A Big Deflated L-Balloon: The L Word's Finale

The L Word. Or, should I say, The L-not Word? Such a let down, this final episode.
At the beginning of this final 6th season, I hoped that when Jenny was finally killed off, we would be done done done with her whiny, icky character. Ever since those initial season, grainy, b/w scenes at the amusement park I wondered her relevance. Straight girl becomes gay? No biggie. I'm good with that story line. We always need more on our team anyway.

It would have been more intriguing if one of the Ilene Chaiken crew decided to do a switcheroo, you know, the ole AC/DC/AC thing and vacilate between both sexes/genders (more than Alice or Tina did), and beyond Max's People Magazine predictable, 'surprise' child-bearing state.

Still, to keep all the focus on Jenny who's MaryAnn (from Gilligan's Isle) innocence turned to darkened-cutter-cutthroat super rich (really? really?) writer lesbian? Don't think so. Not believable even in the fairly unbelievable LA-LA setting of this show.

How did she become such a central figure anyway? I mean, when the show kicked off with all of its random story snippets, Jenny was straight and struggling. Did I simply dislike her that early on to miss that Bette and Jenny would be the focus? In 6 years she becomes the hub to this whole unreal L.A. lesbo mess? It made no sense that the writers/directors/producers thought her character, the evil, undermining, pity-me disengenuous author was the key to this whole show? Pathetic. I would have preferred more of a typical lezzie scene each seasonal episode, perhaps Alice sleeping w/the cluster of friends (recall that cool, so-lezzie web thing?) and constantly saying, "Oh yea, I remember when you liked it when I ...." while chomping a croissant or slurping a brewski at an art opening, brunch, or womens' basketball game among throngs of acquaintances and other past discards.

Here are some thoughts about the poor writing of this show:
<> Killing off Dana, the tennis player. Why not make her a Breast Cancer Survivor rather than pure mortal victim? More women are living & surviving this cancer. Lame.
<> Ivan the FtM transgender King. Lots of potential to infuse into the lez world, especially since Max was brought in later. Acceptance? Denial? Where do these f-ms fit in, esp when we think of the still-in-transitions who would like to march in the Dyke Marches during Gay Pride celebrations?
<>Why no MtFs other than season 6's Sunset Boulevard who is really just a guy who likes to drag, spin tunes, and meddle with Kit's doo-dad? He's so gay and queenie, it's hard to believe that he's a straight queen, you know? MtFs fitting into a lezzie world? I think it might be a tight squeeze.
<>Given all the chix that Shane fucked, why didn't she once turn up at a clinic with all sorts of lesions, warts, or any sort of painful STD? Why didn't any of the chix she popped either? Not once did I see a dental dam, let alone a lone piece of latex. Mmm, bad bad bad on the Safe Sex Scenes. Remember, everyone gets a hang nail or flosses too heavily once in a while.
<>Although not impossible for Max to get pregnant -- although I was wondering where Tom thought he was poking his thinger -- I wonder why Max never bothered to talk w/his M.D. about the eggs still floating around his body, let alone discuss, uh, safe sex w/Tom? Huh. Even Queer As Folks' fave little fuckaroo, Brian always condomed up.
<>How did Helena go from broke to partner of Kit & the Planet cum 'Hit'? I missed that cash cow since Mrs. Mommy Peabody said she cut her off after Helena's sex-hrss suit by sultry Dylan. Was it the $$ Helena absconded with from that evil gamblertrix' safe (that Helena, of course, won in cards)? Or was it a little something from her prison cell bitch's stash? Like many of the others, I think I must have slept through the show that explained Helena's $$ influx.
<>Given this little issue, why oh why, in all of Helena's 'inability to trust anybody' did she not ever muster up the 'I can't trust you because you sued my ass all the way to the po'house and now, in my Malibu mans I have a shoestring of a budget and a liquor store's worth of fine scotch' to the revisiting Dylan, the famed docu-editor of season 4? Just wondering why the lawsuit never crawled from Helena's Britlips. Of course Dylan did return the $ she extorted, but still, damage done.
<>What was the signif. of Shane taking temp fosterhood of her little brother? To show us she was not just a skinny, slutty, junkie-appearing hair designer but a sensitive pseudo-partial mom?
<>Were there any characters who actually seemed just like everyday lezzies other than Jane Lynch's lawyerly character (love her!)? You know, stocky, pants-wearin' (not pressed slacks, thank you), funny, intellectual teachers, fire fighters, graphic artists, or coffee jockeys ? Alice was a smarty but .... and Bette was just too Flashdancey, Max still seems too scrawny, and Tasha, tho hot and scruffy-voiced, still has that pony'. Or, was this just the whole L.A. scene in which everyone appears long-haired, make-upped, and skinny? The pudgiest person was prob Cybil Shepherd, and I simply wouldn't think of her as pudgy but breastly and shapely. Just wondered what happened to the standard dyke-lesbian. Maybe they were all the extras at the Planet, Dana's tennis tournaments, or the other chikky disco place.
<>Why oh why wasn't that teenager that Alice 'saved' from suicide committed to a 51/50? Helloo? The gal needed a bit more (professional) support than a rooftop rap-n'-hug session w/freshly fired Alice and the director of the LA Gay/Lez Ctr.

Alas, The L was a good run, even if most episodes lacked good writing, were dullish, scattered, and lacking in realia. There were some hot sex scenes including Bette in prison w/the overalls-wearing carpenter, Shane [for good measure, replace Shane's head w/any other fantasy face] in just about every location possible (car, kitchen counter, bathroom, windowed studio door), Jodi,(Marlee Matlin),Nikki Stevens, and many peops fave 1st season elusive, cafe-owning, exotica, Marina -- ooo la la! that gap-toothed alluring accent! Many shows spit out at least one good line (the Sh-enny moshing w/Alice as gawk-texting witness), and the eye rolls from the killed off Dana to Kit's eyelashed lids to Angus/the Manny's queerish hair-head flicking, all the way back to the dark-eyed Carmen's lusty, smiling dark eyes made some of the shows tolerable.

I think Ms. Chaiken, et al could have taken a few hints from the writers of Qr As Flk, who had a good Showtime run and didn't make many of the characters and their mini-ecosystems seem so bizarre. How many dykes hang at a cafe for hours on end each day, a la, Friends at Central Perk? Makes no sense.

At any rate, it's good to see that The L maintained some semblance of popularity despite its delapidated story line and writing. At least the queers weren't sequestered off the stage & screen like some sort of unthinkable equal rights legislation.

Thanks for the flash dance, JB, the laughs and depth from CS and JL, and Katherine Moenning, since you are, indeed the cousin of Gwyneth Paltrow, maybe you could borrow a bit of her dwindling post-partum flesh to put a touch more meat on them bones of yours?