The L Word
Nov. 6th, 2005 10:05 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shadowkatJust finished another four episode marathon of S2 The L Word courtesy of netflix. This season is so much better than the first one, although I sort of preferred the opening credits to the first season but that's a minor thing.
Really enjoying this show, much more actually than anything else on TV at the moment. Had a similar experience with Dead Like Me. Not sure why that is. What is it about network television lately that is losing my interest? Is it the constant commercial interruptions or the violence? Outside of maybe three shows, most of the shows on TV seem incredibly violent to me at the moment, and gritty, and dark. I need a little lightness, you know? BSG even felt more violent than necessary this past season, and there was a couple of episodes I felt myself just want to flip to something else. Why? I used to have no problems with violence in TV and movies, but lately, unless it's shown in a way that furthers the characters journeys substantially and isn't just a plot point or gratutious, I find my mind wandering, bored and distracted. Have I burned out on it? Would make sense, considering that right now there are so many procedurals dealing with gruesome murders on tv, or horror X-files clones dealing with gruesome deaths that you have to kick them out of the way. Plus the sci-fi shows are all heavily "action" oriented - action relating to how many people get killed, gunfire, warfare. I think that it's beginning to grate. I like BSG for the characters, which are some of the best written and acted I've seen in years, but do cringe away from the violence of it.
Anywho, just a little tangent.
1. Shane: I find myself oddly identifying with the character of Shane, not the sex part, but the fear of needing anything from anyone. The fear of opening oneself up to people - letting them know you and more importantly letting yourself depend on someone else. The fear of being found wanting, of being judge, and of being abandoned or disappointed. I loved her comment to Veronica Bloom, played beautifully by Camryn Manniheim (didn't recognize the actress at first, thought she was Kathy Bates), that how she handles people is she tries really hard not to need anything from anyone. She also tries really hard to listen and provide what they need. Only problem is what they need from her - is well that she need them, that she allow herself to be vulnerable to them. To let them know her. But she's terrified to do that. Oh she tells them things about herself, let's them in a little, even fucks them, gives great sex, but the moment they try to get close or push beyond that barrier wall, she does something to push them away.
Along comes Mark, Jenny & Shane's roommate, who rents the studio space. Unbeknowest to Jenny and Shane, Mark installs video equipment in every room of their house except the bathroom. "Even I have limits" he tells his annoyingly creepy peeping tom of a best friend. The friend believes they are making a sex video - "Lesbian's Gone Wild", but Mark is more interested in making a documentary about the life of his roommates, most particularly Shane - with whom he has either developed a crush or become obsessed with. What is it about Shane, he asks Jenny, that makes her so fascinating to people, why does everyone want her? Jenny says that it has to do with being unattainable. People have a way of wanting that one thing they can't have. But it's more than that really - it's the emotional honesty, Shane tells people the way it is, cuts to the quick. If someone is hiding a secret - Shane always figures it out. She's an empath. She listens. But no one listens to Shane or knows what is going on inside of Shane. She seems out of reach, inaccessible, tough, bad-girl/bad-boy - yet if you peel away the bravado - you see vulenerability and emotional pain.
What is ironic - is Mark in video-taping Shane, begins to see through the hard outer shell, and seems to care.
He saves her from two abusive bouncers. Then tells her that he wants nothing from her, but under Samauri code he's her slave because she granted him the opportunity to do something for her, to save her. He's indebted to her for being granted that opportunity. Which is so perfect and so true - the opportunity to truly help someone, particularly someone who hates asking for help, is a gift. We want to help one another, I think, we like to do things for others, to give...but are so rarely given the opportunity. Shane is a giver, but fears wanting anything in return. So shuts off that portion and that oddly is the one thing people want the most.
The story flipped for me a bit - since, up until the last two episodes of these four (Luminosity, Loyal), I was really hating Mark and desperately wanted someone to find that video equipment. Now, I wonder about him and I fear what will happen to Shane when she finds out what Mark has been doing, how this one person who she may feel wants nothing from her, that she'd never have sex with, is actually taking something far more private and personal than others have without her knowledge. The violation is overwhelming. Yet, the writer has done a good job of making Mark complex - so it is gripping as well.
