| The L Word | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Genre | Drama |
| Created by |
|
| Starring | |
| Opening theme | "The L Word" performed byBetty (seasons 2–6) |
| Composer | Elizabeth Ziff |
| Country of origin |
|
| Original language | English |
| No. of seasons | 6 |
| No. of episodes | 71(list of episodes) |
| Production | |
| Executive producers |
|
| Producers |
|
| Production locations | |
| Running time | 50 minutes |
| Production companies |
|
| Original release | |
| Network | Showtime |
| Release | January 18, 2004 (2004-01-18) – March 8, 2009 (2009-03-08) |
| Related | |
| The L Word: Generation Q | |
The L Word is a television drama series that aired onShowtime in the United States from January 18, 2004 to March 8, 2009. The series follows the lives of a group of lesbian and bisexual women who live inWest Hollywood,California.[1][2] The premise originated withIlene Chaiken, Michele Abbott and Kathy Greenberg; Chaiken is credited as the primary creator of the series and also served as its executive producer.
The L Word featured television's first ensemble cast of lesbian and bisexual female characters,[3][4] and its portrayal of lesbianism was groundbreaking at the time.[2][5][6][7] One of the series' pioneering hallmarks was its explicit depiction of lesbian sex from thefemale gaze,[8] at a time when lesbian sex was "virtually invisible elsewhere on television."[9] It was also the first television series written and directed by predominantlyqueer women.[10]
The L Word franchise led to the spin-off reality showThe Real L Word (2010–2012) as well as the documentary filmL Word Mississippi: Hate the Sin (2014), both of which aired on Showtime. A sequel television series,The L Word: Generation Q, debuted in December 2019 and was canceled after three seasons in 2023.
The L Word was co-created byIlene Chaiken, Michele Abbott, and Kathy Greenberg; Chaiken served as the primary creator and executive director of the series, as well as a writer and director.[11]Steve Golin and Larry Kennar served as additional executive producers, whileGuinevere Turner,Susan Miller,Cherien Dabis, andRose Troche were among the series' writers.
The series premiered onShowtime on January 18, 2004 and ran for a total of six seasons, airing its finale on March 8, 2009.The L Word was filmed inVancouver,British Columbia at Coast Mountain Films Studio, as well as on location inLos Angeles, California.
| Actor/Actress | Character | Appearances | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Season 1 | Season 2 | Season 3 | Season 4 | Season 5 | Season 6 | |||
| Jennifer Beals | Bette Porter | Main | ||||||
| Mia Kirshner | Jenny Schecter | Main | ||||||
| Pam Grier | Kit Porter | Main | ||||||
| Laurel Holloman | Tina Kennard | Main | ||||||
| Katherine Moennig | Shane McCutcheon | Main | ||||||
| Leisha Hailey | Alice Pieszecki | Main | ||||||
| Erin Daniels | Dana Fairbanks | Main | Guest | |||||
| Karina Lombard | Marina Ferrer | Main | Guest | Guest | ||||
| Eric Mabius | Tim Haspel | Main | Guest | Guest | ||||
| Sarah Shahi | Carmen de la Pica Morales | Main | Guest | |||||
| Rachel Shelley | Helena Peabody | Main | ||||||
| Eric Lively | Mark Wayland | Main | ||||||
| Daniel Sea | Max Sweeney | Main | ||||||
| Dallas Roberts | Angus Partridge | Main | Guest | |||||
| Janina Gavankar | Eva "Papi" Torres | Main | Guest | |||||
| Rose Rollins | Tasha Williams | Main | ||||||
| Marlee Matlin | Jodi Lerner | Main | ||||||
Contemporary use of the phrase "the L word" as an alias forlesbian dates to at least the 1981 playMy Blue Heaven byJane Chambers, in which a character stammers out: "You're really...? The L-word? Lord God, I never met one before."[12]
The original code-name forThe L Word wasEarthlings, a rarely used slang term for lesbians.[13]
"The Chart", anundirected labeled graph in which nodes represent individuals and lines represent affairs or hookups, is a recurring plot element throughout the series.[14] Originally,The L Word was to be based around a lesbian,Kit Porter, and "The Chart" was tattooed on her back.
