its over, six years of groundbreaking soap opera - does the bow out.Fin.
there is a lot that will be said, written, and argued about L Word.
most of it will be praise, some of it will be criticism. a few will be questions. while i'm not really interested in the aftermath i feel its my duty to put my toe in the water, and swirl a bit.
six years, and i've been watching from the beginning. it began as a way to bond with a girlfriend. the same happened with Sex in the City. a woman i was sleeping with asked me to watch it, i did and fell in. and you know what in-spite of myself i did not fight the love affair. either time. good TV is good TV. and im a fan of good TV. when it began, of course the main thrust of the buzz was its historic nature- the first television program about lesbians, made by lesbians. the actresses are not lesbians, they dont need to be. if you are making a series about black inner city youth the actors must be black, but they do not have to be from the inner city.
the line the show toed is what made it so intriguing, simply because there was no way to tell. unless you are told. you can speculate about a human being's sexuality all you want, but you don't know unless they tell you, or you have sex with them. period. the show dealt with all things lesbian, and gay and transgendered. its strength was in the portrayal, in the grace in which it dealt with hetro issues. the questions the show raised about fidelity, and lust. family and love. law and justice. INJUSTICE.
the women were hot. are lesbians hot? some are, some are not. but this show had powerful, beautiful women with means as its palate. some folks felt it was unrealistic. lesbians are not like this in the real world. the show's creator is a lesbian. she had to get the material from somewhere. i wrote last week that i watched the show because of Jennifer Beals. truth is it was her for the first one, and after that, it was the writing. oh the writing! its rare for modern art to know what it is. be what it is, and be fine with that. the show was a soap opera, but it knew this, and tried to make the soap a sonnet. and for six seasons it largely succeeded.
the series finale was tonight. i watched, wondering how they were going to wrap up something so sublime?
damn JENNY!
how would they end such an intricate tale? then i realized the point was not how the drama would end. it would end servicing the season. it would end with possibilities. for those of you who never watched the show, this post will me nothing, but for those of you that have seen it
- JENNY!
jesus, there is one character who always made me cringe, but at the same time want her. i despised her and i pulled for her. she was a mess, but given a chance i would like to be her.
(strange but hey.)
Mia Kirshner put on a remarkable series long performance that should go down as one of the best single performances in tv history. when we meet her, she is a confused young writer, trying to forget a history of neglect and molestation while in a hetro relationship with a decent man.
after six seasons we find her, most assuredly gay, rich, successful - with a diabolic, and self righteous streak of pure evil. she is the devil and we love her for it. no one wants to be the enemy. we loathe and are excited by the prospect of ID. we lust after the bravado it takes to hurt people, but we are confused by the juxtaposition of it all.
this post reminds me of being in the 5th grade, and being suspended from school for punching the gym teacher(seriously, and i knocked his old ass down too) and being made to watch my mother's soap operas with her. her favs at the time. the ABC midday dramas - ALL MY CHILDREN, and ONE LIFE TO LIVE. the joy on her face as she played the plots through her mind finding cracks in the mystery, the closeness i felt to be in the know.
yeah. i guess i'm in the know. and i thank you for that.
cheers.
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