the "L" word

I took the bait and watched the much-talked about pilot for Showtime's "The L Word."  From the premiere episode all I can presume is that "L" stands for "lame."  Even before it's first showing, the series has been hyped as "innovative" and "breaking-boundaries."  But honestly, I felt as if the show was a bit earnest in all of his "lesbianism" and yet, it had nothing new or intelligent to really say about women and their complicated relationships.

The show has been compared to "Sex and the City" (even using the tagline, "same sex, different city") and Friends. And the show does indeed take the worst elements of both Sex and the City and Friends and creates a hodge-podge of nonsense. Like "Friends", our lesbian friends (all buff twenty-somethings - well except for Pam Grier a non-lesbian character) basically have more time than Boca Raton retirees playing golf. They literally hang out all day, in a trendy coffee shop called "The Planet" run by a beautiful, Amazonian lesbian named Marina who could turn Paris Hilton gay.

The "girls" sit around and talk and talk and talk at said cafe in a running commentary on lesbian sexual relationships. It might be a case of "too much too soon" as they basically covered more lesbian "hot topics" in one episode than Margaret Cho could cover in her blog over a decade. And they had the audacity to coin cutesy phrases without even establishing a cult following.

Like Sex and the City, they did indeed show lots of sex in the city. But it all added up to a lot of who cares? Not my husband, who was bored by the show after fifteen minutes and went up to bed. I watched the whole thing and tried to figure out the motivations of the characters, but they all seemed to be just cardboard cutouts of what Hollywood supposes lesbians should be -- and they resembled a sort of "all gay" Melrose Place ensemble.

What did I, a non-lesbian mother learn about lesbians from this first episode? Basically, I learned that lesbians are all thin, beautiful, artsy, intelligent, and way way more sexy than regular women. I found out that apparently lesbians run in packs, much like wild dogs in heat, from one bar/party to another looking for sex. I found out that lesbians go to the gym together to work out and leer at the straight instructors. I found out that lesbian couples also need couples therapy and have intimacy issues just like straight couples. I found out that lesbians want to be moms too, but that good sperm is hard to find. I found out that there are no lesbians over the age of 35 living in LA. I also learned that said lesbians do not have any fat on their bodies at all.

And I learned that for all of their openess and overt sexuality, this is a rather grim, bitchy, and brooding group of women.

Which left me, a straight woman, realizing that I just wouldn't survive in a lesbian relationship. After all, there's only room for one moody hormonal princess in this house.

Comments

[Andi]

The "L" is for "Lame"! Priceless! I loved your recap, Lizbeth!

[Kelly]

Hah! Excellent post!

[Becky]

I think you have to be able to relate to the lesbian issues in order to really get it, I suppose. It really is nice to be able to follow a romantic story without it always being about a man and woman.

And I thought it was a well written script. Each charater has a lot of their own personality. Plus, it never seems to be predictable. I love a show that can pull off some surprizes.