The L is Back

Get ready you lipstick lesbian loving ladies (yeh, I know Shane is supposed to be "butch" but look at her). Season 4 of the L word premieres tonight. And while I completely agree with Mirandala dot org that there are soooo many reasons to hate this show (or at least to kick yourself for loving it), I've been anticipating its return for several weeks now (enough to actually order a premium channel on my otherwise basic digital cable lineup).

At the end of Season 3, the girls were still mourning Dana who, to the chagrin of the cast and fans of the show, the producers killed off with breast cancer. (Come on Ilene. Did you have to ax one of the most likable characters? Why not throw Jenny off a cliff?)

After proposing to Carmen in a fit of grief, Shane left her hottie wife-to-be at the altar. Loner Shane had finally met her wayward dad and upon discovering he was a womanizing con, she assumed she could be no better.

Season 3's cliffhanger also featured Bette fleeing Canada with kidnapped baby in tow, menopausal Kit pregnant by that hippy dippy "manny" Angus, Alice and Laura comforting one another through their loss of Dana (who they were both in love with) and heiress Helena being cut off financially by her kickass mom. I know its unrealistic, borderline soap opera drama. But I can't not watch it! Plus, the show is introducing a whole new crop of ladies we'll love to hate/hate to love including Marlee Matlin.

And the show does have some redeeming moments. Their farewell to the late, great Ossie Davis (who brilliantly played Bette and Kit's curmudgeonly dad) was an amazing overlap of life and art. And the producers manage to insert politics into the show at rare moments without being overly propagandistic. And dammit, the girls are hot.

Some of my lesbian and straight girlfriends who have seen the show complain that the characters are not representative of the diverse lesbian/bi community, but I don't think the show makes any such claims anyway. The producers are clearly trying to chart out new territory with the inclusion of a transgender character (last season) and the introduction of a woman in the military and a deaf character (this season), but it's impossible to represent every segment of the lesbian population, plus it is television afterall. Titilation and elements of fantasy are par for the course.

And I'm just glad it's on the air because in spite of its flaws, it does push the envelope of popular culture a great deal. And while the show has a diverse following, I feel like the target audience is women. In a culture in which women's sexuality is usually put on display for the enjoyment of heterosexual men, it's refreshing that the creative team behind the show manages to make relationships between women sexy and entertaining but not reduce it to a male porn fantasy. For that, the show deserves some credit.