2. Tina - sigh. For the first two episodes of this group Tina made my five characters I desperately want to see punched in the face repeately list. Now I'm a little less furious, maybe because Bette was able to get a little of her own power back and not through hurting anyone or one-upmanship. My difficulty with Tina is she is so smugly self-righteous. She doesn't appear to see any of the problems her friends have around her. Bette seems to be a little more aware. That said, my attitude changed towards Luminous - when through Helena, Tina's manipulative benefactor and lover, Tina realizes that she needs to include Bette in her child's life, that it is their child. It's odd that we have Tina with Helena (the non-birth mother or father role in her kids lives) and
Bette befriending Winni (the birth mother of Helena's children who is fighting for sole custody and does not want them brought to LA). My sympathy is more with Winni (but that may be partly due to the fact that the actress is Melissa Leo who I adore from Homicide Life on The Street (one of the few character driven cop shows outside of Hill Street Blues that have aired).) It's also due to the fact that Helena is portrayed as a self-centered, manipulative, spoiled, self-righteous, bitch. I can't stand her - couldn't from the moment she was introduced. But can well see why Tina's in her thrall - she's ironically no different than the lawyer who took Tina under her roof, went after Bette, and tried to seduce Tina. Helena is a similar personality. And Tina, much as she wishes to deny it, really just wants to be patronized and taken care of. She wants her little hobby of a job, to be stroked, to have the high life and not really work for it. Ugh. I really hope Helena does a number on her, even though she became far more sympathetic towards the end of Lumious and Loyal.
3. Jenny - while I find the surreal carnival stories somewhat pretentious and annyoying at times, I'm enjoying Jenny this season. I actually like the character. Whoa. And her hair-cut works. She's become more complex and less narcissitic. Pairing her with Shane, in way, worked for both characters - since the two have certain similarities and contrasts. Shane doesn't want to need anything from anyone. Jenny desperately does need things from people and lets them know it. Jenny is attractive in her neediness. Shane in her lack thereof. What also is fascinating about Jenny - is through her eyes you see how completely wacked most people's conception of sexuality and sexual orientation is. The assumptions people make. The view men have for instance that you need to be penetrated to have an organism, uhm no. Actually the most sensitive area on the woman's body is outside the vagina, and a lot of men have no clue how to stimulate it. And yes there are other ways. Also how threatened people are by someone's elses sexual orientation or sexuality. I've never understood homophobia. I've known many homophobes - they seem oddly threatened, but why? Their reasons are illogical and make no rational sense. The L Word does explore them - but I'm not sure it explores them beyond the cliche notion that you are because you fear being gay yourself or because you want the woman who is gay. They are exploring male homophobia but not female homophobia...and I'm wondering why? Women who can't handle lesbians. A concept that completely blows my mind. I mean if you are straight - why do you care? I mean, I feel a sort of odd relief, ah, a woman I don't have to be in competition with for male attention - we can actually not have to deal with that crap. Unless of course you fear that you are gay? Then, ahem, maybe you might want to deal with that. You can't really discuss Jenny as a character without this topic coming up, both seasons it seemed to circulate around her. Which may be one of the reasons her character can grate at times. Homophobia or prejudice against people based on their sexual orientation is not an easy topic to deal with, we don't want to look at it too closely, do we? Any more than we like looking at our other prejudices such as racism, anti-semitism, anti-muslim, anti-catholic, etc.
It makes us feel dirty inside. And people like to feel right, like to feel like good people.
I think they are doing a better job with Jenny this season than last. Her interview with the action star was interesting. And the actor playing Burk did a good job of subtely showing how turned off he was the moment Jenny casually revealed she was gay. She seems to be standing up for herself more this season, is more observant, and
in a way more aware. And I'm enjoying the actress's willowly portrayal.
4. Alice/Dana - the best moment, hands down, was when Tanya told a shocked Dana that she was breaking up with her because she'd fallen for Melissa, Dana's tennis rival. "Melissa, are you even gay?" Dana asks. Melissa:"Well, no, but I fell in love with Dana..." LOL! So ironic, considering Dana had been worrying about telling Tanya, the annoying robot girl manager, that she'd fallen for Alice and was having an affair. Shane is cackling with laughter when she discovers it. While alice and dana are speechless. Did not see that twist coming, although I should have considering it fits with Tanya's personality. She'd finished re-doing Dana and had now moved on to Melissa. There seems to be a theme in the L Word about people - reinventing one another to meet their needs. Something Shane states her dissatisfaction with to a priest, that she feels everyone is trying to change her or turn her into the person they want. "I like confession because you cannot see the other person's face, you do not have the fear that they will be disappointed that you aren't the person they want you to be." - Oh so true. And to be honest sometimes I think that's why I like writing posts online - the anynonmity of it. A theme that is carried over throughout the episodes actually. We see it with Bette - who is told that she needs to be vulnerable to win back Tina, yet crashes and burns when she tries - since it is a little too late. OR in Bette's discussion with the artist who avoids gallery exhibits - the artist tells Bette she had been furious with her critical piece about her art - because she was the only person in ten years to break through her anonymity.
