The L Word: Season One
by Rose Troche, Lynne Stopkewich, Clément Virgo, Daniel Minahan, Tony Goldwyn
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Erin Daniels, Jennifer Beals, Laurel Holloman, Leisha Hailey, Mia KirshnerDirector: Clément Virgo, Daniel Minahan, Lynne Stopkewich, Rose Troche, Tony Goldwyn
Brand: Showtime Entertainment
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown), Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo; English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo; Spanish (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono
Format: Box set, Collector's Edition, Color, DVD, NTSC
Picture Format: 1.78:1
Running Time: 822 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2004-11-09
Audience Rating: G (General Audience)
Studio: Showtime Ent.
Movie Reviews of The L Word: Season One
Movie Review: Perhaps the finest tv series ever done
Summary: 5 Stars
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.
Summary of The L Word: Season One
L WORD:COMPLETE FIRST SEASON - DVD MovieFour years after Showtime made gay men the focus of its original series Queer as Folk, it was time for a little turnabout with The L Word (bad title, great show). Centering around a tight-knit group of lesbians in Los Angeles, this drama was far removed from its working-class male counterpart in both style and content. While the men of QAF enjoyed a fabulous if melodramatic life on the middle-class streets of Pittsburgh, the women of The L Word lived it up in sunny California, with gorgeous houses, glamorous careers, and sexy wardrobes. Ironically, though, The L Word adhered more to the everyday drama of ensemble shows like thirtysomething than the soap opera antics of QAF, and the results were surprisingly heartfelt and effective, appropriately stylish but never over the top. There was plenty of room for titillation, but creator Ilene Chaiken fashioned from the start a show centered on characters and not just sex, aiming for the heart rather than... well, other places.
The L Word focused primarily on committed couple Bette (Jennifer Beals) and Tina (Laurel Holloman), a former power-career duo who've decided to have a baby; however, artificial insemination and the changing dynamics of their relationship throw their previously happy existence off-kilter. Within their orbit are spunky journalist Alice (Leisha Hailey), sultry hairdresser Shane (Katherine Moenning), closeted pro tennis player Dana (Erin Daniels), and espresso bar owner Marina (Karina Lombard) who, in the show's most polarizing storyline, bedded the seemingly straight Jenny (Mia Kirschner) and shook up her heterosexual world. Jenny's am-I-straight-or-not? kvetching frustrated both her fiancé (Eric Mabius) and many viewers, who were alternately irritated and intrigued by her inability to decide one way or the other. But Jenny's weakness was part of The L Word's strength: in exploring many sides of many issues, both domestic and political, it never came up with an easy answer for any of them, making the show all that more fascinating--and compulsively watchable. --Mark Englehart
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