No particular thoughts on this episode, just a general thought. You don’t know what you’re missing until you suddenly have it. A show about lesbians. A show about people like me. Well, sort of like me. None of them are quite like me, nor does my “lesbian lifestyle”–whatever the heck that is–resemble theirs, the places they go, the people they meet, whatever, it’s a soap opera. How many of you live like “Sex and the City”?
My point is, they talk about the kinds of things my friends and I talk about, the writers of the show know the customs and quirks of the natives, and that’s what you never see on television, ever–except on the L Word. And that’s…different. And kind of cool.
Plus: Idyllwild. My favorite place in the universe.
ETA: L Word season 2 spoilers in comments!
Author Nancy E. Shaffer 
I have to admit to being aghast that Shane may be moving in with Jenny. I so hope that my favorite character isn’t joined at the hip with my least favorite for the rest of the season.
And, you know what? Getting her heart stomped on seems to have done Shane a world of good.
When did Shane get her heart stomped on? I assume you mean by Rosanna Arquette’s character?
I so need to learn the names of the non-regulars. That bimbo that Dana’s engaged to? Whatsername? Tonight is the first night I actually liked her. They’ve made her so easy to not like before, but her speech to Dana’s parents was…unexpected. Not that I’m on the Dana/Alice bandwagon that everyone seems to be on. I’m waiting to see with that, too.
And I’m not sure how I feel about Sandra Bernhardt being on the show. She’s respected by the lesbian community, and I sort of like her, but she also sort of gets on my nerves. I guess that’s a wait-and-see thing.
Jenny and Shane will be fun chemistry! Want to take bets on how many seconds it will take for Shane to LOATHE Jenny with every fiber of her being?
The fun thing, though, will be Shane, Jenny, and Bette being neighbors. It’s like living in a dorm or something. Pool party! Esp if Tina ever comes back to live with Bette again. I am sort of a Tina/Bette shipper, although Bette’s pissing me off right now, too. You don’t mess with my Tina.
I appreciated the smackdown Bernhardt gave Jenny – she really is the most appallingly purple writer, but anytime I see Bernhardt anymore it smacks of stunt-casting; she’s never anyone but herself.
Ditto on Dana’s fiancee, I generally loathe her, but that was a nice moment w/Dana’s parents. I still suspect her, though. Wouldn’t be surprised to find out she made up the “Will you not marry me” speech just to impress.
I’m bad about the non-regulars’ names, too. Yes, I meant the Rosanna Arquette character. Shane seems to now be finding being a player kinda empty, which I find encouraging since she could have gone back to her former behavior squared in a backlashy kind of way.
I get you about Bette – tacky and mean to both Tina and whatherface (Candace?) to declare her love to Tina hours, if that, after schtupping whatsherhammer.
Me, I think I’m a Kit/Ivan ‘shipper.
Pool party at Bette’s house!
I totally get that.
I’m told I would like it too, you figure there’s any truth to that?
Yikes, you may want to put up a warning that I’m spoiling all over your journal.
I get that. And really, I thought I’d have the same reaction to QAF, only it turns out that I have more in common with my local Baptist minister than I do with any of the guys on the show, so the show leaves me totally cold.
This is probably more a comment on me than on the show, but still.
I’ve been wanting to watch it, but it’s on the same time as Stargate which I need to watch. I suppose I could try taping one and watching the other? I’m pretty anal about getting rid of commercials though…
*hugs* I’m glad you finally have a show that’s for you and about you.
I have never seen the L. Word show… is it worth downloading?? 😉
Oh, when Sandra Berhardt’s character slammed Jenny’s writing, I was cheering. That’s what really bothered me about Jenny last season–not her sleeping with him and her and her and him and being all “uh…..”, but her crappy writing. She reminded me of a schmoopy emo teenager, “OhlookatmeI’msodeepandangstyseemebrood!!” *yawn*
Bette needs to get over herself in a major way, and Tina needs to become a grown up and then I’ll be back on the Bina train.
As for Kit and Ivan, I’m not sure how I feel about them. I’ll admit people like Ivan make me uncomfortable. I have no problem with her/him self-identifing as a man if that’s what s/he needs to do, but I myself could never date someone like that. I want to date a woman who’s a woman–at home in her own skin. OTOH, Kit is straight, I’m not. But that bothers me, too, because Kit is like, the only straight woman on the show, and are they going to make her bi now, or are they going to do a deep, insightful exploration of gender identity through this pairing, with all the attendant issues that will arise? Definitely a wait-and-see thing.
I honestly have no idea how a straight man would react to the show. There’s some nudity and sex, but not as much as some might be hoping. Not as much as “Queer as Folk”. If you like a good soapy story, there’s that. I’m told it’s a multi-demographic show, but you’d have to watch it yourself to determine if there’s anything in it to interest you. The one straight male regular they had on the show is now gone, but the first season is on DVD. You could check it out.
I’m not saying this is “typical lesbian life” because first of all, there’s no such animal, and second of all, it’s pay-cable television, which means everything is exaggerated and larger than life and story lines are always chosen for their semi-circus atmosphere.
A lot of dykes here is SF I know turn their noses up at, saying, “I don’t know anyone who looks that way or acts that way!” (but you should have seen the turn out at the Season 2 premiere party. A total fire hazard)
OTOH, I *do* think actual lesbians write this, or consult on it, anyway.