The idea for the chart was formed inThe L Word's writers room. The creators of the show were discussing their own mutual friends and who had had romantic entanglements with whom. This led to them creating a beta version of what the chart comes to be on a piece of paper. The writers eventually decide to incorporate this chart into the show.
In season 4, Alice launches The Chart as asocial networking service. Concurrently, a real-world parallel project OurChart.com was created.[15] The website, which allowed registered members to create their own profiles and hosted several blogs on the show, operated from the beginning of season four until the end of season six, after which the site was discontinued and redirected to Showtime's official website.[16]
The first season ofThe L Word premiered on January 18, 2004, and ended on April 11, 2004. The season introducesBette Porter andTina Kennard, a couple in a seven-year relationship attempting to have a child;Marina Ferrer, owner of the local cafe The Planet;Jenny Schecter, who has recently moved to Los Angeles to live with her boyfriend Tim Haspell;Shane McCutcheon, an androgynous, highly sexual hairstylist;Alice Pieszecki, a bisexual journalist who maintains The Chart;Dana Fairbanks, acloseted professional tennis player; andKit Porter, Bette's straight half-sister.
The second season ofThe L Word premiered on February 20, 2005, and ended on May 15, 2005. The season introducesCarmen de la Pica Morales, a DJ who becomes part of alove triangle with Shane and Jenny;Helena Peabody, a wealthy art patron who becomes a rival to Bette and love interest to Tina (while she and Bette are separated).
Major story lines in the season include Tina's pregnancy following a second insemination, culminating in Tina and Bette's reconciliation at the end of the season; the introduction of Mark Wayland, a documentary filmmaker who moves in with Shane and Jenny; Kit's acquisition of The Planet following Marina's departure from Los Angeles;[17] Shane and Jenny becoming the unknowing subjects of Mark's documentary after he places hidden cameras in their home; a developing relationship between Alice and Dana; and insights into Jenny's past as an abused child.
The third season ofThe L Word premiered on January 8, 2006, and ended on March 26, 2006. The season introducesMax Sweeney, a working-class trans man initially introduced presenting as abutch; and Angus Partridge, a male nanny who becomes Kit's lover.[18]
The season is set six months after the birth of Tina and Bette's daughter Angelica. Major story lines include Bette and Tina's relationship deteriorating once again, due to Tina developing feelings for men; Max coming out as atrans man; Dana's diagnosis with and ultimate death from breast cancer;[19] and Shane and Carmen's engagement and wedding, which ends when Shane abandons Carmen at the altar. Helena is integrated into the primary group of characters as a friend rather than a rival; she acquires a movie studio, where she is entangled in a sexual harassment lawsuit that leads her mother to cut her off financially.
In the lead-up to the third season, thefan fiction website FanLib.com launched a contest where individuals could submit a piece ofL Word fanfiction, with the winner's story incorporated into a scene in third-season episode.[20][21]
The L Word was renewed for a fourth season on February 2, 2006,[22] and began filming on May 29, 2006.[23] The season aired from January 7, 2007 to March 25, 2007,[24] and introducesJodi Lerner, a love interest for Bette;[25]Phyllis Kroll, Bette's closeted new boss at California Art College;[26]Paige Sobel, a love interest for Shane;[27]Tasha Williams, a formercaptain in theArmy National Guard and love interest for Alice; and Papi, who has slept with the most women on The Chart.[26]Karina Lombard reprises her role for two episodes.[28]
Major story lines in the season include the adaptation ofLez Girls, an article written by Jenny forThe New Yorker, into a film; Bette taking a job as adean at California Art College; and Tasha's struggle to reconcile her military service with her sexuality underdon't ask, don't tell.