The anonymous self. To hide. Something people do a lot.
Burke, the actor, backs away from Jenny not just because she is gay but because she hit an old button. "You're relationship with Rebens...in the films, you carried him up the mountain, it was so romantic", makes Burke incredibly uncomfortable. Prior to the episode we see Burk pull a guy off Rebens and tell Rebens he can't afford to have Rebens sexual pursuites hit the papers - since it will hurt the project. We must hide it.
Then there's Shane who is hiding and is accused more than once of hiding. Hiding behind dark glasses, behind sex, behind toughness. But you see her cringing, almost running into herself from certain interactions. Yet, Mark, unbeknowest to Shane, is exposing her. She can't hide from his hidden cameras.
Tina wants to hide her pregnancy, and is nervous about it, but Helena reveals it to Bette. She makes a point of talking about it.
Dana wants to hide her relationship with Alice, but Alice keeps pressuring her to reveal it - until Dana is shocked by Tanya's secret being revealed and never really gets the chance to reveal her own to Tanya.
They decide finally to reveal it to all their friends, only to discover everyone already knew.
I can't wait for the next installment. Which will most likely appear in my mailbox on Wed. Eight episodes in and the series has me hooked.
Really enjoying this show, much more actually than anything else on TV at the moment. Had a similar experience with Dead Like Me. Not sure why that is. What is it about network television lately that is losing my interest? Is it the constant commercial interruptions or the violence? Outside of maybe three shows, most of the shows on TV seem incredibly violent to me at the moment, and gritty, and dark. I need a little lightness, you know? BSG even felt more violent than necessary this past season, and there was a couple of episodes I felt myself just want to flip to something else. Why? I used to have no problems with violence in TV and movies, but lately, unless it's shown in a way that furthers the characters journeys substantially and isn't just a plot point or gratutious, I find my mind wandering, bored and distracted. Have I burned out on it? Would make sense, considering that right now there are so many procedurals dealing with gruesome murders on tv, or horror X-files clones dealing with gruesome deaths that you have to kick them out of the way. Plus the sci-fi shows are all heavily "action" oriented - action relating to how many people get killed, gunfire, warfare. I think that it's beginning to grate. I like BSG for the characters, which are some of the best written and acted I've seen in years, but do cringe away from the violence of it.
Anywho, just a little tangent.
1. Shane: I find myself oddly identifying with the character of Shane, not the sex part, but the fear of needing anything from anyone. The fear of opening oneself up to people - letting them know you and more importantly letting yourself depend on someone else. The fear of being found wanting, of being judge, and of being abandoned or disappointed. I loved her comment to Veronica Bloom, played beautifully by Camryn Manniheim (didn't recognize the actress at first, thought she was Kathy Bates), that how she handles people is she tries really hard not to need anything from anyone. She also tries really hard to listen and provide what they need. Only problem is what they need from her - is well that she need them, that she allow herself to be vulnerable to them. To let them know her. But she's terrified to do that. Oh she tells them things about herself, let's them in a little, even fucks them, gives great sex, but the moment they try to get close or push beyond that barrier wall, she does something to push them away.
Along comes Mark, Jenny & Shane's roommate, who rents the studio space. Unbeknowest to Jenny and Shane, Mark installs video equipment in every room of their house except the bathroom. "Even I have limits" he tells his annoyingly creepy peeping tom of a best friend. The friend believes they are making a sex video - "Lesbian's Gone Wild", but Mark is more interested in making a documentary about the life of his roommates, most particularly Shane - with whom he has either developed a crush or become obsessed with. What is it about Shane, he asks Jenny, that makes her so fascinating to people, why does everyone want her? Jenny says that it has to do with being unattainable. People have a way of wanting that one thing they can't have. But it's more than that really - it's the emotional honesty, Shane tells people the way it is, cuts to the quick. If someone is hiding a secret - Shane always figures it out. She's an empath. She listens. But no one listens to Shane or knows what is going on inside of Shane. She seems out of reach, inaccessible, tough, bad-girl/bad-boy - yet if you peel away the bravado - you see vulenerability and emotional pain.
