The L Word - Longing for More

For those who have been following my blog for the past 3+ years (bless you!), you may have noticed that I have been suspiciously quiet about The L Word this season. Yes. As always, I have enjoyed it and I am sad to say, the series finale has come and gone. This season was certainly not as good as the others, in most respects. The entire premise of the season was just a set up for a spin-off that producer Ilene Chaiken hopes to sell to Showtime and develop another series.

The season focused on "Who killed Jenny Schecter," one of the main characters. Each new episode featured another of the main characters developing motive to kill Jenny, and vocalizing the threat. Many of the actions are out of character, and the situations overly contrived. Jenny's behavior went completely over-the-top.

OK - maybe that does happen to people. I want to give Ilene the benefit of the doubt. After all, she put lesbians into prime time, and made us sexy, successful and multifaceted. She created a family of characters that tons of people have blogged about, many Internet communities thrived on, and people are still talking about, even if it is in a negative, I-can't-believe-you-ended-the-show-this-way way.

What way would that be? She did not tell us who the murderer was, and claims to not even know herself. Fancying myself somewhat of a writer - I kind of understand this. Sometimes the story itself takes over, and presents its own answers, and maybe that just didn't happen. Maybe it will happen after an innocent woman goes to jail. Maybe we will get to find out how it all unravels because Showtime is now providing via the Internet the murder interrogation tapes, post-series finale, for us to all absorb. This involves loyal fans watching favorite friends say things totally out-of-character, thus ruining a bit of the integrity of the show...but still....we hang on...and we watch....and we wait for the movie...because, by God, there might eventually be another series with lesbians on TV.

This really has been ground-breaking television. It is the first series to focus around lesbians - their lives, their friends, their careers - just life, same as most shows, but without the heterosexual couples. It was done in a big, glamorous way, removed a bit from reality so as to entertain and filled with lots of eye candy, sure to make viewers, gay and straight, happy. So far, a 5-season boxed set of The L Word is on sale at various places. Presumably, in the fall, the 6th and final season will be added.

We own the first four seasons, so eventually will have to get the other two. For me, this is really a must-have for my DVD collection. It will be interesting to look back in 10 years and see what has changed, beyond hair styles and fashions. Hopefully, by then, there will have been many more lesbian-focused series, and we'll be saying, "Remember when this was the first?"

Ilene has been a role model for me, and though many people are quite upset by what she did to her show, the genius is that she had a show for 6 seasons that she could manipulate as she so desired. The ratings were so good that Showtime kept the show on for 6 seasons, and has agreed to a movie piloting the next possible show. She developed characters that we loved, and hated, and lusted after, and cried for - we were all along for the ride. What writer doesn't want to create a reality so powerful that people get angry when the characters do not act in accord with their personality, or who protest when someone dies, or is outraged when a couple breaks up? This is success. Ilene deserves huge credit for the world she created and for her part in advancing lesbian visability.