I was watching the L Word the other night and I learned two important things:
1) If you're transgendered, and in the closet, do not go to your boss's pool party.
2) The L Word is awful.
I've watched bits of the L Word over the past two years, and, I've got to admit, I was kind of sucked in at first. I mean, sure, the women are all lipstick femmes, and they're all model-thin, and white, and they speak entirely in cliche, and, when they're walking up to a door, there's a twenty second shot of them walking up to a door, but, for some reason, there was still something oddly compelling about watching two fake lesbians having sex in a pool.
Apparently not anymore.
Somewhere between season two and season four the writers decided to spruce up things by over-misusing hip lingo ("my band released our album on myspace this week, so we're dealing with a lot of record companies") and random namedropping (Jenny gets interviewed by Curve Magazine! Jenny writes short fiction for the New Yorker! Jenny loves the B52s!).
And now that the show has decided to take on the "big issues," like transgender politics, the stakes are uncomfortably high. If the L Word is to be believed, the time period between a transitioning FTM's first testosterone injection and his ability to grow facial hair, pass as a man in a job interview and start dating the boss's daughter is about, er, five minutes.
It's too bad that the two flagship American big-G gay dramas (Queer as Folk and the L Word) have suffered from both bad writing and an unhealthy love of camp. The most interesting queer television characters from the past few years have appeared on straight shows (like Six Feet Under), so maybe there's something to be said against creating tv shows for the sole sake of self-representation. Maybe the pressure of living up to a community's vision of itself is too difficult a thing to do, and this burden inhibits good writing. Or maybe all the good gay writers just aren't writing for gay television shows. Or maybe the L Word should just spent more time on character-development, and less time shilling its internet side-projects ("Hey Alice, come look, it's ourchart.com, my new lesbian social networking site!").
All things said, it's hard to take something as trashy as the L Word all that seriously, and nowadays there are alternatives. When I want to watch a well-written, fully fleshed and engaging lesbian character deal with real-world issues, I'll just tune in to the Wire. And when I want to see Cybill Shepherd ride a mechanical bull in a bikini and yell "Snapple!" I'll know where to look.
9 comments:
I `don't speak english so good, but i'm agree with you in parts, about a the L word.
All the caracters are so cliches,(son estereotipos ya muy marcados y no reflejan casi nada que pueda ser verosìmil)
But, maybe some person can watch the series (y acercarse un poco a lo que es ser gay, aunque queda entre comillas) al menos mi madre ve la serie y le gusta y en cierto modo se le ha facilitado aceptarme como lesbiana.
Pero es cierto son demasiado bonitas para ser reales.
The L words rocks.. its about time there was a show out there that portrays lesbians in a femine way. There are lesbians out there (including myself and my girlfiend) who are like Bette, Tina, Alice, Jenny.. (who some are are infact real-life lesbians). I went to the L Word convention in blackpool a few months ago and it was amazing.. shane, Tina, Dana and Tim were amazing and it was great to see thousands of people from all over the world showing up to support and meet them.
Hope theres many more series to come!!!
The L Word was an amazing and is an amazing show no matter what people say. If you don't like the show then you obviously have no clue what its about.
Personaly I think the L Word is doing awsome things for people. First of all what about teen girls/guy that is dealing with what sexual orentation they are, they watch the show and the they are like...Hey! Thats what I have been feeling. Anywho, That what i think. (you might not like lez or gay's, and thats the reason you aren't running the show)
first of all, if you don't like the show anymore, don't watch it.
second, i personally love the l word. they portray entertaining, unique, and intriguing characters that create a good storyline.
what's the point of criticizing something that introduces the world and the coming out community to things they never thought about or considered. the l word is ground breaking, regardless if you think they should have better lines or characters. it's cool to see str8 girls get down like lesbians...it's taboo to be a lesbian and let a lone fake like one. i think that is awesome! the show is awesome, enough said. :)
the l word is amazing. if you don't like it, don't watch it. enough said.
I don't agree. Bette isn't white, for one. She's african american. So is Kit. There were like 2 episodes spend on the fact that Bette's black. With that, there are a whole lot of other things you mentioned wrongly. First get your facts straight. If you haven't followed The L Word, there's no way you could judge it.
I agree with your post 100%.
And yes, I'm a straight man who watched it at first because it was kind of interesting, and later because his bisexual wife was into the show, and her ex-girlfriend did seem to inhabit a world that was astonishingly like the L World (seriously, a bunch of femme lesbians involved in some serious soap opera)...but all that aside, the writing was just terrible. The characters underwent massive personality changes in order to suit the plot, and the politics were shouted through a bullhorn. Which always mystified me. Did the audience need to be told that, say, sexual orientation isn't a choice or whatever? Seemed like a lot of preaching to the converted.
Oh, I also didn't enjoy the fact that all the men were either pathetic lesbian-wannabes or villians. But actually, hardly any of the characters were likeable.
Is "Six Feet Under" straight TV, though? I don't think it is...it's a story with some straight and somes gay characters, but fundamentally it's a story that relies on good writing instead of an ardent fan base.
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