Product Description
-------------------
The complete seasons 1-6 of the drama series following the lives
of a group of lesbians and their friends, families and neighbours
in Los Angeles. Season 1 episodes are: 'Pilot', 'Let's Do It',
'Longing', 'Lies, Lies, Lies', 'Lawfully', 'Losing It',
'L'Ennui', 'Listen Up', 'Luck, Next Time', 'Liberally', 'Looking
Back', 'Locked Up' and 'Limb from Limb'. Season 2 episodes are:
'Life, Loss, Leaving', 'Lap Dance', 'Loneliest Number', 'Lynch
Pin', 'Labyrinth', 'Lagrimas de Oro', 'Luminous', 'Loyal', 'Late,
Later, Latent', 'Land Ahoy', 'Loud and Proud', 'L'Ch' and
'Lacuna'. Season 3 episodes are: 'Labia Majora', 'Lost Weekend',
'Lobsters', 'Light My Fire', 'Lifeline', 'Lifesize', 'Lonestar',
'Latecomer', 'Lead, Follow, Or Get Out of the Way', 'Losing the
Light', 'Last Dance' and 'Left Hand of the Goddess'. Season 4
episodes are: 'Legend in the Making', 'Livin' La Vida Loca',
'Lassoed', 'Layup', 'Lez Girls', 'Luck Be a Lady', 'Lesson Number
One', 'Lexington and Concord', 'Lacy Lilting Lyrics', 'Little Boy
Blue', 'Literary License to Kill' and 'Long Time Coming'. Season
5 episodes are: 'LGB Tease', 'Look Out, Here They Come!', 'Lady
of the Lake', 'Let's Get This Party Started', 'Lookin' at You,
Kid', 'Lights! Camera! Action!', 'Lesbians Gone Wild', 'Lay Down
the Law', 'Liquid Heat', 'Lifecycle', 'Lunar Cycle' and 'Loyal
and True'. Season 6 episodes are; 'Long Night's Journey Into
Day', 'Least Likely', 'LMFAO', 'Leaving Los Angeles', 'Litmus
Test', 'Lactose Intolerant', 'Last Couple Standing' and 'Last
Word'.
.co.uk Review
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Season 1: Four years after the American version of Queer as Folk
made gay men the focus, it was time for a little turnabout with
The L Word (bad title, great show). Centering around a tight-knit
group of lesbians in Los Angeles, this drama was far removed from
its working-class male counterpart in both style and content.
While the men of QAF enjoyed a fabulous if melodramatic life on
the middle-class streets of Pittsburgh, the women of The L Word
lived it up in sunny California, with gorgeous houses, glamorous
careers and sexy wardrobes. Ironically, though, The L Word
adhered more to the everyday drama of ensemble shows like
thirtysomething than the soap opera antics of QAF, and the
results were surprisingly heartfelt and effective, appropriately
stylish but never over the top. There was plenty of room for
titillation, but creator Ilene Chaiken fashioned from the start a
show centered on characters and not just sex, ing for the
heart rather than... well, other places. The L Word focused
primarily on committed couple Bette (Jennifer Beals) and Tina
(Laurel Holloman), a former power-career duo who've decided to
have a baby; however, artificial insemination and the changing
dynamics of their relationship throw their previously happy
existence off-kilter. Within their orbit are spunky journalist
Alice (Leisha Hailey), sultry hairdresser Shane (Katherine
Moenning), closeted pro tennis player Dana (Erin Daniels), and
espresso bar owner Marina (Karina Lombard) who, in the show's
most polarising storyline, bedded the seemingly straight Jenny
(Mia Kirschner) and shook up her heterosexual world. Jenny's
"am-I-straight-or-not?" kvetching frustrated both her fiancé
(Eric Mabius) and many viewers, who were alternately irritated
and intrigued by her inability to decide one way or the other.
