The L Word Premiere: Nostalgia, Nipples, and New Beginnings
The L Word Premiere: Nostalgia, Nipples, and New Beginnings
The L Word: Generation Q Los Angeles Premiere, December 2, 2019
By Ally Johnson
For all of you wondering how the highly anticipated reboot of The L Word was gonna go down, you’ve come to the right place. I don’t know how I earned my lesbian stars and stripes, but apparently it was enough to get me an invite to the season premiere in Los Angeles. It was an evening I will never forget, mainly because adult me was trying to remain regal, while the twenty-year-old me was freaking the fuck out.
When I arrived, I’d never seen so many hot lesbians all in one place, and that was just the parking garage. Just as a reference, I was standing on the escalator up to the theatre I wondered if any notable lezzies would appear and turned around only to see Tegan (or Sara?) directly behind me. It was that kind of night. I’ve also never been to a premiere where people were dressed in everything from ball gowns to literal carpenter clothing. Lesbians, Amiright?
Once I entered the lobby I satiated myself with popcorn and small talk until the audience was ushered into the theatre. As I found my seat, the head of Showtime took the podium followed by Ilene Chaiken. She reminisced about the “OG” days and answered the question everyone had on the edge of their lips: Why reboot the L Word? She answered it perfectly. She said this reboot is happening because quite simply, it is needed. The year 2019 has introduced a new LGBTQ+ wave that is stronger and louder than ever before, and it’s time to give this new community some representation. Queer culture is entering a new generation, and once again the L Word has answered the bat signal.
As a precurser to the premiere, I took the liberty of rewatching the season six finale the night before. Let me just save you the time by saying: DON’T DO IT. It was bad then, and it was bad now. Rewatching the finale I was left fully realizing why this show had run it’s course the first time around. It was a dark time in L Word history and it’s not necessary to refresh your memory for the reboot… Besides who can forget the Jenny Schecter murder/suicide plot and those over-the-top references about the precarious balcony railing that littered the entire episode? Oh right, everybody.
Nostalgia At It’s Finest
Just before the episode began, they announced the three original cast members who would be appearing in the reboot. One by one Jennifer Beals (Bette), Leisha Hailey (Alice) and Katherine Moenning (Shane) stood up and waved at the audience. Having obsessed over this show as a young lez, I was positively drooling with affection over these three. Jennifer looked elegant and stunning, Leisha looked adorable and quirky, and Katherine looked like…well, super hot as usual. What I didn’t see coming was the announcement of a few previous cast members who were in attendance that evening. I was shocked to find Laurel Holloman (Tina), Cybill Shepherd (Phyllis Kroll), and….**drumroll please** who stands up but the one and only Erin Daniels!! DANA!! Dana was alive again!!! We all lost our collective shit.
So how was the L Word: Generation Q?
To be completely honest, going into this premiere I wasn’t expecting much. But boy oh boy was I wrong.
First off, it’s abundantly clear to me that Bette, Shane, and Alice have made a deal with Satan to stay young forever or at the very least they’re the Sanderson sisters and have been living off of the souls of children for the last 500 years. That is to say, THEY HAVE LITERALLY NOT AGED. They looked exactly the same if not better than they did ten years ago. It’s witchcraft, I tell you! Usually reboots end up being a big disappointment mainly because it becomes a geriatric version of the show you once knew. Not the case with GQ. They were back, and it was as if they had never left.
Showtime opened the episode the way we always knew it would go: with period sex. Steamy, naked, period sex. We are immediately introduced to the new couple Dani and Sophie, who are equal parts sexy and adorable. Any worries that you’re not going to fall in love with L Word newbies dissipates within the first ten minutes of the show. We immediately meet the others: Finley and Micah, all of whom share a one-bedroom apartment in LA. The struggle is real.
Oh, and Alice is doing just great. She has a new girlfriend (Stephanie Allynne) who has two kids from a previous relationship and is navigating the discomfort of “awkward step-mom” territory. She is also wildly successful with her own talk show, which I thought was a bit over-the-top at first, but it works. The writing on the show in general was very impressive, and the story moved quickly.
Bette Porter is raising her daughter Angie (now 16) seemingly as a single mother while simultaneously running for the mayor of Los Angles (again, seemed over-the-top at first, but it works). Her central issues focus on solving homelessness and the growing opioid crisis in America. There is also some indication that her passion for the ladder issue is related to a personal experience, but they haven’t disclosed exactly what that is just yet. Kit, perhaps??
And then there’s the lovable, mysterious Shane McCutchen, who has apparently returned to LA after living in either New York or Paris, not sure which. We find out later that she sold her salons in both big cities before leaving her wife for an unknown reason. She’s vague and broody as usual, and as soon as her plane lands she promptly fucks a stewardess. Good times!
The three have brunch, catch up and it’s like no time has passed at all. You can see the love between these women both on and off the camera, and the ending leaves plenty of seeds planted for what seems to be an action-packed series! In the end, it was a crowd-pleaser. It appealed to the old and the new and set the scene for a new wave of leztastic content that will be bingeworthy to say the least.
Let the L Word sex dreams begin!!