What is ironic - is Mark in video-taping Shane, begins to see through the hard outer shell, and seems to care.
He saves her from two abusive bouncers. Then tells her that he wants nothing from her, but under Samauri code he's her slave because she granted him the opportunity to do something for her, to save her. He's indebted to her for being granted that opportunity. Which is so perfect and so true - the opportunity to truly help someone, particularly someone who hates asking for help, is a gift. We want to help one another, I think, we like to do things for others, to give...but are so rarely given the opportunity. Shane is a giver, but fears wanting anything in return. So shuts off that portion and that oddly is the one thing people want the most.
The story flipped for me a bit - since, up until the last two episodes of these four (Luminosity, Loyal), I was really hating Mark and desperately wanted someone to find that video equipment. Now, I wonder about him and I fear what will happen to Shane when she finds out what Mark has been doing, how this one person who she may feel wants nothing from her, that she'd never have sex with, is actually taking something far more private and personal than others have without her knowledge. The violation is overwhelming. Yet, the writer has done a good job of making Mark complex - so it is gripping as well.
2. Tina - sigh. For the first two episodes of this group Tina made my five characters I desperately want to see punched in the face repeately list. Now I'm a little less furious, maybe because Bette was able to get a little of her own power back and not through hurting anyone or one-upmanship. My difficulty with Tina is she is so smugly self-righteous. She doesn't appear to see any of the problems her friends have around her. Bette seems to be a little more aware. That said, my attitude changed towards Luminous - when through Helena, Tina's manipulative benefactor and lover, Tina realizes that she needs to include Bette in her child's life, that it is their child. It's odd that we have Tina with Helena (the non-birth mother or father role in her kids lives) and
Bette befriending Winni (the birth mother of Helena's children who is fighting for sole custody and does not want them brought to LA). My sympathy is more with Winni (but that may be partly due to the fact that the actress is Melissa Leo who I adore from Homicide Life on The Street (one of the few character driven cop shows outside of Hill Street Blues that have aired).) It's also due to the fact that Helena is portrayed as a self-centered, manipulative, spoiled, self-righteous, bitch. I can't stand her - couldn't from the moment she was introduced. But can well see why Tina's in her thrall - she's ironically no different than the lawyer who took Tina under her roof, went after Bette, and tried to seduce Tina. Helena is a similar personality. And Tina, much as she wishes to deny it, really just wants to be patronized and taken care of. She wants her little hobby of a job, to be stroked, to have the high life and not really work for it. Ugh. I really hope Helena does a number on her, even though she became far more sympathetic towards the end of Lumious and Loyal.
3. Jenny - while I find the surreal carnival stories somewhat pretentious and annyoying at times, I'm enjoying Jenny this season. I actually like the character. Whoa. And her hair-cut works. She's become more complex and less narcissitic. Pairing her with Shane, in way, worked for both characters - since the two have certain similarities and contrasts. Shane doesn't want to need anything from anyone. Jenny desperately does need things from people and lets them know it. Jenny is attractive in her neediness. Shane in her lack thereof. What also is fascinating about Jenny - is through her eyes you see how completely wacked most people's conception of sexuality and sexual orientation is. The assumptions people make. The view men have for instance that you need to be penetrated to have an organism, uhm no. Actually the most sensitive area on the woman's body is outside the vagina, and a lot of men have no clue how to stimulate it. And yes there are other ways. Also how threatened people are by someone's elses sexual orientation or sexuality. I've never understood homophobia. I've known many homophobes - they seem oddly threatened, but why? Their reasons are illogical and make no rational sense. The L Word does explore them - but I'm not sure it explores them beyond the cliche notion that you are because you fear being gay yourself or because you want the woman who is gay. They are exploring male homophobia but not female homophobia...and I'm wondering why? Women who can't handle lesbians. A concept that completely blows my mind. I mean if you are straight - why do you care? I mean, I feel a sort of odd relief, ah, a woman I don't have to be in competition with for male attention - we can actually not have to deal with that crap. Unless of course you fear that you are gay? Then, ahem, maybe you might want to deal with that. You can't really discuss Jenny as a character without this topic coming up, both seasons it seemed to circulate around her. Which may be one of the reasons her character can grate at times. Homophobia or prejudice against people based on their sexual orientation is not an easy topic to deal with, we don't want to look at it too closely, do we? Any more than we like looking at our other prejudices such as racism, anti-semitism, anti-muslim, anti-catholic, etc.
