‘Zoe, Duncan, Jack & Jane’: Is It Too Hip for the Room?

Some of us who regard ourselves as reasonably hip were awaiting with great anticipation the arrival of the WB series “Zoe, Duncan, Jack & Jane,” which Touchstone Television, one of its producers, calls “a hip, high-voltage ensemble comedy about four teenage friends coming of age with all of Manhattan as their playground.”

Finally, a comedy on boring old TV hip enough for my tastes.

Then I watched it.

I got the teenage-friends-in-Manhattan part. But the rest . . .

Lamentably, “Zoe, Duncan, Jack & Jane” was way, way too hip even for me. Me, who is hip enough to like the WB’s “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” and decode that network’s sexy 15-year-olds-talking-like-30-year-olds on “Dawson’s Creek.”

Thinking it was probably a generational thing, I popped “Zoe, Duncan, Jack & Jane” into the VCR for my 29-year-old daughter, who was in town for a few days. But alas, it was too hip for her, too. And she lives “back East.”

She wanted to know why the laughter boomed stereophonically throughout the premiere when there was nothing to laugh about. Seeing humor where none exists must be what true hipness is all about, I surmised. She also wanted to know who was laughing. Either a laugh track, I explained, “or people a lot hipper than we are.”

Which may include you.

So here goes: Zoe (Selma Blair) and Jane (Azura Skye) are best friends. Jack (Michael Rosenbaum) is Jane’s fraternal twin, and Duncan (David Moscow) is his best friend. A nascent “Friends,” they’re upscale pals who hang out together and try to be cool in coffee houses, subways and home room.

Zoe Bean lives with her mother, Iris (Mary Page Keller), a former “deadhead,” who dates a geek named Bob, whose single eyebrow--a furry Maginot Line above his eyes--is a potentially funny bit that’s squandered. In addition, the Beans have a dog named Eyebrow.

Zoe falls for a guy named Montana, whose paraplegic sister--the character here with the most bent potential--is a bully and sadist, recalling some of the inspired funkiness of “Parker Lewis Can’t Lose,” a “Ferris Bueller”-minded Fox sitcom in the early ‘90s that deployed bizarre camera angles and special effects on behalf of humorous surrealism.

This new series tries for some of that attitude but comes nowhere close so far, although TV Guide--its finger ever on the pulse of hipness--says “Zoe, Duncan, Jack & Jane” may be teen-tuned WB’s “first truly breakthrough comedy.” That shows you how square I am. I thought “Dawson’s Creek” was a comedy.

* “Zoe, Duncan, Jack & Jane” airs at 9 p.m. Sunday on KTLA-TV. The network has rated the premiere episode TV-PGD (some suggestive language that may be unsuitable for younger children).