The L Word

Absolutely no doubt that this little gem rates as one of the all-time greats when it comes to lesbian-orientated TV. Probably the most popular show among lesbian audiences across the globe, The L Word and HBO provided us with 6 seasons of viewing pleasure as we followed a group of lesbian friends live out their lives in Los Angeles.

Words cannot do this superb piece of television justice, so if you haven't watched it, my advice would be to GO OUT AND GET IT! You will not be disappointed.

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Season 1

Set in West Hollywood, the series first introduces Bette Porter and Tina Kennard, a couple with a seven-year relationship who want to have a child. Tina eventually becomes pregnant through artificial insemination but has a miscarriage.

Later in the series, Bette develops an affair with Candace Jewell, which Tina learns of during the season finale.

The pilot introduced a coming out / love triangle storyline involving Tina and Bette's neighbour, Tim Haspel, his new-in-town girlfriend, Jenny Schecter, and Marina Ferrer.

Marina is part of Tina and Bette's circle of friends, and owns the neighbourhood café, The Planet, which serves as the group's hang-out and focal point for the show.

The season also introduces Shane McCutcheon, an androgynous, highly-sexual hairstylist and serial heart-breaker; Alice Pieszecki, a girly, bisexual journalist looking for love in any way she can, and Dana Fairbanks, a professional tennis player who is still in the closet and torn between pursuing her career and finding love.

In the first season, Dana falls for a sous chef named Lara Perkins whose sexuality is questioned by the group until Lara has an unexpected meeting with Dana in the locker room.

If you're already hooked and want Season 1 for yourself, click here to buy from Amazon.
Season 2

Season 2 starts by unveiling to the viewers a secret Tina is keeping from everyone: she successfully became impregnated after a second insemination. Tina begins seeing Helena, while Bette's life is portrayed as a wreck, with alcohol abuse, problems with her job, the death of her father, and being fired during the season finale. Tina and Bette reconcile during the final episode.

The character of Marina was written out of the show, and the Planet was bought by Kit Porter.

Introduced in the second season are Carmen de la Pica Morales, a confident DJ who becomes part of a love triangle with Shane and Jenny; Helena Peabody, the daughter of a wealthy supporter of the arts who later becomes Tina's love interest; and Mark Wayland, a documentary filmmaker who moves in with Shane and Jenny.

Mark makes them part of his latest documentary by setting up hidden cameras in the house to videotape them. However, Jenny soon discovers Mark's tapes and also discovers the truth about Carmen's true love.

Season 2 introduces a developing affair between Alice and Dana, which they try to hide, but inevitably becomes public. It also presents insights into Jenny's past as an abused child, and reveals episodes of self-mutilation that reach their climax in the season finale.

If you're already hooked and want Season 2 for yourself, click here to buy from Amazon.
Season 3

The third season of The L Word begins six months after the birth of Tina and Bette's daughter, Angelica.

New characters in this season include Moira Sweeney (a working class butch who is Jenny's girlfriend for most of the season) and Angus Partridge, Angelica's male nanny who later becomes Kit's lover.

Sweeney starts the process of transitioning from female to male, switching his name to Max. Erin Daniels' character Dana Fairbanks starts in a multi-episode storyline dealing with a breast cancer battle, which sadly culminates with her death.

Interestingly, each episode begins with a short pre-credits vignette of two individuals meeting romantically or sexually. As the season progresses, lines from Alice's chart connect one member of each vignette with a new individual in the next.

Helena switches from being Bette's rival into a new member of the circle of friends, and she goes from aquiring a movie studio in which Tina later works, and which further derives a sexual harrassment lawsuit that triggers her mother to cut her off financially in the season finale.

If you're already hooked and want Season 3 for yourself, click here to buy from Amazon.
Season 4

If the third season was marked by transitions, The L Word's fourth concerns growing up – or trying to, at any rate. Shane becomes her brother Shay's guardian, Bette and Tina stop fighting over their daughter Angelica, and Bette's new boss, Phyllis, decides it's time to embrace her true nature. So, after 25 years of marriage, Chancellor Kroll comes out of the closet – and sets her sights on Alice.

For all the inclusiveness, Max still remains on the margins. Dumped by Jenny the year before, Max continues to share her apartment while acclimating to life as a man.

For those who felt season three was too dark, four offers a welcome corrective. There's still plenty of angst – Jenny's memoir meets with a few negative notices and Helena learns to live without Mommy's money – but there are plenty of moving moments to compensate (most revolving around Shane and Shay).

New additions also arrive to shake things up, like Marlee Matlin as an artist who helps Bette to broaden her horizons, Kristanna Loken as a single mother with a yen for Shane, and Rose Rollins as an Iraq War veteran with whom Alice has a tryst – leading to a well intentioned, if heavy-handed message about how even liberals should support the troops.

If you're already hooked and want Season 4 for yourself, click here to buy from Amazon.
Season 5

In a clever move, the producers of The L Word use season five to revisit the origins of their own creation. After Jenny sets out to direct the silver-screen edition of her novel, Lez Girls, she enters a parallel world populated by actors playing thinly-veiled versions of the central cast (in a typical Jenny move, she sleeps with the star who portrays "Jesse").

This post-modern plotline brings newcomers up to speed, while offering early-adapters new perspectives on the past. Naturally, the shoot doesn't go smoothly.

In other developments, Tina and Bette consider reconciliation, Helena does time in prison, Alice takes her penchant for gossip too far, Tasha fights to stay in the military, and Shane rejoins the ranks of the single, only to fall for straight girl Molly.

In a more melodramatic, but equally entertaining move, Dawn Denbo, proprietor of new hotspot SheBar makes life hell for the Planet, but Kit and her loyal clientele refuse to go down without a fight – even if they don't offer Lesbian Turkish Oil Wrestling.

If you're already hooked and want Season 5 for yourself, click here to buy from Amazon.