With the final season of the L Word well underway (episode 2 aired last night), part of me wants to hold on and recap every episode until the show’s dying breath. And yet, my allegiance to the show is negligible and I skipped out last night entirely in order to catch the Kick/Ball/Change performance (review to follow shortly!).

Luckily, there are plenty of reactions in blogs all over the Web. AfterEllen often has some interesting things to say but I personally recommend the NY Magazine recaps being written by my friend and colleague Caryn Brooks.

There’s no doubt that, as campy and horrible as the L Word has been at times, it truly was a breakthrough television show. In a TV lineup fairly devoid of lesbian depictions, the L Word has managed a diverse understanding of a lesbian, trans and queer community. And while it may be melodramatic and prettied-up for the screen much of the ideas ring true, as trite as they may seem to us old hats.

Now that we have a first show under our collective lezzie belts I hope we can move on to more interesting and envelope-pushing shows. We know already that Leisha Hailey, who plays Alice Pieszecki will be continuing with a spin-off. And while I’m somewhat uncomfortable with the fact that she’ll be the one in jail, both because she’s my L Word alter-ego, and because now it seems that the whole final season mystery is already ruined, I am ready to move on and see lesbian characters incorporated across shows and themes.

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Ah, what a wild ride it’s been…I’ve been paying attention to the happenings of the first lesbian-focused TV drama ever since I read a concept called Earthlings in Curve magazine in my college dorm. The L Word has been fun, frustrating, melodramatic and the vehicle for discussion and lesbo community bonding.

It will be sad to see it finally go this sixth and final season.

What better way to celebrate the end of an era by getting to see boobs on the big screen with a special premiere party this Sunday the 18th at the Bagdad Theater (3702 SE Hawthorne). Doors open at 5:30 with a 7pm start time. Then, it’s time to head over to the afterparty at Holocene (1001 SE Morrison), which is free if you attended the screening.

For a more neighborhood feel you can also watch at the E Room (3701 SE Division) not just this Sunday but every week. Sundays will show the previous week’s episode at 7 and 10pm and the new ep at 8:30 and 11pm. You even get another chance Mondays at 7 and 8pm.

Just to catch you up last season saw a slow start and then got really good by making fun of itself but eventually went back to it’s annoyingly catty roots with the season finale. This year we have Jenny’s murder to look forward to, along with what is sure to be a full season of whodunit. Then finally, Leisha Haley gets her own spin-off, which should start taping in December. I guess that means her character Alice lands The View-esque TV spot?

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• ‘L Word’ and Showtime to earn bank from new product placement

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Yes, my fellow lesbian soap loving fans, the return of the L Word is inching ever closer. This January 18 Showtime begins the countdown to the final episode with a shocking, if not well-crafted, premiere.

The crux of the new and final season? One character is murdered, another takes the blame…

Check out the Whodunit?-esque season teaser below and tell me you’re not groaning just a little bit more than you already were.

I still maintain the show was most successful when it was making fun of itself.

We have no hints from Ilene Chaiken about the plot of the upcoming spin-off but I encourage you to post your own opinions below. At least we know that Leisha Hailey will be the star and while many may be disappointed that we won’t be seeing metrosexual heartthrob Shane in the new series, Alice is a solid choice. Before the spamming that pushed Bette over the top in our poll, the two were neck and neck.

AfterEllen theorizes that the sweet media maven Alice will be blamed for the death of Helena based on the fact that Helena is British and Leisha Hailey will be starring in the upcoming spin-off. I suppose this outlandish theory is as valid as any, although poor Alice hardly stands a chance in prison. I’d love to see Jenny try; and I’m sure Shane would make a fantastic jailhouse boy/girlfriend.

So who will “take her last breath” and who will “take the fall?” Take the poll and we’ll see who’s right in January…

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As if we weren’t commodified enough by beer-sponsored Pride Fests and gay energy drinks, ‘L Word’ creator Ilene Chaiken has convinced the commercial-free, pay channel Showtime to open the door to advertising.

‘L Word’ storylines may not be Shakespeare, but with writers forced to work with corporations to make sure their product is essential to the plot, I can’t help but think any redeeming qualities left in the already vapid show will be quickly forsaken.

From Advertising Age:

…for $300,000, consumer brands can buy an “integration package” that will either incorporate a brand into existing “L Word” storylines or allow the brand to work with the show’s writers to create customized storylines…

The “L Word,” [creator and writer Ilene Chaiken] notes, isn’t just about and for gays and lesbians; it’s about “affluent, avid consumers plugged into pop culture”

While viewers might actually notice if the program were being interrupted, slick product placement is sure to reach into our brains as mind-numbing subliminal advertising. Pretty soon you’ll think if you don’t buy Coke, you just aren’t gay enough.

