Sunday Bitter Sunday: The L Word
April 6, 2009*contains spoilers*
I was in danger of having my gay card revoked so I finally sat down and watched the final season of The L Word.
We were not amused.
There were some choice moments like the one below with Alice, Tasha, and Jamie dressed like Salt N Pepa and dancing to “Push It”:
But overall it was a crappy show. The L Word is one of those shows that could never really decide what it wanted to be. With the final season they made the (incredibly misguided) attempt to turn it into a murder mystery. But what’s the point of a murder mystery if you don’t have a big reveal at the end? Instead we get an off-screen death, no clear resolutions of anything, and a stupid three minute montage of the cast walking in slow motion and smiling as a wind machine blows their hair:
(the walking part starts at about 55 seconds in)
Dumb.
But after six seasons, I think I know what the “L” in The L Word stands for:
Lazy.
First there’s the lack of consistent characterizations. Plus the total disregard for continuity. Heavy-handedness with foreshadowing (if you can call it foreshadowing when everything is so obviously telegraphed). Then the reduction of most characters of color to little more than stereotypes. It seemed like nearly every sentence Pam Grier’s character said had a “Girl!” in it somewhere. And then the shitty way the transgendered character was portrayed. They couldn’t think of anything for him to do so they did an asinine “plucked from the headlines” pregnant man storyline. And I could go on and on and on…
It seems like if the creator were better able to think beyond her white, upper class lesbian world and, I don’t know do a little research, be consistent, and really try, the show could have been a lot more. It was fun in a “this is terrible yet I can’t stop watching it” kind of way, but I can’t say I’m really sad to see it go.
But still, I’m really, really glad that Jenny died.
Agreed. However, I think terrible, terrible writing transcends color, class and all sorts of privilege. Gossip Girl is in a completely white, upperclass, insular world that has no bearing on my lie, but it’s so fun and well-written! In my internships I’ve seen many videos and films made by progressive women and transfolk of color, that have their politics in the right place, but boy are they terrible to watch!!! If given a choice between those poorly made videos and Gossip Girl, I would still pick the poorly made videos because I have a stake in them, but I would do so with a heavy sigh (and secretly wish I could be watching Gossip Girl instead).
Yeah, that’s a good point. And even when they got Angela Robinson involved with The L Word it still sucked.
This is one of those shows that I tried to give a chance, but then ten minutes in couldn’t believe how stereotypical it was. I didn’t know what to expect, but I knew it wasn’t a bunch of upper class white women with one black girl thrown in. I’m sure if they had based The L Word at a college campus where the pomplei of gay women were diverse as a bag of M&Ms, it would have been a better show. Hell, I’m a black woman, majoring in filmmaking. I can write a better show than that.
I tend to stay away from TV entirely now. Hell, even the Simpsons have lost their luster. All I have are my precious DVDs of old Nick shows and Dragonball Z.
Yeah, The L Word was a weird show to say the least. You’d think there’d be more women of color, especially since it’s set in a city as diverse as LA.
Hehe, and yes, old school Nick shows are a great antidote to some of the crap that’s out there now…