Tuesday 24 October, 2006

Dramas without males' chauvinistic nature create a uniquely comfortable mood

When I watched The L Word a couple of years ago, I wasn't that impressed, and said so in my television column. Clearly that was because I hadn't made it to the eighth episode which is when the show really hits its stride. It's actually funny. This dawned on me when the L word gang perform an intervention on Bette and Tina because pregnancy was making them boring. It's a great scene and after that I was hooked. On Saturday night I watched that episode and 6 more, getting me to the end of Season 1. Yes it's soap, but really good soap, with genuinely suprising moments, sexy (bad-girl Shane is very, very hot), good acting, and like I said, a sense of humor. I even came around to the boring, self-absorbed bisexual writer, Jenny, who falls for a a guy because he is a Manatee biologist.

I tried the show again because a straight friend had been having homoerotic L Word nights (complete with slumber parties) with her straight girlfriends and she insisted I give it another shot. She lent me her DVD set and I would like to share with you the blurb on the back of the box. 'This artistically well-done Showtime-made TV series primarily focuses on portrayal of lesbians in theirs 20s to 40s as urban professionals and deals with their everyday issues; at the same time, thematic materials such as working on relationships or struggling against temptations have universal qualities so that any open-minded persons, regardless of gender and sexual orientation, can associate with the happenings in the show. Also, dramas without males' chauvinistic nature create a uniquely comfortable mood, which even the straight audience may feel refreshing.'

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