Their so-called lives through the eyes of a video blogger

Oh big sigh indeed. "Quarterlife," which premieres tonight at 10 on Channel 7, is just plain creepy. The show was created by Marshall Herskovitz and Edward Zwick, the team who brought us affecting, ground-breaking drama with "thirtysomething," "My So-Called Life," and "Once and Again." But this time out, they've come up with an excruciatingly self-conscious look at an age group for whom, supposedly, privacy is irrelevant. Rather than developing a clique of layered individuals, as they've done before, Herskovitz and Zwick deliver a small culture of flat, irritating generational emblems.

The show began as a pilot for ABC. When the network rejected it, Herskovitz and Zwick rejiggered their concept and presented it as a series of 8-minute episodes on MySpace and on a "quarterlife" social-networking site. NBC then made news by picking up the Web series for prime time, heralding a new source of creative fuel for network TV. Alas, "quarterlife" is lame online and even flimsier in hourlong servings. Drama and comedy created for the Internet may indeed supply the networks someday, but "quarterlife" will only be recalled as an unremarkable pioneer.

Dylan (Bitsie Tulloch) is the central figure, a would-be writer who talks to herself - oh yeah, and to the entire world - on her vlog. She's fashionably self-aware, making statements that begin "A sad truth about my generation is . . .," and she laments her own digital fate: "We blog to exist, therefore we are idiots." Dylan lifecasts her personal torments and she shares the dark secrets of her friends. Essentially, she is in love with Jed (Scott M. Foster), who's in love with Debra (Michelle Lombardo), who's in love with Danny (David Walton), who's in love with himself. Oh, and Lisa (Maite Schwartz)? She's a big old drunk.

The unspoken mantra: Log on, sign in, rat out.