Product Description
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Follows the lives and loves of a small, close-knit group of
lesbians living in Los Angeles as well as the friends and family
members that either support or loath them.
.com
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Season One
Four years after Showtime made gay men the focus of its original
series Queer as Folk, it was time for a little turnabout with The
L Word (bad title, great show). Centering around a tight-knit
group of lesbians in Los Angeles, this drama was far removed from
its working-class male counterpart in both style and content.
While the men of QAF enjoyed a fabulous if melodramatic life on
the middle-class streets of Pittsburgh, the women of The L Word
lived it up in sunny California, with gorgeous houses, glamorous
careers, and sexy wardrobes. Ironically, though, The L Word
adhered more to the everyday drama of ensemble shows like
thirtysomething than the soap opera antics of QAF, and the
results were surprisingly heartfelt and effective, appropriately
stylish but never over the top. There was plenty of room for
titillation, but creator Ilene Chaiken fashioned from the start a
show centered on characters and not just sex, ing for the
heart rather than... well, other places.
The L Word focused primarily on committed couple Bette (Jennifer
Beals) and Tina (Laurel Holloman), a former power-career duo
who've decided to have a baby; however, artificial insemination
and the changing dynamics of their relationship throw their
previously happy existence off-kilter. Within their orbit are
spunky journalist Alice (Leisha Hailey), sultry hairdresser Shane
(Katherine Moenning), closeted pro tennis player Dana (Erin
Daniels), and espresso bar owner Marina (Karina Lombard) who, in
the show's most polarizing storyline, bedded the seemingly
straight Jenny (Mia Kirschner) and shook up her heterosexual
world. Jenny's am-I-straight-or-not? kvetching frustrated both
her fiancé (Eric Mabius) and many viewers, who were alternately
irritated and intrigued by her inability to decide one way or the
other. But Jenny's weakness was part of The L Word's strength: in
exploring many sides of many issues, both domestic and political,
it never came up with an easy answer for any of them, making the
show all that more fascinating--and compulsively watchable.
--Mark Englehart
Season Two
Once a series has broken new ground, where does it go from there?
Showtime's The L Word, concerning the relationships of a
community of lesbian Los Angelenos, turned heads with its smart,
funny writing and fully realized characters. Season Two offers
more of the same, with some notable guest stars and experiments
in narrative and music. This season, Jenny (Mia Kirshner) fully
embraces her sexuality as her ex-husband/roomie (Eric Mabius)
departs and voyeuristic documentary filmmaker Mark (Eric Lively)
and womanchaser Shane (Katherine Moennig) move in. Shane and
Jenny struggle good-heartedly over the affections of new
character Carmen (Sarah Shahi), who isn't given much to do
plot-wise apart from occasionally spinning records and serving as
one corner of the love triangle. Bette (Jennifer Beals) and Tina
(Laurel Holloman) start the season on the rocks due to Bette's
infidelity; the introduction of the one-dimensionally nasty
Helena Peabody (Rachel Shelley) causes further friction between
Bette and Tina while playing havoc with Bette's curatorial
career. Meanwhile, Dana (Erin Daniels) and Alice (Leisha Hailey)
go from being best friends to being a whole lot more, providing
some of the most touching scenes of the season. Kit (Pam Grier)
takes on The Planet, the seeming center of LA's lesbian universe,
converting it into a nightclub where, conveniently,
guest-starring bands can play.
Strong points of the season include Bette and Kit confronting the
death of their her (the superb Ossie Davis) and Shane's new
job as a gopher for a high-powered Hollywood producer (the
equally superb Camryn Manheim). Less strong are the distracting,
neo-expressionistic passages meant to be glimpses into Jenny's
creative mind and the interminable use of the series' theme
song--re-interpreted in a number of genres--to the point of
distraction. Mark's voyeurism, which crosses all sorts of
boundaries as he installs hidden cameras around the house, is a
brilliant way to challenge male viewers who may tune in just to
TiVo their way to the sex scenes. That said, the arc of that
particular story grows increasingly far-fetched as Mark somehow
avoids criminal prosecution and instead endures the horrible e
of having Jenny refuse his offer of coffee and a muffin. Despite
its flaws, The L Word is a show that deserves to be cheered on,
not for its politics, but for the skillful way it conveys complex
human entanglements with sensitivity. --Ryan Boudinot
Season Three
The third season of Showtime's The L Word is all about
transitions. The season opens with Alice Pieszecki (Leisha
Hailey) coping with her between-seasons break-up with Dana
Fairbanks (Erin Daniels), who is herself headed for an even
heavier series of transitions. Kit Porter (Pam Grier) both falls
in love with a younger man and discovers she is going through
menopause. Shane (Katherine Moennig), who spent much of the first
