Where many have gone before

The good news about “Notes From the Underbelly” is that it’s set in a Los Angeles actually recognizable as Los Angeles. (As opposed to Malibu or Beverly Hills or Toronto.) The bad news? It’s about pregnancy.

“Notes,” which is based on Risa Green’s 2005 novel, has been a problem child since the pilot was first shot; last summer, ABC pulled it from its Thursday night lineup. The pilot was worked on, but the underlying problem is that underbelly. Of all the human conditions on which comedy can be based, pregnancy is the trickiest. Unless you are the person experiencing it, pregnancy is predictable and uninteresting. It has but one cause, requires a predetermined amount of time and has a well-known set of side-effects. (Any pregnancy that deviates much from these guidelines is a problem pregnancy and that’s just not funny.)

So, unlike the construct of an office or a group of just graduated friends, a show revolving around pregnancy has built-in limitations (and probably way too many bloating and barf jokes). Rather than fight those, however, the creators of “Notes” have surrendered to them. And added a few more. Like the stereotypical friends -- slacker dude for him, sweet, narcissistic stay-at-home-mom-to-be and a multi-tasking career gal dominatrix for her. (You’ll know the career gal because she wears black and those narrow glasses and carries a BlackBerry.)

In the midst of this cliche storm are the young lovers: Andrew (Peter Cambor) trying to convince Lauren (Jennifer Westfeldt), his adorably irritating wife, that 30 is not too young for a child, while she worries about whitewater rafting trips not taken and all those skintight designer dresses she will grow out of. (There is, I regret to report, a voice-over; I tried to ignore it.)

In “Sex and the City” tradition, Lauren is aided in her waffling by Julie (Melanie Deanne Moore), blissfully wallowing in her pregnancy, and Cooper (Rachael Harris), a divorce attorney with dual sex and adrenaline addictions and all the best lines.

Amazingly, “to be” wins out. Gone are the days when Lucy gives Ricky the good news while he’s singing at the club; now, two people in a bathroom hover over a urine-drenched stick. Time, time, go back in thy flight.

And we’re off: Lauren and Andrew quickly begin to grapple with the realities of urban neurotic parenthood -- was this a good idea or not? Should she continue to work or not? Will they become boring or not? Will they drive each other, and everyone around them including TV viewers, crazy long before the first Braxton Hicks contraction or not?

Westfeldt is energetic and likable, although the creators have saddled her with all the tired tics of her demographic -- can we please just call a moratorium on the whole women-as-shoe-fetishist thing? She is also hampered by the fact that she looks so much like who she is -- a hardworking actress -- that it’s hard to imagine her, at least right away, as a counselor in a posh private school.

Cambor’s Andrew is wide-eyed and bewildered and a landscape architect, a nice local touch. Harris’ Cooper doesn’t fare so well -- she’s a (surprise, surprise) divorce attorney. Still, she, Moore and Michael Weaver as Danny (male best friend and piano player at Nordstrom) seem determined to ignore the fact that their roles were possibly conjured by sitcom software and make them real people. (Harris has the benefit of looking like Mary-Louise Parker’s younger sister, with Parker’s gift of the one-liner to boot.)

Clearly, “Notes” plans to explore the fear, joy and ridiculousness that parenthood inspires in so many of us, relying on the quirks of the characters to infuse this with sass and humor. But none of the characters seems up to the task. Wacky parents of diverse variety will no doubt emerge -- perhaps a New Age gynecologist too -- but the terrain is just so familiar, charted by Lucy and Ricky, Murphy Brown and “Mad About You.”

Those currently or recently pregnant might find “Notes” unbelievably insightful and hilarious, just as those suffering a break-up suddenly rediscover Top 40 radio, but the audience may be limited to them. Unless at least one character turns out to be a serial killer or a shape-shifter or something.

Los Angeles, on the other hand, has never looked better. With many obligatory cafe scenes, the city shines, from Los Feliz to the Fairfax district to Santa Monica’s beach. So, if you’re a first-time pregnant couple living in Silver Lake, “Notes From the Underbelly” could be the show for you.

mary.mcnamara@latimes.com

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‘Notes From the Underbelly’

Where: ABC

When: 10 p.m. Thursday

Rating: TV-PG DLS (may be unsuitable for young children with advisories for coarse language, suggestive dialogue and sex)