It makes us feel dirty inside. And people like to feel right, like to feel like good people.
I think they are doing a better job with Jenny this season than last. Her interview with the action star was interesting. And the actor playing Burk did a good job of subtely showing how turned off he was the moment Jenny casually revealed she was gay. She seems to be standing up for herself more this season, is more observant, and
in a way more aware. And I'm enjoying the actress's willowly portrayal.
4. Alice/Dana - the best moment, hands down, was when Tanya told a shocked Dana that she was breaking up with her because she'd fallen for Melissa, Dana's tennis rival. "Melissa, are you even gay?" Dana asks. Melissa:"Well, no, but I fell in love with Dana..." LOL! So ironic, considering Dana had been worrying about telling Tanya, the annoying robot girl manager, that she'd fallen for Alice and was having an affair. Shane is cackling with laughter when she discovers it. While alice and dana are speechless. Did not see that twist coming, although I should have considering it fits with Tanya's personality. She'd finished re-doing Dana and had now moved on to Melissa. There seems to be a theme in the L Word about people - reinventing one another to meet their needs. Something Shane states her dissatisfaction with to a priest, that she feels everyone is trying to change her or turn her into the person they want. "I like confession because you cannot see the other person's face, you do not have the fear that they will be disappointed that you aren't the person they want you to be." - Oh so true. And to be honest sometimes I think that's why I like writing posts online - the anynonmity of it. A theme that is carried over throughout the episodes actually. We see it with Bette - who is told that she needs to be vulnerable to win back Tina, yet crashes and burns when she tries - since it is a little too late. OR in Bette's discussion with the artist who avoids gallery exhibits - the artist tells Bette she had been furious with her critical piece about her art - because she was the only person in ten years to break through her anonymity.
The anonymous self. To hide. Something people do a lot.
Burke, the actor, backs away from Jenny not just because she is gay but because she hit an old button. "You're relationship with Rebens...in the films, you carried him up the mountain, it was so romantic", makes Burke incredibly uncomfortable. Prior to the episode we see Burk pull a guy off Rebens and tell Rebens he can't afford to have Rebens sexual pursuites hit the papers - since it will hurt the project. We must hide it.
Then there's Shane who is hiding and is accused more than once of hiding. Hiding behind dark glasses, behind sex, behind toughness. But you see her cringing, almost running into herself from certain interactions. Yet, Mark, unbeknowest to Shane, is exposing her. She can't hide from his hidden cameras.
Tina wants to hide her pregnancy, and is nervous about it, but Helena reveals it to Bette. She makes a point of talking about it.
Dana wants to hide her relationship with Alice, but Alice keeps pressuring her to reveal it - until Dana is shocked by Tanya's secret being revealed and never really gets the chance to reveal her own to Tanya.
They decide finally to reveal it to all their friends, only to discover everyone already knew.
I can't wait for the next installment. Which will most likely appear in my mailbox on Wed. Eight episodes in and the series has me hooked.
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no subject
Date: 2005-11-06 05:49 pm (UTC)Oh, I'd love to comment on everything else, but of course the chance of being spoilery is too great. I have all my season 2 L-Word episode responses in a tag, though:
http://www.livejournal.com/users/masqthephlsphr/tag/l+word
Is it February yet?
no subject
Date: 2005-11-06 10:31 pm (UTC)It's interesting that the actress playing Shane came out as gay recently, I wondered if she was. Partly because a few male actors who have played similar types were also gay or bisexual. Not sure if there is anything in that at all.
Personally, I think Shane may be the most fully developed character on the show, she seems to have the most facets to me. But it could just be a character type that is fascinating me at the moment, maybe because of my identification with it. Here's a character who on the surface appears to be completely at ease with her body and who she is, completely open, not into navel gazing as it were, yet if you peel a layer off - you get all these vulnerabilities and realize she's possibly the least comfortable character on the screen. The other characters insecurities are more surface, while Shane's are deeply imbedded in her character.
There's another similar character on TV now - played by Sandra Oh on Grey's Anatomy - whose also all tough talk and bravado, who seems completely secure and no-nonsesense, but is anything but. I see them rarely, even though they are archetypal. And my favorite. ;-)
no subject
Date: 2005-11-07 12:36 am (UTC)At about mid-season 2, I learned how to download episodes off the internet and could keep up with the show that way, but I still saw them a couple days after they aired on Showtime, which meant I couldn't participate in LJ communities that refused to cut-tag spoilers.