DVD Verdict Review - The L Word: The Complete Second Season: The second season picks up from the first, and deals almost exclusively with the fractures and problems created by previous events.
The cast is first-rate, easily the best ensemble on television today. Jennifer Beals looks amazing, and it's hard to believe her Flashdance days are twenty years past. She anchors the group with superb grace and natural charisma as Bette Porter. Pam Grier adds an stellar "Old School Hollywood" aura to the character of Kit, and remains one of the highlights. Nobody plays crazy quite like Mia Kirshner, who is amazing to watch. Her Jenny is the tortured, neurotic soul of the show—often the series seems to be from her point of view. She eats up everyone with her slightly crazed eyes and world-weary smile. Erin Daniels and Leisha Hailey provide most of the comic relief as Dana and Alice. They get wonderful fantasy scenes, such as when Alice dresses up as Julie from The Love Boat to seduce Dana. You smile every time they hit the screen, and it's hard not to root for them to be together. Laurel Holloman was really pregnant this season, and she plays the sexiest mom ever portrayed as she becomes the apex of the show's most interesting love triangle. Katherine Moennig plays Shane as if Joan Jett had become a hairdresser, and could still get any girl she wants. She drips androgynous sex in every scene, but still manages to resonate Shane's utter loneliness too. Sarah Shahi is a sex bomb who commands the screen, and expands The L Word to mean "latin." They all get stunning scenes, and develop a truly first-rate group of characters we come to care deeply about.

Two new characters really intrigued me this season—Helena Peabody (Rachel Shelley, Seeing Other People) and Mark Wayland (Eric Lively, Speak). ah he is Blake Lively's brother, right? and as with her, I liked him pretty quickly. They both blow into the show as villains. You would think they would be the most unsympathetic characters in the cast, but leave it to The L Word to stray against type. By the end of the season we get to see them both belittled and vulnerable. They become likable once their claws are removed, and we almost root for them to be completely redeemed. yes I guess we saw Helena being belittled by her mother and that is supposed to give us some sense of why she is so awful. I still did not like her. but Mark I liked more & more, esp when interacting with Shane. But we'll have to wait for season three to find out if that happens. but Mark won't be back will he? bummer. and Helena seems to be around for the next two seasons ~ (and Carmen just for one more, season 3). and who played Lee, the young-looking artist Bette met and then Helena dated? Lee was striking to me, as if familiar, but I am not sure.

The guest stars found in The L Word: The Complete Second Season are astonishing. Ossie Davis gives his last screen performance as Bette and Kit's dying father. His performance is touching and real. those scenes were excellent.
also cameos by Arianna Huffington, Gloria Steinem, Sandra Bernhard, Camryn Manheim. wow Camryn Manheim was great. I had not esp liked her in The Practice, I guess the character. here she looked great & was fantastic. Kelly Lynch (Threesome) does a knock-out turn as a transsexual named Ivan. yes I liked Ivan a lot.

and I think I like the actress Kelly Lynch, who I also saw as Helen in Normal Adolescent Behavior - starring Amber Tamblyn who is v good. maybe the scenes of most int to me were those with Helen. Tamblyn's char Wendy's younger brother sort of courting Helen, Wendy talking to Helen outside playing basketball. some of those scenes were 'deleted' - as was the one that I think was the best , when Wendy and her brother find Helen asleep outside her house, with the phone in her hand, having been stood up by her husband. they drive her to a clinic (where she gets an abortion - this is not said here, but is said in the basketball scene). Wendy and her brother wait in the car. Wendy says it is strange to see someone alone, as if that is unusual. her brother says, what do you mean? people are alone all the time. no they aren't, says Wendy. look. I'm here and you're here, so we're together right? her brother, sitting in the backseat, thinks about it: I don't think that's the definition of alone

I really like that scene. as it happened, I rented that movie the same day I rented the first disc of the L Word. picked both by browsing around Hollywood Video.


The production values are top notch, and The L Word looks like it has a much bigger budget than it actually does. The series shoots interiors at studios in Canada, but allows for exterior sequences to be filmed on location in Los Angeles. The result is a Southern California feel, even though the bulk of it is actually produced north of the border.The L Word showcases the "City of Angels" every chance it gets. The camera work adds to the drama, and there are beautiful scenes like when Bette cries underwater in a pool with a camera gazing up at her. Sequences such as Jenny's turn at a strip contest are jaw dropping. The clothes are glamorous, and often even the poor student character can be spotted wearing a blouse that retails for over three grand. The production team puts every cent of their budget where it belongs, on the screen. You won't find a better looking show on any other channel anytime soon. yes part of what really appeals to me is how this show looks. I like the sets: the two houses next door to each other (Bette's & Jenny's) and The Planet coffeehouse.

All this may be a bit much to ever catch on outside of the lesbian community. Showtime and The L Word's creators seem to be fine with that status. I've tried to convince people it's one of the best shows on television, but the whole approach to the show alienates them before they can discover the richness and depth. yeah. the title I guess... it had put me off. this is something that puts me off with any proclaimed community ~ unfairly, I suppose, bcs they are proclaiming themselves in order to defy assumptions that oppress them. and I am for that. still, I react to it as if it is making too much ~ as if proclaiming it is a show about lesbians means it is about these women in the aspect of their sexuality only. women who have sex with women. the show itself belies that, the characters do not talk as if they are lesbians first and people second. but from the bit of reaction I've read, it seems this actually angers gay women -
-Showtime: "The L Word" no longer about lesbians, but "people" | AfterEllen.com: In a blatant attempt to woo Emmy voters, Showtime placed a full-page ad in Variety yesterday for The L Word that boldly proclaims: 'no longer 'a show about lesbians,' this series has evolved into a show about people.'
Good thinking, that'll fool 'em! And it won't piss off your lesbian audience at all! (Maybe they were hoping we'd be too busy picking up women in people bars or marching in people pride parades to notice.). well I suppose this may be a complaint against the crassness of the Showtime ad, as if it was not always about people. which is my point ~

back to DVDverdict:
You may have guessed from my staff dossier that I am not a lesbian, and I admit having to run to my lesbian friends to have them explain some of the show to me. like what??? It does deal with universal themes, but sometimes The L Word feels like an impenetrable fortress against anyone with a "Y" chromosome. I am put off, as above, also by proclamations about what it is to be a woman, how a man will never understand. exemplified by Jenny to Mark, telling me to walk naked down the street with F__ Me written on his body, and have sex with anyone who wants to, and sweetly thank them afterward. and then he'll know what it is like to be a woman. which is terrible - would be terrible to feel like that - do most women feel like that?! because I do not, I dislike the statement bcs it presumes that this is how all women feel or that being female is any one thing to everyone.


The L Word: The Complete Second Season plain and simply rocked my world. 17 hours of excellent, daring television.