But Jenny's weakness was part of The L Word's strength: in
exploring many sides of many issues, both domestic and political,
it never came up with an easy answer for any of them, making the
show all that more fascinating--and compulsively watchable.
--Mark Englehart
Season 2:Once a series has broken new ground, where does it go
from there? Showtime's The L Word, concerning the relationships
of a community of lesbian Los Angelenos, turned heads with its
smart, funny writing and fully realized characters. Season Two
offers more of the same, with some notable guest stars and
experiments in narrative and music. This season, Jenny (Mia
Kirshner) fully embraces her sexuality as her ex-husband/roomie
(Eric Mabius) departs and voyeuristic documentary filmmaker Mark
(Eric Lively) and womanchaser Shane (Katherine Moennig) move in.
Shane and Jenny struggle good-heartedly over the affections of
new character Carmen (Sarah Shahi), who isn't given much to do
plot-wise apart from occasionally spinning records and serving as
one corner of the love triangle. Bette (Jennifer Beals) and Tina
(Laurel Holloman) start the season on the rocks due to Bette's
infidelity; the introduction of the one-dimensionally nasty
Helena Peabody (Rachel Shelley) causes further friction between
Bette and Tina while playing havoc with Bette's curatorial
career. Meanwhile, Dana (Erin Daniels) and Alice (Leisha Hailey)
go from being best friends to being a whole lot more, providing
some of the most touching scenes of the season. Kit (Pam Grier)
takes on The Planet, the seeming center of LA's lesbian universe,
converting it into a nightclub where, conveniently,
guest-starring bands can play. Strong points of the season
include Bette and Kit confronting the death of their her (the
superb Ossie Davis) and Shane's new job as a gopher for a
high-powered Hollywood producer (the equally superb Camryn
Manheim). Less strong are the distracting, neo-expressionistic
passages meant to be glimpses into Jenny's creative mind and the
interminable use of the series' theme song--re-interpreted in a
number of genres--to the point of distraction. Mark's voyeurism,
which crosses all sorts of boundaries as he installs hidden
cameras around the house, is a brilliant way to challenge male
viewers who may tune in just to TiVo their way to the sex scenes.
That said, the arc of that particular story grows increasingly
far-fetched as Mark somehow avoids criminal prosecution and
instead endures the horrible e of having Jenny refuse his
offer of coffee and a muffin. Despite its flaws, The L Word is a
show that deserves to be cheered on, not for its politics, but
for the skillful way it conveys complex human entanglements with
sensitivity. --Ryan Boudinot
Season 3: The third season of The L Word is all about
transitions. The season opens with Alice Pieszecki (Leisha
Hailey) coping with her between-seasons break-up with Dana
Fairbanks (Erin Daniels), who is herself headed for an even
heavier series of transitions. Kit Porter (Pam Grier) both falls
in love with a younger man and discovers she is going through
menopause. Shane (Katherine Moennig), who spent much of the first
two seasons of the show hopping from bed to bed, finds herself
more or less committed to Latina deejay Carmen (Sarah Shahi). And
the second season's resident villain, Helena Peabody (Rachel
Shelley), becomes embroiled in a sexual harassment case that
leaves her ultimately looking like the victim. As with previous
seasons, The L Word gets all hot and bothered with various
seductions filmed to sometimes jarring music on the soundtrack,
but it's the day-to-day foibles and celebrations of Los Angeles's
lesbian community that keep the show interesting. Newcomer
Moira/Max (Daniela Sea) begins the process of gender
reassignment, making for some curious situations with potential
employers. Bette (Jennifer Beals) and Tina (Laurel Holloman)
begin to drift apart when Tina lands a big movie studio job and
starts feeling attracted to men, leading to a custody battle over
their baby daughter. Where The L Word starts getting preachy and
obvious is in the opening flashback sequences. When these
vignettes refer to current characters of the show, they make
sense; when they depict situations meant to underline how queer
identity has evolved over the years, they seem politically
overloaded. The L Word works intelligently through its
characters' concerns without having to resort to such direct
appeals for tolerance. Its strength isn't in making lesbian
culture appear more mainstream, but in making us care and
identify with these women's struggles, regardless of our sexual
orientation. --Ryan Boudinot
Season 4: If the third season was marked by transitions, The L
Word's fourth concerns growing up--or trying to, at any rate.
