Enter Coco, Sarah's younger sister (Lauren Ambrose). Not quite homeless (she's sleeping on a friend's couch), Coco is a clichéd Gen-X slacker. Despite years of estrangement, Sarah concludes that Coco could be a surrogate mother for her. Coco's response? "A living being will be growing inside of me, like Alien? ... No." Little sis agrees only when she learns that Sarah named a series of kiddie books after Coco's childhood imaginary friend, Jezebel James.

This is the latest project from Amy Sherman-Palladino, the creator of Gilmore Girls. Just as that show revolved around a complicated mother-daughter relationship, so this dramatic sitcom explores the knotty bond between extraordinarily different sisters.

Sherman-Palladino's style is evident in the way Jezebel's stars exchange repartee one moment (including occasional mild profanities and misuses of God's name) and reveal emotional vulnerability the next. When Coco resists the idea of being "knocked up with your baby, like I'm an incubator," Sarah breaks down and admits her reason for asking: "I'm broken. My insides aren't working properly."

Despite some poignant moments, however, Sherman-Palladino's latest take on family is awash in problematic attitudes toward sexuality. Neither Sarah nor Coco bats an eye at the fact that the other might be having casual sex. It's simply assumed. Other sexual content has included references to homosexuality, pole dancing and condoms. We've even observed Sarah and her current beau, Marcus, in bed together.

While Jezebel isn't as sexually preoccupied as, say, Sex and the City, the attitudes on display aren't much different. It never questions characters' self-centered pursuit of sex, nor has it comment-ed on whether Sarah's desire to raise a child alone is healthy. It's simply an itch she needs to scratch. Never mind how her frenetic lifestyle and inability to commit to a man might impact the baby she wants her sister to carry for her.