the Q word
even before The L Word premiered in January 2004, the Showtime series had amassed a devoted community of women-loving women hungry to see their lives portrayed. The buzz around the show focusing on a group of glamorous Los Angeles-based lesbian friends was palpable, and spurred groups of women (and their friends) to gather in homes and bars around the country for viewing parties where they collectively entered the world built by its creator, Ilene Chaiken.
Eager audiences tuned in to the pilot with opening images that included the Hollywood sign, Sunset Boulevard, and a kinetic freeway interchange informing its setting. Then, the camera moved from the public to the private: Bette and Tina asleep in the morning light, a half-tossed-off sheet revealing their bare skin that signaled an intimacy between women that had yet to be depicted on television.
In this quiet but radical moment, The L Word altered television forever. Lesbians had stepped into the light, no longer relegated to ancillary characters or the brunt of the joke. The cast of characters who gathered at the show’s fictional watering hole The Planet were smart, funny women with sexual agency who pushed the needle forward and effectively changed longheld perceptions about lesbians.
Fast-forward 15 years, the highly anticipated reboot of the series they executive-produced along with Chaiken. The enthusiasm about working together again and exploring their characters in 2019 is infectious.
