconcerned about last month's sex on TV study. In a follow-up interview late last month, Judah said in early episodes the teen characters don't have sex.

"One of the things we talk about as we do the show is that the kids are physically ready for sex, but not emotionally ready for sex," he said. "That's our point of view as writers and creators of the show. They're all jazzed up and have all these media images and pressures to have a different life, but it's not that simple. And if they are going to have sex, there are consequences involved."

If that study is to be believed, you could argue there may be consequences for teens who tune in.

Wherever you land in the debate about what's wrong with TV -- it usually comes down to conservatives who say TV has too much sex and liberals who say TV has too much violence -- "life as you know it" proves one thing: TV shows like this don't make life as parents know it any easier.