New show explores minds of teen boys

The teenagers are obsessed with sex and the adults aren't doing that much better

The mindset of teenage boys is a topic usually ignored by television drama. Sensibly so. New teen soapie Life As We Know It (TV2, 7.30pm), which ventures bravely into this dark and anxious swamp of desperation, summed up in its first episode last week why this is territory best left unexplored.

"They say teenage boys think about sex every 15 seconds, I think about it every five, I'm thinking about it now," explained one of the show's leading trio of American high school boys.

The ABC drama has an intrepid sense of adventure, at least, even if the hormone-charged results are much, much more information than the non-teenage-boy sector of the human race can bear. The testosterone surge alone might blow a fuse or two in the telly's circuits.

The show has its work cut out for it, replacing the smartest teen show on the box, the doings of sassy high school sleuth Veronica Mars. We know the development gap is large between the sexes at this age, but can we take this much regression at the tired, tail end of the year?

Then there's the overused device of having the lead characters talk straight to camera, as the world stops around them. Or the freeze effect might just be from shock at learning what's really going on in the average teenage guy's head.

How the dudes think is deeply alarming stuff. Dino, the handsome jock type, is obsessed with getting his girlfriend into the sack and conquering - squirm - virgin territory. "There's something about being the first guy, no matter what happens they can't take that away - I was there first."

His mate Jonathan is gagging to have sex with his girlfriend Debbie (played spectacularly badly by Kelly Osbourne), but she's fat and he's terrified at being laughed at for hankering after a girl without trophy status.

The more intellectual Ben is busy lusting after his provocative English teacher, who appears to be trying to turn teacher-student flirtation into an extreme sport.

Yes, this show is the teen abstinence movement's worst nightmare. On the other hand, it has to be commended for making an honest attempt to reflect the reality of the adolescent male brain.

And the girls, it seems, are more than equal to the task of succumbing to rampant hormones of their own.

The guys are obsessed with sex but there are life lessons, too, although it might be overly hopeful to expect them to penetrate the fug of lust clouding the horndog brain.

Meanwhile, the adults, for all their supposed maturity aren't doing that much better. Sex education, it seems, can be a lifelong study.

You have to wonder, though, whether this show has much chance of reaching its intended audience, surely far too busy out pursuing sex on a Friday night.

Meanwhile, the rest of us will be left shouting "Down boys!" at the box. Or retreating to the equally frightening fantasy world of girls on America's Next Top Model on the other channel.

Whichever way you look, Friday at 7.30pm is fast becoming TV's most scarily primal slot.