‘Wasteland’ is just that> Self-absorbed characters gain little sympathy

A new drama premiering at 9 tonight on ABC has a title that’s at least half right.

“Wasteland” tells the story of five pretty people, former college friends in their mid-20s who don’t know what they want to do with their lives. The title is that adapted by 26-year-old Dawnie (Marisa Coughlan) for her anthropology paper, the premise of which is that in the ’90s, people use their 20s as a second coming of age. With such an approach to life, no wonder she’s still working on her first degree.

Her friends are chain-smoking publicist Jesse (Sasha Alexander), closeted gay soap hunk Russell (Dan Montgomery), struggling bartender/would-be musician Vandy (Eddie Mills) and Southern belle Sam (Rebecca Gayheart), the pretend adult of the group who’s just starting a job in the district attorney’s office that her father pulled strings to get for her.

Can you say vapid? Sure. I knew you could. For a drama to be successful, the viewers must to some degree sympathize with the characters, and that’s hard to do on “Wasteland,” where they take their angst sooo seriously and have raised self-absorption to an art form. At least on “Friends,” we get to laugh at the characters’ growing pains.

“Wasteland,” the product of “Scream” and “Dawson’s Creek” creator Kevin Williamson, has the pop-culturally savvy dialogue that one would expect, but that’s hardly reason enough to turn away from a fading “Frasier” (or even “Chicago Hope.”) Come to think of it, maybe this inadvertent comedy is well-named after all.