I do understand that it takes money to make a show. I understand that, for free television, advertising revenue is essential. But to get Showtime flowing into your home you need to pony up some serious cash (I’ve paid a $200 cable bill before and it’s not pretty). When you slyly get around the incentive to pay that is a lack of commercials you are basically cheating the consumer.

Worse yet, integrated marketing means you are not always aware when you are being sold a product vs. being told a story. In a media-world continually dominated by complimentary copy the lines between news, entertainment and advertising are shockingly unclear.

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I have talked of comedienne Rebecca Drysdale before when I ran across her not-picked-up-by-HBO lesbian comedy spoof Rebecca Drysdale is a Time Traveling Lesbian.

Part of New York’s Upright Citizens’ Brigade Theatre and a self-described “typical 28 year old jewish lesbo in the city,” Drysdale should be more famous than she is.

Her sketches exude just the right amount of silliness, self-deprecation, ego and queer geekery. And though I have never met her in person, she’s at least my second favorite NYC Jewish dyke (you better recognize your shout-out girl…you know who you are). In fact, I think I might even have a little crush.

Now RD is back on the internet tubes with a new MC moniker, Beck D, to promote her first music video, an ‘L Word Serenade.’

And while her fantastically gay humor may not be entirely safe for work, as the talks about sleeping her way through the cast, the cuts are quick and the rhymes so tight your coworkers are unlikely to notice the little bits of gay ephemera until the office coffee comes pouring out your nose.

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In a lesbian drama swirling with mystery, Showtime has announced that original creator Ilene Chaiken will be creating an L Word spinoff directly after completing the upcoming sixth and final season.

The as-yet-unnamed show will star one of The L Word’s current characters, though neither audiences nor the actress herself knows. Even more cryptically, the new show is to pick up where the Word’s open-ended finale leaves off.

Showtime may or may not pick up the new series, so it could end up an Internet-only event. But isn’t that how all the lesbians currently watch the show anyway? (I mean, what lesbians can afford Showtime?)

Because Elizabeth Berkley will join the cast for a multi-episode story arc this year as a college friend of Jennifer Beals’ Bette Porter, rumors have swirled that it will be Beals that the show continues with.

As one of the first cast members to sign on (I remember reading about this series to be called Earthlings in Curve magazine or something way back in college) I wouldn’t be surprised. But as one of my least favorite characters (after Schecter of course) I sincerely hope she isn’t.

I’m sure many ladies are voting for Kate Moenning’s Shane, the group heartthrob, and I have to say she would be a decent choice. For all her fornication she’s actually one of the most likeable and realistically flawed characters. She means well but she’s been through a lot. Her hotness, melancholy and mistakes could certainly drive another show. And if they reintroduce Carmen, well, the heat might burn out the TV tubes.

Of course my favorite character, my doppelganger Alice, could also carry a spinoff into a whole new territory of media involvement and Hollywood intrigue. But then again, this could be a narcissistic view. And Leisha Hailey has plenty of other projects, like the upcoming release of her band, Uh Huh Her‘s first album.

What truly might be the most interesting choice, however, would be Max. If he soldiers on we could finally move pass the world of high-powered lesbianism and truly get into a diverse queer world where gender and relationships are not just dramatic but truly complex. And besides, we haven’t had an all trans cast yet, have we? It’s time to move the T beyond reality dating shows…

However, because they give Max about one line per episode, I’m not holding my breath.

Quasi related addendum: A conscientious reader was slightly offended by the “can’t afford Showtime” comment. And although I would have encouraged her to comment directly instead of emailing me I’m guessing this was out of respect. But don’t worry, I like being called out. That’s the nature of the blogosphere!

I hear where she’s coming from. That said, this blog does hold a certain amount of irreverence and I don’t want to sacrifice my voice to the altar of political correctness. It can be a fine line to tread. I have held back from some tasteless jokes, which is more than many bloggers can say.

All that aside, the reality is that most lesbians live at a socio-economic status lower than the general population, contrary to the power-suited portrayals on the L Word. And if I can slide that into a slightly amusing commentary/critique I will. It probably deserved more explanation than a quip can provide, but I also challenge you readers to read between the lines.

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True to its soap opera origins as well as the inauspicious beginnings of the season, The L Word ends its fifth year on a trite note. In an episode strangely focused on core values and loyalty, several random events occur that have made tangential reference to real life moral dilemma.

Helena returns from her prison hottie induced sabbatical just in time to defeat the duplicitous Dawn Denbo. Kit and crew now own both The Plante and GirlBar. Hooray for queer monopolies.