I so have to go back and rewatch season 1. Not just to learn people’s names, but to remind myself of who certain people are. I’m like, “Now who is this Robin chick”?
There are a lot of shows “about me”, or with characters I identify with in some respect or another. It’s just this particular aspect of my life has never been on TV before this way. Even Willow and Tara wasn’t the same thing. They were one isolated couple with all straight friends.
Sure, if you like soapy shows and you like lots of girl-talk. About other girls. ; )
Oh, I didn’t mean to slam either show in any way. I’m sure both have elements that are authentic and speak to people, not to mention that they give the community a visible presence in the mass media – even if it is soap operatic one.
It’s just that I personally find it incredibly difficult to relate to anything on QAF, so I’m unable to connect with the show, even as entertainment.
I’m too much of a soap opera slut not to like this stuff. And QAF and TLW have a little extra added interest because of the gay culture aspect. I don’t think there are any characters on TLW I identify with personally (where’s the geek dyke?) but there are a lot of in-jokes and references that make you go, “Hey!”
Buhahah, like “Girl Advice” but with more action!
“Action” being the word that’s open to interpretation.
I like the show. They could have really fumbled the ball on this one, but it’s not too bad.
Maybe I should find out if it’s broadcasted around here first before downloading. I downloaded the entire Buffy season 7 only to discover later that it was being aired on the Star World Asia channel at the time.
“whatsherhammer”
*snerk*
Since The L Word is a premium channel show here in the States (meaning you have to extra for the Showtime Channel above and beyond regular cable prices), and Buffy was a network show (meaning you could watch it for free even if you had no cable at all), they might be handled differently in other parts of the world as well. You can check, but I suspect you’ll probably have to download it. Not sure where you can download season 1. I’m buying it on DVD.
I guess I kind of feel that way about characters of colour on my TV shows. (I know you saw ‘s latest Hard Questions post.) It’s not enough that you have the token black or Asian character, but that you show them interacting with other blacks and Asians. (Actually, this is the same argument I have with Stargate and its inability to have women characters that aren’t one-off love interests.) I’m a much different person with my Caucasian friends versus with my Chinese friends. We have our own language, our own customs and quirks.
Yes, I can see bits of myself in Tara and other characters, but not all these other areas that are specifically about being a visible minority in Western society.
That’s exactly what it’s about. A sub-cultural thing, and seeing depictions of that sub-culture in the media. Although that can go horribly wrong, too, if someone doesn’t know what they’re talking about. As a white middle-class person, I see families with a reasonably close resemblance to my own in television/movies. But typically if I wanted to see realistic depictions of lesbian sub-culture, I had to go to movies, books, etc. written by lesbians for lesbians. There wasn’t anything in mainstream culture that wasn’t tokenism or tittilation. Not that The L Word is so very accurate or anything, it’s showing one small social class of women living in a particular city, etc, etc, but what’s engaging to me is that the writers have taken certain archetypal situations of lesbian life and weaved them into their story line, so I can go, “Oh yeah, been there before” in ways I couldn’t previously while watching television.
Re K/I – you make sense. When I’m attracted to a woman, it’s almost always one who reads very androgynously; I can’t seem to help my straight coming out. I can see a story line w/Kit really wanting to have that guh feeling about Ivan but it just not being there for her. I’m very interested to see where they’re going to go with this.
I am enjoying this season so far so much more that the last one! And it’s fun to have someone to talk about it with.
Robin chick was the one that Jenny was seeing, and that Jenny dumped. She should be so grateful she escaped. I liked her.
Wish I could take credit. I read someone on LJ, no idea now who it was, call someone “whatsherbucket” and I unashamedly stole it. Now everyone’s whatherthis and whatshisthat to me.
I love androgynous women, but my idea of androgynous is Shane. Actually, even she’s not all that androgynous by my standards, but I can’t think of a better example that we would both know at the moment.
Oh, I know that, it’s just been months since I watched season 1.
Oh, I definitely get you and agree. When I think of androgyny, people like Shane and Connor come to mind, rather than the (outwardly) manufactured masculinity of the Ivan character. Kelly Lynch herself doesn’t hit my androgyny button.
I’m a little puzzled myself about why I like Ivan so much; drag kings have never seemed interesting in more than a hmmm kind of way and the way Ivan was first presented, prior to this season, you didn’t, or I didn’t anyway, get the feeling that s/he was so much self-identifying as a man anymore than a lot of drag queens self-identify as women. But that impression is probably formed by my own naivete/inexperience. If I’m wrong or off the mark, let me know.
No, I didn’t get that impression last season, either. I just thought, Ivan–“oh, likes to cross-dress and put on a show for fun.” I think they deliberately made it more this season to explore gender identity issues.
I thought of an example last night of someone I would consider androgynous and very attractive but very much still identifying as a woman, and that’s K.D. Lang.
I’m glad they did. And glad I wasn’t reading him wrong.
Hee! I was going to use her as an example, too. I went through a period where I was having frequent sexay dreams featuring her.
I had a poster of her on my wall when I was 37 years old like a big over-grown teenager. People would ask me, “Oh, you like her music?” and I’d say, “Um…I think I heard one song of hers a few times.”
Not that her voice isn’t to die for as well.
She has a fabulous voice. I remember when she was first starting to get big here in Canada, and won a Juno award, she sashayed up to the podium wearing a white wedding dress and cowboy boots. I knew she was destined for greatness then..
She really is the epitomy of androgeny, isn’t she? Very interesting face.