two seasons of the show hopping from bed to bed, finds herself
more or less committed to Latina deejay Carmen (Sarah Shahi). And
the second season's resident villain, Helena Peabody (Rachel
Shelley), becomes embroiled in a sexual harassment case that
leaves her ultimately looking like the victim. As with previous
seasons, The L Word gets all hot and bothered with various
seductions filmed to sometimes jarring music on the soundtrack,
but it's the day-to-day foibles and celebrations of Los Angeles's
lesbian community that keep the show interesting. Newcomer
Moira/Max (Daniela Sea) begins the process of gender
reassignment, making for some curious situations with potential
employers. Bette (Jennifer Beals) and Tina (Laurel Holloman)
begin to drift apart when Tina lands a big movie studio job and
starts feeling attracted to men, leading to a custody battle over
their baby daughter. Where The L Word starts getting preachy and
obvious is in the opening flashback sequences. When these
vignettes refer to current characters of the show, they make
sense; when they depict situations meant to underline how queer
identity has evolved over the years, they seem politically
overloaded. The L Word works intelligently through its
characters' concerns without having to resort to such direct
appeals for tolerance. Its strength isn't in making lesbian
culture appear more mainstream, but in making us care and
identify with these women's struggles, regardless of our sexual
orientation. --Ryan Boudinot
Season Four
If the third season was marked by transitions, The L Word's
fourth concerns growing up--or trying to, at any rate. Shane
(Katherine Moennig) becomes her brother Shay's guardian, Bette
(Jennifer Beals) and Tina (Laurel Holloman) stop fighting over
their daughter Angelica, and Bette's new boss, Phyllis (a very
game Cybill Shepherd), decides it's time to embrace her true
nature. So, after 25 years of marriage (Bruce Davison plays her
husband), Chancellor Kroll comes out of the closet--and sets her
s on Alice (Leisha Hailey). For all the inclusiveness, Max
(Daniela Sea), still remains on the margins. Dumped by Jenny (Mia
Kirshner) the year before, Max continues to share her apartment
while acclimating to life as a man.
For those who felt season three was too dark, four offers a
welcome corrective. There's still plenty of angst--Jenny's memoir
meets with a few negative notices (Heather Matarazzo's journalist
pens the harshest critique) and Helena (Rachel Shelley) learns to
live without Mommy's money--but there are plenty of moving
moments to compensate (most revolving around Shane and Shay). New
additions also arrive to shake things up, like Marlee Matlin as
an artist who helps Bette to broaden her horizons, Kristanna
Loken as a single mother with a yen for Shane, and Rose Rollins
as an Iraq War veteran with whom Alice has a tryst (leading to a
well intentioned, if heavy-handed message about how even liberals
should support the troops). As in seasons past, the directorial
line-up impresses as much as the acting talent, and includes
O winner Marleen Gorris (Antonia's Line) and playwright
Moisés Kaufman (The Laramie Project). Since creator Ilene Chaiken
makes most special features, like deleted scenes, available
online, this set offers few extras, other than biographies, a
photo gallery, and episodes of The Tudors and Californication.
--Kathleen C. Fennessy
Season Five
In a clever move, the producers of The L Word use season five to
revisit the origins of their own creation. After Jenny (Mia
Kirshner) sets out to direct the silver-screen edition of her
novel, Lez Girls, she enters a parallel world populated by actors
playing thinly-veiled versions of the central cast (in a typical
Jenny move, she s with the star who portrays "Jesse"). This
post-modern plotline brings newcomers up to speed, while offering
early-adapters new perspectives on the past. Naturally, the shoot
doesn't go smoothly. When the increasingly self-absorbed Jenny
hires adoring fan Adele (ER's Malaya Rivera Drew) as her
assistant, events take on All About Eve overtones. Since Jenny is
turning her life into a movie, it only makes sense for the two to
bleed into each other. In other developments, Tina (Laurel
Holloman) and Bette (Jennifer Beals) consider reconciliation,
Helena (Rachel Shelley) does time in prison, Alice (Leisha
Hailey) takes her penchant for gossip too far, Tasha (Rose
Rollins) fights to stay in the , and Shane (Katherine
Moennig), a dead ringer for Warren Beatty in Shampoo, rejoins the
ranks of the single, only to fall for straight girl Molly (Cybill
Shepherd's daughter, Clementine Ford).
In a more melodramatic, but equally entertaining move, Dawn Denbo
(Elizabeth Keener), proprietor of new hotspot SheBar makes life
hell for the Planet, but Kit (Pam Grier) and her loyal clientele
refuse to go down without a fight--even if they don't offer
"Lesbian Turkish Oil Wrestling." Aside from the fact that Max
(Daniela Sea) continues to get short shrift, The L Word's fifth
year proves the show has more than a little lusty and gutsy life
left in it, and was renewed for a sixth season. Extras include
cast biographies and episodes of Showtime's Dexter,
Californication, and This American Life. --Kathleen C. Fennessy