Disappointing Lack of Buzz for Showtime’s The L Word

The ongoing revelations into the psyches of Shane and Jenny, the painful peeling back of their emotional barriers and their efforts to both resist and submit to the truths about their own lives are at the molten core of the narrative, their individual stories made more intense by their shared feelings for another woman. By contrast, Bette has already found her own center, but she is brutalized just the same by the realities of life’s ongoing changes. As Shane and Jenny grow softer, Bette grows increasingly tough. If we weren’t in a renaissance of television drama, on broadcast and cable, Beals, Moennig, and Kirshner would be front-runners for Emmy nominations.

Kirshner is especially mesmerizing. In fact, this young woman is delivering a performance unlike any on television today, and she brings the best out of anyone with whom she interacts. A scene in which an emotional Jenny sat transfixed while a closeted, middle-aged ‘80s action-movie star (played by Tony Goldwyn) came out to her and tearfully admitted that his life had been a personal failure despite his huge professional accomplishments was unforgettable simply for its sheer connectedness.

Silliness: Melissa Rivers and Strap-On Penises

For all the serious drama at hand, The L Word has served up its share of silly surprises, including tennis pro Dana losing her fiancée Tanya to a suddenly gay-curious Melissa Rivers; Shane taking a job as assistant to the head of Paramount Pictures, a madwoman with an explosive temper played with heavy-duty gusto by Camryn Manheim (who is clearly having a blast); and Dana and Alice experimenting with strap-on penises and nipple clamps.     

One wildly uneven plotline that has run through much of the season has centered on Mark (played by Eric Lively, the lone male in the cast), a director of Girls Gone Wild type videos who moved in with Shane and Jenny and secretly hid video cameras around their house, recording their every conversation and sex act. Mark was determined to use his footage to create an important documentary about lesbian life, until Jenny discovered one of his cameras and Mark aborted the project. Not surprisingly, Shane and Jenny were plunged into deeper emotional turmoil by this violation of their trust.