I expect to finish the 608 recap some time in the next eon. Then we can start making this website happen for real, I can get back to a lot of you guys who’ve contacted me about it … and I can start rebuilding some of my brain cells. After the mini-podcast, live-tweeting as eight different people, starting the recap and filming Lezberado today … zomg. You know how much I loved Jenny, but I’m so ready to kill just about anyone who crosses my path. Tinkerbell is on my radar. Natalie is at my desk LOL’ing.
In the meantime, feast on a plethora of other people who’ve already weighed in on the suckage:
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Vanity Fair:
“The series finale of The L Word set lesbianism and the art of storytelling back about fifty years. It couldn’t have dribbled to a more feeble, unfulfilling letdown–a murder mystery in which mystery isn’t resolved (or even staged) and everything the show was building towards is piddled away in the late innings.”
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PopCandy:
“Maybe the ladies should’ve said goodbye a little sooner.”
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AfterEllen:
“Lame, lacking and legacy-tarnishing.”
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BuddyTV:
“After we watched our beloved characters lie, cheat and steal year after year, one glimmer of hope, one glimmer of happiness would have been nice. Instead, Ilene Chaiken gave the lesbian community murder, ambiguity and despair.”
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SheWired:
“ L Word devotees deserved better for their dedication to a complex, groundbreaking and sometimes — let’s be honest — disappointing series.”
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Hartford Courant:
“And now we find out after all what “The L Word” meant. Not Lesbian, nor Love, nor life. It’s Letdown.”
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Dorthy Surrenders:
“The hallmark of The L Word over its six seasons has been missed opportunities and inconsistent storytelling. All of that was punctuated by the finale, which – to use a technical term – blew.”
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[Also dear reader if you ever have any tips -- if you read/watch anything good -- just email autostraddle@gmail.com. If you want me to thank you and link to you, let me know and gimme your link. Continue to let us know about bugs -- we're trying to catch 'em as you report them]
15 responses to “The L Word is “Loads of Literates Loathed the Last L Word.””
OK….so I didn’t “mind” the finale for “some” aspects – the family/friends aspect – the fact that they didn’t completely destroy TiBette (thank God) and the promise of a TiBette Marriage left open…I DO think after all the build-up however, the COMPLETE lack of an ending to the “Who Killed Jenny?” plot was sorely lacking…SOME openendedness would be nice in order to further another series (such as Alice’s “The Farm”) and the like…or even an L Word Movie? (Crosses all 10 fingers & toes)…but honestly – I’ve stuck with this show, and so have the viewers for 6 bloody seasons! Even thru season 3 & 4!!!
So NO resolution for certain characters? *Sigh*. Sad. Yes, I’m glad we finally figured out Jenny did the Lez Girls kidnapping – but honestly? And Shane finding the letter was good too…
But how bloody realistic is it, that Jenny, who was so hated, would convince the likes of video tributes from: TIM (who hates Jenny), Carmen (who hates Shane), and good lord – Angus?? Angus??? Like all of Kits’ exes came back from the dead – that Kittism made me laugh at least.
Nice to know Marina made an appearance, albeit en francais. (But I’m Canadian, so I can translate and shit…lol).
And I liked the tribute to TiBette because all of these friendships centered around them – but honestly – I can see where this is headed – blaming Alice cuz she said “Jenny’s MURDER” as opposed to Jenny’s death…and then Kate French in the bushes!! C’mon!
And you and I know Jenny fell off the damned balcony without a railing – or perhaps Sounder pushed her off – afterall, the only guilty person by the pool whimpering WAS Sounder….woof….whimper…poor woof needed more love…
OK, so I jest…but seriously…why the big friggin’ build-up to “Who Killed Jenny?” and then leave it COMPLETELY open-ended? Why NO RESOLUTIONS there?? WHY?
I mean EVERYONE had motive for sure to kill Jenny, but honestly, I still think Jenny fell over the balcony or committed suicide – the tragic ending would be SO cliche, and SO JENNY. They only mentioned the damned balcony like 5X in the lead-up.
And how realistic that Jenny would’ve told Dylan ahead of time…huh??? WTF? Since when are Dylan and Jenny buddies??? Puhlease!
And Alice semi-coming back but not really – did she notice the cop cars and that’s what drew her? What did she REALLY come to tell Alice??
*sigh* and *double sigh*….I expected more from IFC. And honestly, the who INterviews and Tina’s rape confession??? As her 1st?? Give me a break! Since when is incest/rape/molestation considered your “first time?” I’m offended! All women are offended! And like she isn’t ever gonna tell Bette that (as they are partners for life) but she’ll tell some stranger cop who is Xena? No friggin’ way batman!!!
What the hell? WTF? What difference does that make to resolving any friggin’ thing whatsoever?? IT DOESN’T!! If you ask me, THAT is why the actresses were unhappy with the ending – this extra “throw away” footage that should’ve been burned, but instead got chunked in on the L Word website left for us to view and go WTF??
Geez! An atrocity this footage was…and I’m sure the rest will be if there’s more – gimme a break IFC!!!! Your writing sucketh!
WTF was that?
I meant TALICE as in Tasha coming back – not Alice – oops.
Oh Oh! And one more thing – to RUIN a perfectly good TiBette FINAL love scene that we TiBetters can cherish with Tina not paying attention to her “big ‘O’” and going “Wow, we really need to finish that railing!” – IFFC – you ruined the last TiBette scene with this stupid “RAILING” plotline for the sake of resolving Jenny’s murder/death/suicide – and then you DO NOT resolve it???
