i like your piece on oitnb. What about The L Word? Progressive, kind of progressive, or not really?
When The L Word was on, it was my world. I absolutely loved it and was thrown into a rage at even the slightest criticism of it.
That was because I was 17 lol and well, I don’t need to tell you how incredible that show was for me, a literal baby queer. To suddenly have this show all about who I was with characters that were like me felt beyond validating.
Pretty much like a year or so after the show ended, it’s like I just woke up. I realized how terrible it was. Just stereotype after stereotype. Biphobic as hell. Every terrible trope was included like they were trying to break some record of how many they could fit in. Also, could there be more cheating??!??
Their one black lesbian character was an angry brooding woman who sucked all the life out of every scene she was in and that of her bubbly happy white sunflower girlfriend who was also a fan favorite (def my fave character). And their relationship was just painful to watch, ALL they did was argue. They also a black lesbian who Bette cheated on Tina with. Papi, the latina lesbian character was …honestly just a damn caricature (like…her name was Papi first of fucking all). Erica Cerra’s character was lovely aside from the whole vampirology thing, which ultimately, made her more of a fetish piece. I don’t remember a single relevant Asian woman. So, not a great show for qwoc. At least we had Carmen and that probably wasn’t great (she was played by an Iranian actress, that was confusing) but I’m not in a position to speak on it.
But, ultimately, it was pretty HUGE for the culture. It was all we had. I think for its time it was progressive in its existence.
Speaking of reboots, I believe there’s one coming. I think this is a show that NEEDS one (preferably with all new characters). Writers of THIS social and political climate need a stab at what TLW was supposed to be and could be if we get it now.