The L Word: Generation Q ended season 2 with a cliffhanger – several actually – and left viewers rooting for their favorite relationships as always. There were parts of the season I loved (yay!) and parts I thought were a mess (nay!). Instead of a general season review, let’s just look at those two things.
Yay
The absolute best thing in the entire season was the OG cast of Bette (Jennifer Beals), Shane (Katherine Moennig), and Alice (Leisha Hailey) singing “Love Shack” at karaoke night in Dana’s Bar. I could watch it one million times and still love it.
The way they handed trans characters and trans actors this season was well done. They also did a good job with Maribel (Jillian Mercado), the disabled character. Putting Maribel and Micah (Leo Sheng) in a sex scene was groundbreaking and important. That was another of my best things in the season.
Bisexuals are the least understood of the LGBT acronym. Putting Alice with Tom (Donald Faison) gave some brief moments legitimizing bisexuality. It could have been better. Alice also was used to tell a story about polyamory with Nat (Stephanie Allynne) this season. Like the bi bit, it could have been better, but at least the two topics were raised somewhat respectfully.
I really liked seeing Bette with the artist Pippa Pascal (Vanessa E. Williams). I think it’s important that Jennifer Beals has been with several women of color in the two seasons of TLW-GQ. It gives Jennifer Beals a platform to talk about racism. I think Hollywood generally ignores her biracial identity because she’s so light skinned. They discount her activism. But she is an activist and her being in control of some of the story in this series lets her speak out, especially during the relationship with Pippa.
Some of the performances should be singled out as truly excellent. Rosie O’Donnell as the mousey, whinging fiancée of Tina (Laurel Holloman) was really terrific. I kept thinking “Emmy” to myself during Rosie’s performance.
It would be ironic, however, if Rosie O’Donnell came on and got an Emmy nom after so many outstanding performances in the L Word franchise over the years have gone unrecognized. I’m thinking particularly of some of the brilliant scenes between Jennifer Beals and Laurel Holloman that never got the recognition they deserved.
Young Jordan Hull as Bette and Tina’s daughter Angie also showed her talents really well. She should be on her way to a fine career.
Jacqueline Toboni as the screw-up Finley had a tough part to play and did it with conviction. The whole cast is top notch, but these performances deserve special mention.
All women directors in season 2 earns a big yay!
Nay
I know there’s no drama in a stable relationship in the world of The L Word (see #Tibette), but it would be super nice to see a stable long-term relationship somewhere in the mix. Instead we get soapy bed-hopping as the cast mix and match romances and relationships all season long.
Sophie (Rosanny Zayas) in particular needs a stronger advocate voice in the writers’ room because her love for Dani (Arienne Mandi) followed immediately by her love for Finley was not believable and made Sophie a character it was hard to empathize with.
Then there’s Tina and Carrie. I could never figure out why they were together or what they got from each other. Completely unrealistic couple in my opinion.
Gigi (Sepideh Moafi) and Dani spoke Farsi quite often. I would like to see that translated and captioned. Also the Spanish used by Sophie’s family and by Dani’s family.
What about you? Do you have a list of favorite moments or bits that just didn’t work about season 2? Tell all!
The characters Tina & Carrie both acted as if they were high on something other than bad acting . The character Tina caused all of the madness & Bette was blamed for it – but nut & nuttier get 2 to go home & cry baby has no Pippa. Sorry Pip I was hoping u would give some flavor to nuttiness. I’ll flip & come save you. I’m a newbie.
I would agree with your points Virginia, but add, re Tina and Carrie, there are couples I know in real life that I can’t figure out why they’re together, so maybe it’s not that unrealistic. My own biggest nay was Nat’s complete volte face from being so unforgiving of Gigi’s infidelity and feeling terrible for having for having put their kids through a divorce in the first season to deciding she was polyamorous in the second season, to the extent that it led to her break up with Alice. Just doesn’t add up to me. The season one Nat would only have left Alice for Gigi.
You make a good point. I thought about that with Nat too. The thing about Carrie that I suppose appealed was she wasn’t the alpha dog, she not was the dominant personality. Tina wanted that.