The L Word was renewed for a fifth season on March 9, 2007, and began filming in summer 2007.[29] The season aired from January 6, 2008 to March 23, 2008 and introducesNikki Stevens, a closeted gay actress who portrays the lead role inLez Girls.[30]Adele Channing is also introduced, potentially by chance meeting Jenny at the Planet, and soon becoming her personal assistant. Papi and Angus were written out of the series.[31]
Major story lines in the season include Bette and Tina reconciling their relationship, Jenny being ousted from the production ofLez Girls, and Tasha'sdishonorable discharge from the military.
The sixth and final season ofThe L Word aired from January 18, 2009, to March 8, 2009.[32] The season introducesKelly Wentworth, Bette's college roommate, who attempts to open a gallery with her;Jamie Chen, a social worker who becomes involved in a love triangle with Alice and Tasha; and Marybeth Duffy and Sean Holden, detectives with theLAPD.[33]
The season is awhodunit story line focused on the murder of Jenny. The events of the season are depicted as aflashback leading up to the night of the crime, with each episode focused around what could have potentially motivated each character to have killed Jenny. The series concludes without revealing the identity of her murderer.
Following the series finale ofThe L Word, Showtime released a series of seven short videos depicting Bette, Alice, Tina, Nikki Shane being questioned by the police over Jenny's murder. The episodes were posted weekly on Showtime's website. Showtime additionally released an interview withL Word series creator Ilene Chaiken, released in two weekly installments. In the interview, Chaiken stated that Alice went to jail for Jenny's murder, but was not necessarily guilty of the crime.[34][35]
On July 11, 2017, it was announced a sequel series was in the works with Showtime.[36]Marja-Lewis Ryan has been selected to serve as executive producer andshowrunner.[36][37][38] On January 31, 2019,Entertainment Weekly reported Showtime had picked up the sequel series for a premiere later in the year, in which Jennifer Beals, Katherine Moennig, and Leisha Hailey would reprise their roles.[39] Other sources, such asTVLine,[40] call the eight-episode order a revival, so the nature of the follow-up is unclear. The new series, titledThe L Word: Generation Q, premiered in the fall of 2019.[41]
In July 2008, Showtime CEO Matthew Blank announced that the network would shoot apilot forThe Farm, anL Wordspin-off series based on a pitch fromL Word series creator Ilene Chaiken. Set in awomen's prison, the series was slated to starFamke Janssen,Melissa Leo,Laurie Metcalf, and Leisha Hailey, the lattermost of whom would reprise her role as Alice Pieszecki. The pilot was shot in December 2008.[42] In April 2009, Showtime declined to pick upThe Farm for a full series order.[43]
The Real L Word, areality television series produced by Chaiken, aired on Showtime from June 20, 2010 to September 6, 2012. The series, initially set inLos Angeles and later inBrooklyn,New York City, followed a group of real-life gay women.[44]
L Word Mississippi: Hate the Sin, a documentary directed byLauren Lazin and produced by Chaiken, premiered on Showtime on August 8, 2014.[45] The documentary, which follows a group of LGBTQ women in ruralMississippi, won theGLAAD Media Award for Outstanding Documentary in 2015.[46]
EZgirl served asThe L Word's music composer, while Natasha Duprey served as music supervisor. A total of five soundtracks were produced.
All three ofLeisha Hailey's bands were referenced in the series: a song byThe Murmurs was used in the first season, Shane wears a shirt forGush in the second season. Songs byUh Huh Her were featured in the show's fifth and sixth seasons; Tasha is seen wearing an Uh Huh Her t-shirt during the sixth season.
The bandBetty wrote and performed thetheme song, which is first introduced in season two. Betty makes numerous appearances in the show, and their music is featured throughout the series.
