The L Word - The Complete First Season

Turns out lesbians arent that interesting. I saw an advertisement for this so I rented from the video store. I thought it would be a show that was about lesbians but I didn't realize that was the show. It's all about how homosexuals get treated differently. I don't understand how people could enjoy this.

What a series! What a show!
The L Word is a treat
I started watching Season One
And was glued to my seat

Hot new $ex in hot new city
With girls so hot they sizzle
They even got Snoop Doggy Dogg
Fo' shizzling his nizzle

It's Jenny trying something new
With Tim way out the loop
And when she's caught Marina-ing
She lands deep in the soup

Bette and Tina want a child
Shane likes breaking hearts
Dana's racquet's closeted
While Alice plays both parts

Foxy Brown is back in town
As Bette's straighter sister
Bette's art show is so hot
it almost starts to blister

Girls in prison - quite a scene
There's cheatin' going on
Someone takes Shane's hardened heart
And it gets trampled on

With all the girls so very close
It should be tense, but dammit!
Every day, like Central Perk
The Earthlings hit The Planet

The acting's great, the stories real
So when you need a break
Plop right down and play this one
It'll keep you wide awake


Amanda Richards, November 21, 2005

The directing, writing, and filming of this series is superb. Something that both men and women, straight and gay will love!

I have only seen the pilot and 8 episodes from the first season so far, but this is in the running for the greatest tv series ever created. It has the quality of the early Sopranos shows. I find it annoying to see someone else's review, limiting this magnificent series to only four stars because something about the DVD package displeased them. Nonsense. The hell with the DVD package. Watch the show and if you have any taste at all you must give it five stars because it is the finest work out there. If you don't appreciate this, you can't tell a diamond from glass.

For me so far, the most compelling character is Jenny, the bisexual girl engaged to a man but seduced by a woman. She is usually beautiful, when the director isn't making her look haggard and tired. She has the appeal of a Susanna Hoffs, and Susanna is, in my eyes, the image of feminine perfection. But Jenny is a bit of a flake, unable to level with her fiancee. The sexual predator who has seduced her has singled out the vulnerable calf in the herd and eaten it. And yet there is something likeable about her too, about Marina, though she is devious and overrates herself and her lifestyle.

Parts of these shows have me laughing loud. There are some subtle moments that just get me rolling. It is sometimes so subtle that once you explain it, it doesn't sound funny. Here's an example.

Shane, Alice and Dana are conducting an "intervention" to stop Bette and Tina from being boring. Shane and Alice wrap up the intervention by telling Bette and Tina that they love them, and Dana says "ditto", and Alice jabs her with her elbow to let her know that "ditto" really isn't enough. It's just the expressions on the faces, Alice's attitude, Dana's reaction, that cracks me up.

Alice is hysterical, Shane is awfully appealing, Dana is best when she is giving one of her subtle looks, Tina is Miss Saint, Jenny is sensitive perfection in a flaky biscuit, Bette is a great actress, Marina is Miss Exotic, so self possessed.

For those of you who believe in eternal souls, and that an eternal soul can have a gender different from the body's gender, an issue particularly appropriate to a series about lesbians, I'd say that if our souls can have opposite genders to our bodies, the prime candidates for boy soul in female body would be Marina, Shane and Bette. Tina and Jenny are girly girls to the core.

In a sense, this series shows people not always on their best behavior. But I don't think it really comes too close to the depths we all sink to on a fairly regular basis. It still shows attractive characters behaving in a way that is usually enjoyable to watch, unlike reality, which often disgusts us. I have yet to see a really realistic show about anything.

I never watched The L Word when it was on cable, but I rented the first season on DVD and...I AM IN LOVE! The writers are absolutely brilliant. The characters are so well developed and the storyline keeps you breathless. Imagine how talented these actresses are if they can make you believe that they are 100% lesbian, and in real life, they may not be. I did wish, however, that the DVD would have more of the extras that we've grown accustomed to. Perhaps some interviews, bloopers, "back stage passes"... All in all, I am a die-hard fan and it takes quite a bit to impress me like this. Most people think this is about a bunch of lesbians "getting it on", but it is so much deeper than that. You don't have to be a lesbian to appreciate this series.