Everything about The L Word totally explained
The L Word is a
television drama series on
Showtime that portrays the lives of a group of
lesbian and
bisexual women and their friends, family and lovers in the trendy
Los Angeles-area city of
West Hollywood.
The show was created and is executively produced by
Ilene Chaiken (
Barb Wire,
The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air). Other executive producers include
Steve Golin (
Being John Malkovich,
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind) and
Larry Kennar (
Barbershop). Besides Chaiken, writers of the show have included
Guinevere Turner (
Go Fish,
American Psycho) and
Rose Troche (
Go Fish,
Six Feet Under).
The pilot episode premiered on
January 18,
2004. Since then, five seasons have aired; The sixth and final season is to premiere on January 4th, 2009.
In 2008
The L Word's companion web site was honored at the 59th Annual
Technology & Engineering Emmy Awards for Outstanding Achievement in Advanced Media Technology for Best Use of Commercial Advertising on Personal Computers.
Outside the US, the series is distributed by
MGM Worldwide Television.
Characters
Below is the list of the main characters throughout the series, showing in which seasons they appeared and in which they left:
Production
The L Word is filmed in
Vancouver,
British Columbia at Coast Mountain Films Studios, which was formerly known as Dufferin Gate Studios Vancouver. The studio was once owned by Dufferin Gate Productions, the sister company to
Temple Street Productions, the Canadian producer of the U.S. version of
Queer as Folk.
The show's title
The original code-name for the project was
Earthlings, a rarely used slang term for lesbians. The Planet, the name of the group's main hangout, appears to be a pun on the original title.
The phrase "the L word" has been used as an alias for
lesbian since at least the 1981 play
My Blue Heaven by
Jane Chambers, in which a character stammers out: "You're really …? The L-word? Lord God, I never met one before."
Episodes
Season synopses
Season 1
Season 1 was first aired in the
United States on
January 18,
2004, and featured 13 episodes. Several entwined storylines are presented. Set in
West Hollywood, the series first introduces
Bette Porter and
Tina Kennard, a couple with a seven-year relationship who want to have a child. Tina eventually becomes pregnant through artificial insemination but has a miscarriage during episode 1.09:
Luck, next time. Later in the series, Bette develops an affair with
Candace Jewell, which Tina learns of during the season finale.
During the pilot, a coming out/love triangle storyline is introduced in the show, which involves Tina’s and Bette’s next-door neighbor,
Tim Haspel, his new-in-town girlfriend,
Jenny Schecter, and
Marina Ferrer. Marina is part of Tina and Bette’s circle of friends and also is the owner of neighborhood café, The Planet, which as the group's hang-out, serves as a focal point for the show. The season also presents
Shane McCutcheon, an androgynous, highly sexual hairstylist and serial heart-breaker;
Alice Pieszecki, a girly, bisexual journalist looking for love in any way she can, and
Dana Fairbanks, a professional tennis player who is still in the closet and torn between pursuing her career and finding love; In the first season, Dana falls for a sous-chef named
Lara Perkins whose sexuality is in question until an unexpected meeting in the locker room.
Season 2
Season 2 began airing in
Showtime on
February 20,
2005. It starts by unveiling to the viewers a secret Tina is keeping from everyone: she successfully became impregnated after a second insemination. Tina begins seeing
Helena while Bette’s life is portrayed as a wreck: alcohol abuse, problems with her job, the death of her father in episode 2.12:
L'Chaim, and getting fired during the season finale. Tina and Bette reconcile during the final episode. Since the character of Marina was written out from the show, the Planet is bought by
Kit Porter.
Introduced in the second season are
Carmen de la Pica Morales, a confident DJ who becomes part of a love triangle with Shane and Jenny;
Helena Peabody, the daughter of a wealthy supporter of the arts and who later becomes Tina's temporary love interest; and
Mark Wayland, a documentary filmmaker who moves in with Shane and Jenny. Mark makes them part of his latest documentary, by setting up hidden cameras in the house to videotape them. During episode 2.09:
Late, Later, Latent, Jenny discovers Mark’s tapes and also Carmen’s true love.
Season 2 also presents insights into Jenny’s past as an abused child in episode 2.11:
Loud and Proud along with episodes of self-mutilation that climax in the season finale. Also, the storyline covers a developing affair between Alice and Dana which becomes a public relationship in episode 2.07:
Luminous.
Season 3
Season 3 first aired in Showtime on
January 8,
2006. The storyline is set six months after the birth of Angelica (Tina and Bette's daughter). Tina's and Bette's relationship as a couple is decaying. and finally ends when Tina begins a heterosexual relationship on episode 3.10:
Losing the light The estrangement between the two leads to a climactic showdown over Angelica's custody.