The show's first season was "broadcast to critical acclaim and instant popularity"; as an article fromThe New York Times pointed out:[47]
BeforeThe L Word, female gay characters barely existed in television. Interested viewers had to search and second-guess, playing parlor games to suss out a character's sexuality.Cagney and Lacey? Jo onFacts of Life?Xena andGabrielle? Showtime's decision in January 2004 to airThe L Word, which follows the lives of a group of fashionable Los Angeles gays, was akin to ending a drought with a monsoon. Women who had rarely seen themselves on the small screen were suddenly able to watch gay characters not only living complex, exciting lives, but also making love in restaurant bathrooms and in swimming pools. There was no tentative audience courtship. Instead there was sex, raw and unbridled in that my-goodness way that only cable allows.
Co-creator and executive producerIlene Chaiken had some issues with the reaction:[47]
I do want to move people on some deep level. But I won't take on the mantle of social responsibility. That's not compatible with entertainment. I rail against the idea that pop television is a political medium. I am political in my life. But I am making serializedmelodrama. I'm not a cultural missionary.
While the show was seen as fulfilling gay characters' "obvious and modest representational need"[48] or even the "ferocious desire not only to be seen in some literal sense... but to be seen with all the blood and angst and magic that you possess",[49] the show was criticized for various scenes which served to "reifyheteronormativity".[50] The show was also praised for its nuanced consideration (in the first season) of how and in what ways gay women should stand up to the religious right, with the "Provocations" art show story line being "a fictionalized version of what happened when Cincinnati's Contemporary Art Center booked a controversial exhibition of Mapplethorpe photographs in 1990".[51]
As the series progressed, however, reviews became far more negative. By the time the sixth and final season began,The New York Times called the show a "SapphicPlayboyfantasia" that has "shown little interest in variegating portrayals of gay experience. Instead it has seemed to work almost single-mindedly to counter the notion of "lesbian bed death" and repeatedly remind the viewer of the "limits and tortures of monogamy" while "never align[ing] itself with the traditionalist ambitions [forsame-sex marriage] of a large faction of the gay rights movement".[52] The decision to make the final season into a murder mystery which was ultimately left unresolved was also met with negative response.[53]
The series currently holds a 57% "Rotten" rating on Rotten Tomatoes.[54]
The L Word broke new ground as the first television series to feature an ensemble cast made up of lesbian and bisexual female characters.[3][4] Similarly, it was also the first television series to be written and directed predominantly by queer women.[10] The series has been lauded for revolutionizing the depiction of queer women on television,[2][5][6][7] particularly for its portrayal of a queer community at a time when lesbian representation was often relegated to a single lesbian character amid an otherwise heterosexual cast.[10] One of the pioneering hallmarks of the series was its graphic lesbian sex scenes from thefemale gaze,[8] at a time when lesbian sex was "virtually invisible elsewhere on television."[9][55]
Several shows have referencedThe L Word, includingSouth of Nowhere's first season episode "Girls Guide to Dating";According to Jim; the medical dramaHouse; the first season finale ofWeeds,Jon Stewart'sThe Daily Show (July 24, 2006);Chappelle's Show: The "Lost Episodes";The Sopranos episode "Live Free or Die"; the American version ofThe Office;Gilmore Girls fourth season episode "Scene in a Mall";The Big Gay Sketch Show;The Simpsons episode "You Kent Always Say What You Want"; andFamily Guy episode "Brian Sings and Swings".
In 2004,Laurel Holloman won aSatellite Award for Best Actress – Television Series Drama. The show was also for aSatellite Award for Best Television Series – Drama in the same year. In the second season,Ossie Davis received a posthumousEmmy Award nomination forOutstanding Guest Actor in a Drama Series in recognition of his portrayal ofBette andKit Porter's father, Melvin. The show received multiple nominations forGLAAD Media Awards, and bothPam Grier andJennifer Beals were repeatedly nominated forNAACP Image Awards.
In 2006,The L Word won the GLAAD Media Award for Outstanding Drama Series. It was consequently honored with a Special Recognition Award in 2009 from the same organization.
In 2008,The L Word's companion website was honored at the 59th AnnualTechnology & Engineering Emmy Awards for Outstanding Achievement in Advanced Media Technology for Best Use of Commercial Advertising on Personal Computers.
| International | |
|---|---|
| Other | |