Shane (Katherine Moennig) becomes her brother Shay's guardian,
Bette (Jennifer Beals) and Tina (Laurel Holloman) stop fighting
over their daughter Angelica, and Bette's new boss, Phyllis (a
very game Cybill Shepherd), decides it's time to embrace her true
nature. So, after 25 years of marriage (Bruce Davison plays her
husband), Chancellor Kroll comes out of the closet--and sets her
s on Alice (Leisha Hailey). For all the inclusiveness, Max
(Daniela Sea), still remains on the margins. Dumped by Jenny (Mia
Kirshner) the year before, Max continues to share her apartment
while acclimating to life as a man. For those who felt season
three was too dark, four offers a welcome corrective. There's
still plenty of angst--Jenny's memoir meets with a few negative
notices (Heather Matarazzo's journalist pens the harshest
critique) and Helena (Rachel Shelley) learns to live without
Mommy's money--but there are plenty of moving moments to
compensate (most revolving around Shane and Shay). New additions
also arrive to shake things up, like Marlee Matlin as an artist
who helps Bette to broaden her horizons, Kristanna Loken as a
single mother with a yen for Shane, and Rose Rollins as an Iraq
War veteran with whom Alice has a tryst (leading to a well
intentioned, if heavy-handed message about how even liberals
should support the troops). As in seasons past, the directorial
line-up impresses as much as the acting talent, and includes
O winner Marleen Gorris (Antonia's Line) and playwright
Moisés Kaufman (The Laramie Project). --Kathleen C. Fennessy,
.com
Season 5: In a clever move, the producers of The L Word use
season five to revisit the origins of their own creation. After
Jenny (Mia Kirshner) sets out to direct the silver-screen edition
of her novel, Lez Girls, she enters a parallel world populated by
actors playing thinly-veiled versions of the central cast (in a
typical Jenny move, she s with the star who portrays
"Jesse"). This post-modern plotline brings newcomers up to speed,
while offering early-adapters new perspectives on the past.
Naturally, the shoot doesn't go smoothly. When the increasingly
self-absorbed Jenny hires adoring fan Adele (ER's Malaya Rivera
Drew) as her assistant, events take on All About Eve overtones.
Since Jenny is turning her life into a movie, it only makes sense
for the two to bleed into each other. In other developments, Tina
(Laurel Holloman) and Bette (Jennifer Beals) consider
reconciliation, Helena (Rachel Shelley) does time in prison,
Alice (Leisha Hailey) takes her penchant for gossip too far,
Tasha (Rose Rollins) fights to stay in the , and Shane
(Katherine Moennig), a dead ringer for Warren Beatty in Shampoo,
rejoins the ranks of the single, only to fall for straight girl
Molly (Cybill Shepherd's daughter, Clementine Ford). In a more
melodramatic, but equally entertaining move, Dawn Denbo
(Elizabeth Keener), proprietor of new hotspot SheBar makes life
hell for the Planet, but Kit (Pam Grier) and her loyal clientele
refuse to go down without a fight--even if they don't offer
"Lesbian Turkish Oil Wrestling". Aside from the fact that Max
(Daniela Sea) continues to get short shrift, The L Word's fifth
season proves the show has more than a little lusty and gutsy
life left in it. --Kathleen C. Fennessy
Season 6 Description: In the sixth and final season of The L
Word, careers evolve, relationships are tested and friendships
end in murder. It begins with Jenny found dead and as a result,
everyone’s lives are turned upside down leaving all the friends
despondent, but also suspects. Who did it and how did it happen?
Flashbacks of the months leading up to the murder will be the
only way to put the pieces together to learn why.