New characters in this season include
Moira Sweeney (a working class butch who is Jenny’s girlfriend for most of the season) and Angus Partridge, Angelica’s male nanny who later becomes Kit’s lover. Sweeney later starts the process of
transitioning from female to male, switching his name to Max. Shane and Carmen's relationship (begun in season 2) leads Carmen to face her family and reveal her
homosexuality to them in episode 3.09:
Lead, follow or get out of the way.
At the beginning of the season, Alice and Dana's relationship has ended and Alice is having a hard time dealing with it. Dana is back with Lara, and is later found to have
cancer and ultimately dies in episode 3.10:
Losing the light of a heart failure. This death triggers Shane to ask Carmen to marry her in the following episode. Carmen agrees, but in the season finale Shane doesn't show up to the ceremony.
Helena's character storyline is switched from being Bette's rival into a new member of the circle of friends, paired mostly with Alice. During episode 3.01:
Labia Majora she buys a film studio, and later in the series Tina starts to work for her. Further in the season, Helena meets a documentary producer with whom she's an affair: Dylan Moreland, portrayed by
Alexandra Hedison. A
sexual harassment lawsuit filed by Dylan during episode 3.09:
Lead, follow or get out of the way, along with Helena’s prodigal behavior puts her family business in jeopardy. During the season finale, her mother Peggy (portrayed by
Holland Taylor) decides to cut her off financially after she's given $10,000 to Shane's father Gabriel for the purpose of buying Shane a wedding present. Gabriel instead decides to skip Canada with the money and a woman he's met at a bar inside the hotel where they're all staying for the wedding. This provokes Peggy to realize that Helena can't really discriminate between who is friends with her for her money and who is legitimately her friend.
Throughout this season, each episode begins with a short pre-credits vignette of two individuals meeting romantically or sexually. As the season progresses lines from Alice's chart (
see below) connect one member of each vignette with a new individual in the next. Beginning in the early 1970s with a housewife named Marilyn, these connections eventually wind through several of the series main characters showing scenes of their earlier lives until it ends with Lara, alone in Paris. A much older Marilyn is introduced in the season finale, showing once again the interconnectedness in all of their lives.
Season 4
The season premiere of the fourth season,
Legend in the Making, first aired on
January 7,
2007. The filming of the season's twelve episodes began in Vancouver, on
May 29,
2006. Showtime announced renewal of the series, in a
February 2,
2006 press release:
Joining the show's fourth season are
Academy-Award winner
Marlee Matlin, three time
Golden Globe winner
Cybill Shepherd,
Kristanna Loken,,
Rose Rollins and
Janina Gavankar. Film and television star
Annabella Sciorra guest-starred in several episodes as lesbian film director
Kate Arden, chosen to direct the film version of Jenny's (
Mia Kirshner) book
Lez Girls.
Season 5
Showtime picked up a fifth season of
The L Word for 12 episodes, touting the show as "a signature franchise among our viewers". Production began in Vancouver the summer of 2007 and ended in Los Angeles early November 2007. The fifth season premiered on January 6th, 2008, with episode "501 - LGB tease" .
The 5th season led to the mysterious disappearance of
Eva "Papi" Torres (
Janina Gavankar), as well as the departures of Angus Patridge (who was dumped by Kit), and season four recurring guest stars Paige Sobel (portrayed by
Kristanna Loken) and Kate Arden portrayed by
Annabella Sciorra. An explanation on Papi’s disappearance has yet to be discussed on the show or by the writers/producers of “The L Word”.
Clementine Ford, daughter of
Cybill Shepherd, will reprise her role as Phylis Kroll's daughter and begins a relationship with Shane McCutcheon, played by Katherine Moennig.
Elizabeth Keener joined the show as a entrepreneur Dawn Denbo who starts a rival lesbian bar with her lover
Cindi Tucker.
Malaya Rivera Drew and
Kate French have been cast for the upcoming season. Malaya is to play
Adele, a young fan of Jenny's work who gets hired as her personal assistant. Kate is to play Nikki Stevens, an ambitious young actress who lands the lead role of Jenny's character of Jesse in the movie production 'Lez Girls' which Jenny is planning to direct herself.
Season 6
Showtime has confirmed a sixth and final season for the L Word; unlike previous series, it'll only last 8 episodes. Studio executives commented on the impressive longevity of the show, with the Showtime president of entertainment Robert Greenblatt saying that the L Word has "surpassed its niche as a gay show." It is set to start production in summer 2008, airing on January 4th, 2009.
Producers and writers of “The L Word” are going to be taking viewers opinions regarding the final season’s episodes. Some of the most popular topics from fans are regarding the return of Carmen de la Pica Morales, and an explanation of the disappearance of Eva ‘Papi’ Torres. Socialite Paris Hilton is rumored to make a guest appearance on the final season.
Music
As of March 2008, The L Word has released 5 Compilation CDs with the show's soundtrack. The music composer of the show is
EZgirl.