Jodi takes the low road and gets back at Bette with the public humiliation of a gigantic installation showcasing their breakup. Bette’s face is literally splashed out in full color before the audience of art aficionados. Pain and life experience are part of every artist’s work, but usually it comes in metaphor. Not only was I under the impression that Jodi was supposed to be a classy gal, I also thought she was supposed to be a talented artist…

Shane searches her cheatin’ soul and comes to the conclusion that her new straight girl would do better to follow a Supreme Court internship to DC than her skinny hips to surfing beaches. She flirts brashly in front of said girl and then proceeds to wrangle her own declared best friend’s girl into a precarious as well as lascivious position atop a railing. How Nikki didn’t fall to her death upon discovery by Jenny is a mystery to me, and may have made a truly fascinating plot twist.

Alice, the moral rock, (except when she’s being transphobic of course) struggles with whether to leave Tasha. Max and his new hottie get robbed of any lines or moments of cuteness or hotness as usual. And in the most important betrayal of all, Lez Girl‘s new director Adele gives in to the demands of the movie execs and changes the ending to be “less gay.”

To call this season ender a disappointment seemed a no-brainer. But then I thought, because most of the improved portions of this latest year focused on the show’s self-deprecation and a peek behind the scenes, maybe this finale was really a coded message. Maybe the show’s writers and directors have been stifled in their artistic pursuits. Perhaps there have been more lesbian hookups behind the scenes than even the gossip rags know about. Maybe, just maybe, art imitates life…and life is certainly disappointing at times…

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This is totally me and my buddies on a Friday night. Except we’re bigger, like, grown up sized…

Yes, the main characters all still look like rail-thin Barbies prancing on toes of cocaine-fuled Jimmy Choos but at least they acted more like the lesbians I see around me every day (for better or worse). I think writer/director Angela Robinson, despite or because of, (I can’t really tell), also directing teenage lesbian super-spy romp D.E.B.S., knows how real lesbian communities behave.

Bette is rightfully on her high horse, for once, when she meets the white actress chosen to play her in Lez Girls. And the “Do I still love her or have I moved on?” dynamic between her and Tina is spot on. I might actually go so far as to call the tenderness of Jodi assisting a very drunk Tina to her ex-lover’s couch, and Bette’s subsequent look of longing, confusion and pain, heart-wrenching. Well, at the very least it was genuine lesbian melodrama.

Jenny’s annoyance is tempered by her drunken seduction of Nikki. It’s silly. They’re high and they both can’t stop laughing. They know how cheesy their playacting, leading up to the inevitable is, yet they embrace the awkwardness. This is seduction in the real world. And the in-closet sex is the kind of messy hotness I can actually see happening. (Yes, I have been walked in on during a party in a compromising position so I totally understand).

And, though the clash between Tasha and Alice was forseeable and inevitable, I come across these philosophical arguments often in queer communities. Whenever asked who I am most like on the show, I always answer Alice, not just because she is a web writer but also because she’s usually the only one with any integrity. So it’s pretty obvious that I would side with her in this argument. Trouble is, I would never have initially taken the illicit video, because the baller hadn’t proved himself hypocritical yet. And so I never would have invaded his privacy in the first place.

SHOTS!!!

But my absolute favorite part of the show is reserved for Shane. If she were only a pretty face that would be plenty for some. But her baked party treats, i.e. gay brownies, also prove she’s fun. That party reminded me very much of the hilarious people I choose to chill with myself, singing and dancing ridiculously, jumping half clothed into the neighbor’s pool.

But Shane’s best scene most certainly had to be with her Lez Girls doppleganger. The curiously asexual actress who plays Shane, Kate Moenning, is notorious for skirting the “Are you gay in real life?” question. When backed into a corner she usually points to men. So when the actress (double actress?) who plays Shawn fumbles delightfully over her “I’m straight…I have a boyfriend…I’m not gay…I’m gay for pay…” speech, and Shane rolls her eyes unmercifully the audience can only do the same, while simultaneously congratulating Kate for making such fun of herself.

And the self-abuse appears to not only continue, but become more blatant next week. In a move that’s so very Lesbians on Ecstasy (research them, love them, it will take a minute to understand their remixed brilliance), the upcoming episode shows Jenny railing about the poor choice of Vancouver as a shooting locale. Indeed, the lush greenness of our Pacific Northwest doesn’t really look like LA. And yes, Vancouver is where the L Word is actually filmed, though most of its stars live in sunny SoCal.

This ability to laugh at itself is quickly becoming the L Word’s greatest strength. Jenny and her movie are so bad, as the show has been of late, that this irreverence might, ironically save the entire production.

Similar news:

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• ‘L Word’ final season recaps
• The ‘L word’ returns for the last time
• Poll: Death on the final season premiere of the ‘L Word’

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