The L Word, Part 1
The L Word, a Showtime television series that currently airs on Sunday nights, depicts the lives and loves of a group of lesbians living in Los Angeles. Ilene Chaiken created and is the Executive Producer of this program. This is the first of a five-part series that reveal my views on The L Word. My opinions are just that: they are entirely lacking in substance and credibility. I’m just a lesbian who watches the show.There is no “Lesbian View” of The L Word. Some lesbians use the show as a social focal point, as entertainment to be viewed collectively in public. There is often a sporting-event atmosphere, as women loudly express their approval or disdain in bars, clubs, and private residences. Sunday evenings are dedicated to the program and lively debate and speculation occurs.
Others view The L Word as a reflection of their own existence. In this case, viewers have become EXTREMELY attached to certain characters because they identify with them personally. These are the women who feel compelled to stop watching the show because a character dies or simply disappears. These women infiltrate message boards and have the urgency and tireless need to advocate and defend fictional characters, which is somewhat disturbing.
Still others view The L Word as a documentary gone awry. They watched the first season, which for them, in retrospect, was “perfect.” Then, as the show clearly became the drama that it was always intended to be and suffered from some bouts of less than stellar writing, these women became angry and began to compulsively find fault with inconsistencies in character and plot development. They forgot that this is a fictional television show and its writers have no obligation to represent them individually. Some members of this group also claim to have stopped watching the show but still watch it religiously — and complain vociferously.
A few others view The L Word as a target of intellectual analysis, discussing the show as one would feminist theory. Others, who know the show’s producers/writers (or think they do), enjoy tying fictional characters and plot developments to the lives of these individuals. This year’s “movie-within-a-movie” storyline has sent these ladies into an absolute frenzy.
Others sit in the “closets” of small towns and rural areas and dream of the glamorous life depicted in the screen on Sunday evening. To them, The L Word serves as a how-to manual for lesbian life, love, and relationships.
Others watch it purely for the entertainment value, following the show’s highs and lows, successes and failures.
The L Word has given us exposure, given us a conversation-starter at a cocktail party, glimpses into the sometimes inconsistent and always melodramatic lives of fashionable lesbians that live in a world where true love blossoms and dies over the course of a few weeks. I, for one, hope it comes back next season and keeps us hopeful, frustrated, engaged, entertained, infuriated, and united — in that we all can relate to the emotions and situations that provide the foundation for the exaggerated antics of a few memorable characters.
