My Thoughts
These are my thoughts as they occurred to me while watching "The L Word". The opinions expressed below are solely my personal views.
SPOILERS FOR ALL SIX SEASONS ARE INCLUDED
- 1.03 – What’s up with Bette flipping a shit about Marina hooking up with Jenny, but then she goes on to cheat on Tina later? It’s interesting how in the beginning of the series Bette is portrayed as being controlling but also very loyal and having a high moral code that dictates her life. But she is the one who is a “serial cheater”.
- 1.06 – I love Kit’s exchange with her father at the end of this episode. I think it really speaks to Kit’s character that she asked her father to accept Bette and her relationship with Tina.
- WHAT’S UP WITH THE MUSIC IN THIS SHOW?! I’m sorry, but I can’t fucking stand it. Whoever was responsible for doing the music really messed up. For example, in 4.12 when Bette brings Jodi the “17 Reasons Why!” sign, they’re playing “Dear Mr. President” by Pink. ARE YOU KIDDING ME?! That song ruined that entire scene for me. It just didn’t fit at all. It’s a political song about being angry with the government… and they’re playing it in such a beautiful and touching scene. The first time I watched the show the music didn’t really occur to me, but in between my first and second watch I saw the show Parenthood, and the music is INCREDIBLE. It adds so much. And I’m so disappointed by the shitty music selection in this show.
- 1.14 – The ending “love scene” in this episode between Bette & Tina is incredibly intense, and probably the most talked about scene from the entire show. While I do think the acting was amazing, and the scene is very emotionally charged and raw, I have mixed feelings about it. Bette is my favorite character in the show, but this scene was so hard to watch. After cheating on her partner of over 7 years, she pretty much rapes her. Like, personally, I didn’t even like Tina at all until season 5, but I was about ready to punch Bette in the face when Tina was bawling her eyes out at Alice’s apartment. I think the scene was fantastic, but it should have been given more attention later on in the show. It’s never really discussed again, even though it was such a huge moment for Bette & Tina and must have completely changed the dynamics of their relationship.
- This show has pretty terrible relationship development. For example, Tonya and Dana move in together after knowing each other for about 24 hours. Are you kidding me? And then they get engaged after knowing each other for ~2 weeks, a month at most. They literally have 2 scenes together before they get engaged. That’s ridiculous. And then there’s Shane and Cherie. They hook up the second time they meet, and the next time they are seen Cherie is basically buying Shane her own salon. And then within another few weeks, Shane says she is in love with Cherie…there’s just no relationship development between so many characters.
- 1.14 – That “love scene” between Bette & Tina must have lasted for HOURS! Or maybe they fell asleep after for a bit. Because it starts whenever Bette gets home from Provocations (weird, they didn’t come home together…) which probably wasn’t later than midnight. And then Tina goes to Alice’s apartment when they’re done, but when Alice goes to see Dana she says it’s 4 AM. So they had angry rape sex for like 4 hours. Nice.
- 2.05 – I hate Mark, and I despise his story line. He’s such a cringe-y character, everything from his haircut to his job to how he talks. He’s such an unbelievable character as well – he strolls into Jenny and Shane’s house with a huge video camera and wants to record them all the time and make a “documentary” about them, which first of all no one would even watch, and second of all I can’t believe Jenny would ever agree to that. Shane probably wouldn’t care, but I can’t picture Jenny going for it. Anyway, Mark is such a huge waste of time on the show. I feel like the producers were just like “oh yeah, we should probably have a male character for a bit” and then invented a super heinous and obnoxious man that they could demonize. Of course, like most people, I have a ton of criticisms about the biphobia and transphobia on this show, but I feel like no one really discusses the general man-hating. All of the male characters end up being assholes. Tim is a homophobic dick, Mark is a creep, and Angus cheats on Kit and breaks her heart. Even the minor male characters never have any good character development or a happy ending. I just don’t like how this show reinforces the stereotype of the crazy feminist man-hating lesbian.
- All of the shots inside Jenny’s mind showing what she’s writing should really be cut out and replaced with sex scenes. Or a video of grass growing. Or paint drying. Or really anything other than the stupid shit going on in Jenny’s head.
- In the nicest way possible, I feel like Helena could date so much more attractive people. Tina is pretty, sure, but she’s not a knockout (and definitely not portrayed as a very sexually charged character), and her ex-wife Winnie is hideous, and then there’s Dylan who’s cute but not drop dead gorgeous like Helena. I just feel like Helena should literally be dating Angelina Jolie or someone who’s positively stunning.
- Even though I hate Jenny (who doesn’t…) I feel like after watching the show a second time I realized Jenny really did have it rough sometimes. She moved to LA to be with Tim and she found out who she really was, had all of these crazy sexuality-confused thoughts and dealt with it more or less on her own. She was supposedly fresh out of college so she would have been in early twenties at the time. In then in season 2, Carmen was a complete bitch to Jenny. She used her just to piss Shane off, and I felt bad for Jenny when she saw Mark’s recording of Carmen and Shane talking about how they’re the ones with a real connection. But Jenny is still a crazy bitch.
- Okay, sure, Shane is attractive. I get it. But...it's pretty annoying how EVERY GIRL in the world falls instantly in love with her. Honestly, based on just looks alone, I feel like Helena and Bette are much more conventionally attractive than Shane. Shane looks like an emo 14 year old boy. And why is she supposed to be so incredibly good at talking to people and getting them to do what she wants them to do? She has never really said anything that I found inspiring or even thought-provoking. Yes, she is a compassionate person, and she's probably good in bed, but I think it's just so unrealistic and fake that after the first season I'm over Shane being a slut/Casanova/whatever the hell.
- Although I didn't like Tina until season 5, I do think she's pretty and I love Laurel Holloman (the actress). But I never really found her to be sexy. However in episode 3.09 when Tina has sex with Henry, she's fucking bangin. Like what's going on with that? It's interesting too because Laurel is bisexual, so it's not like she would necessarily have more chemistry with a man than she would with a woman, but that sex scene is so hot, even compared to some of her best scenes with Bette.
- So I know that Laurel Holloman was pregnant while her character Tina was pregnant... but I wonder if she was still actually pregnant when they filmed her "giving birth" to Angelica. Like that would have been so weird for Laurel. To be super pregnant and be pretending to have a C section and have this infant baby screaming and Jennifer Beals is cutting the cord and then Tina crashes and all this shit.. I just can't even imagine what was going through Laurel's mind.
- On a similar note as the bullet above, it's so cool/weird that Laurel was actually pregnant during filming. Like she had sex scenes with Helena and Bette during the pregnancy, and so many people touched her stomach and kissed it and all this stuff. But there's A REAL LIVE BABY in there! I wonder how Jennifer Beals and Rachel Shelley felt about filming a love scene with an actual pregnant woman. They must have some type of connection to Laurel's daughter which is cool.
- Dana wins $500,000 in episode 3.04... WHAT THE HELL. THAT IS A LOT OF MONEY TO WIN IN ONE DAY.
- FOR THE LOVE OF GOD CAN MAX PLEASE GET A HAIRCUT. PLEASE. MY BIGGEST PET PEEVE ABOUT THIS WHOLE SHOW.