The Chart
"The Chart" is a graph of the affairs that occur among Alice's friends and acquaintances; it's an
undirected labeled graph in which nodes are labeled with people's names and the lines represent affairs.
According to the storyline, Alice first started the Chart on the back of a napkin. In Season 1 it was moved from the whiteboard stretched across one wall of her apartment to an internet site of Alice's own creation.
During episode 1.03: "Let's Do It", Alice attempted to write an article about the chart in
Los Angeles magazine. As she was unable to convince her supervisor editor of the validity of such an article, she opted to publish the Chart on the internet instead. The network was then enriched by the visitors, and was one of the resources used in season 1 when
Lara's sexual orientation was in question.
Late in season 2, the Chart regains plot relevance in the show when a disturbing encounter with Alice's former girlfriend Gabby Deveaux prompts her to put it up as a topic during an interview at
KCRW. In the story, the producer was amazed at the complexity of the affair network and granted Alice a section for its public discussion. The program's low popularity is mentioned during episode 2.11: "Loud and Proud", but by the third season it's pictured as a hit among the lesbian community, even heard at public places (Dana is forced to listen to an ad of the program while visiting the hospital in episode 3.04: "Light My Fire").
From Alice's point of view, the Chart is about her and how she's connected to everyone else on it. Any of the main characters can be connected to Alice in less than four moves. In episode 2.08: "Loyal", Alice claimed she could connect almost anyone to her in less than six moves.
In episode 1.02: "Let's Do It", it's mentioned that the major contributor to the Chart is Shane, which is later confirmed during episode 1.12: "Locked Up" by a comment in which she points out her connections could sum up to about twelve hundred. A larger "hub" in the Chart is found during episode 4.01: "Legend in the Making".
During Season 3, the Chart serves as a marginal storyline that advances through each episode and concludes in the season finale.
In the episode 5.04: "Let's Get This Party Started", as the investigation of Tasha for homosexual conduct escalates, Alice scrubs the chart off her apartment wall to hide evidence of her relationship with Tasha.
Originally,
The L Word was to be based around a lesbian
Kit Porter, and "The Chart" was tattooed on her back.
When Kit Porter was changed into a straight character, The Chart was given to Alice instead.
International broadcasts
References in pop culture
Several shows have referenced the
The L Word:
The teen-drama South of Nowhere, in Season 1's episode Girls Guide to Dating, Ashley asks Spencer, "For two tickets for the Ellen DeGeneres show and a box set of the first two seasons of The L Word".
In According to Jim, Jim is asked what "The L Word" is (obviously in this context relating to the word "love"). Instead, Jim states that "The L Word" is "Lesbian".
On the medical drama House, Dr. Gregory House said he watches The L Word, but only on mute. He later asks Dr. Cuddy loudly, "Panty hamster get a spin on its wheel?"
On the dark comedy series Weeds, after finding her daughter Isabel kissing another girl, Celia Hodes tells Isabel that she can't become a lesbian to avoid losing weight, citing the slim lesbians on The L Word.
News satire program The Daily Show, which features news headlines altered to reflect pop cultural gags, referred to its coverage of the 2006 Israel-Lebanon conflict as "The L War" on the July 24, 2006 episode. Host Jon Stewart is a close friend of The L Word actress Jennifer Beals, and has previously invited her on to promote the show.
On Chapelle's Show: The "Lost Episodes", Dave Chapelle mentions "watching The L Word On Showtime, BYAAAAH!!" in his impersonation of Howard Dean's famous outburst in the election runnings. Dave (as Dean) - "I love lesbians. BYAAAAH, I watch The L Word on Showtime, BYAAAAH! *Smells his finger* BYAAAAAH!!!"
On The Sopranos episode "Live Free or Die", Tony Soprano references The L Word while speaking to his psychiatrist stating that "all that lesbian thing, with the, uh, Jennifer Beals...it's not bad. She a dyke in real life?"
In the US version of The Office, when Michael Scott feels he's being accused of discrimination toward homosexuals, he cites watching The L Word as evidence to the contrary.
The fourth season Gilmore Girls episode "Scene in a Mall" features a scene where a germophobic Paris Geller is trying to keep her shared dorm room with an ill Rory Gilmore clean (including spraying Lysol on the doorknob), and mentions she'll be sleeping with the other girls in the dorm in their room that night, causing Rory to joke "How very The L Word" at the sleeping arrangement.
On G4's Attack of the Show, the skit "Lesbionic Women" has the protagonist mentioning watching The L Word.
The character Adele Channing as well as her storyline in Season 5 seems to be a nod to the acclaimed 1950 movie All About Eve.
Creator of the show Supernatural, Eric Kripke, commented on watching "The L Word" during the commentary for the Pilot episode of Supernatural, an episode which features Sarah Shahi.Further Information
Get more info on 'The L Word'.
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