How many people can see Tina going “Ooohh ahhhhh ooohhhhhh” – ohhhhh the railing!!!?????? Gimme a friggin’ break???
Ok here it is: To the tune of “Come On Eileen” by Dexy’s Midnite Runners, here it is (I feel damn inspired):
“Come On Ilene (Chaiken”
Come On, Ilene
Come On, Ilene!
Poor old Jenny Shecht., sounded sad upon “Lez Girls” wrap;
Broke a million hearts who are homo…
Oh our mothers cried, rant along, who can blame them?
You’ve screwed (You’re screwed up)
Es·chewed (OUR STORIES)
Now I must say more than ever.
(Come on, Ilene!)
Toora, loora, toora loorye aye.
We gonna represent les-bi—-annnnns.
Come on, Ilene,
Oh I swear (who knows what you mean?) at this moment
You screwed up ev’rything.
Viewers in distress,
My thoughts, I confess,
Verge on dirty.
Ah, Come on Ilene!
Come ON, Ilene!
These people ’round here
Wear beaten down dreams sunk in a hopes-dashed face
NOT resigned t-wat (to what) LWord’s fate is,
But not us (No, never!),
No, not us (No, never!),
We are far too smart and clever.
(We Remember…)
Toora, loora, toora, loorye, aye.
Ilene, I’ll hum this tune forever………..
Come on, Ilene,
Do you care? (What we’ve seen?)
Ah come on let’s…
Throw away everything,
The sexy season 1,
Ilene….how it’s done
Ah come on let’s, ah come on, Ilene,
Pleassse …
Come On, Ilene, What the HEY?
Come On, Ilene, Threw it away…
Now it’s all done (toora), Now it’s no fun(toora) how( toora),
Oh! Ilene.
Said, you’ve (You) thrown (toora)away… (it’s strange all good feeling’s been blown),
So sad (to the viewers) (about how we feel)…
Now (toora) I (toora) must (toora) say (toora) more (toora) than ever,
Things ’round here don’t change.
I said, Too-bad (toobad), LWORDers, too-bad(LWorders), loorye (toora), aye (toora, toora, toora).
Come on, Ilene,
Oh I swear (what I mean) at this moment.
You’ve killed ev’rything.
You’ve caused distress,
my thoughts (I confess)
verge on the dirty.
I wanna cry now Ilene!.
Come on, Ilene,
Oh I swear (what I mean) at this moment…
You’ve screwed up ev’rything.
You’ve caused such a mess,
Oh, my thoughts (I confess)
verge on the dirty.
Come on, Ilene,
oh, ho, ho, (what I mean) oh, ho, ho …
*SIGH*
I still haven’t watched the finale.
I’m dreading it. ‘Worst hour in television history’ and all.
Probably I’ll just smoke before I watch it, but that also has a fifty percent chance of heightening the shit rather than dulling it.
Oh well!
I would just like to mention that my best friend who lives in California called me up last night just to rant with anger about this episode and the whole season in general.
It was awesome.
Before the episode even started I was angry because of the interviews that were given and the reasoning for Dana dying. Something to the extent of “Well we couldn’t help it, she had cancer”. She only had cancer because IFC gave it to her! I was disappointed both because of the lack of anything actually happening, but also because of the hype surrounding Carmen coming back on. Without any actual interaction with the characters, I feel like I’ve been cheated.
Agreed! The whole “keep watching, Carmen’s coming back!” thing, dragging all the loyal fans along… and then that? AS IF!!! Completely ridiculous and completely manipulative.
Which was, of course, the theme for this whole season.
I have this picture in my mind of Ilene as this weird egomaniac who either completely doesn’t care what her fans think, or is so completely genuinely delusional that she doesn’t realize. Either completely delusional, or completely full of shit. “I think season 6 is our best yet”? Didn’t she say that somewhere in an interview? etc etc.
REALLY ILENE? REALLY????
I think Dana died because PEOPLE REALLY DIE. Cancer isn’t just for ugly people, useless people, unimportant people. I think what they were saying was that it happens, it’s life. Yes she was awesome and cute and funny and we loved her, but that’s just it–cancer doesn’t care. I thought it was very realistic to do this storyline (though they did admit to the illness being sped up because of time constraints, which was abnormal.) But really, not everyone gets cured and it’s a fact of life that people we love die.
I’m not trying to say you’re wrong, and I respect your opinion. I just like that it was real.
It wasn’t so much Dana dying that was the issue, but the way they handled it. It all happened so quickly and seemed way too random, I felt.
I thought it was a good storyline that didn’t have to be restricted to just one season.
It just seems like this show employs the “it’s real” defense carelessly and arbitrarily to defend irresponsible plot choices seemingly chosen moreso for shock value and lack of creativity than for any supreme artistic purpose or true drive to tell important stories.
When Dana dies, we are supposed to feel that pretty people die too, and cancer kills — but when jenny is murdered, were supposed to feel like “oh, it’s television! Television isn’t supposed to be like real life, it’s heightened!”
IMHO.
Toward the end they really lost track of whether or not they were trying to tell stories that would touch us or stories that would entertain us. Dana dies and it’s sad. Jenny dies and it’s ‘lol they killed off that really mean character’.
Seriously WTF – I mean come on. I can accept the Finale as is, I mean did we ever expect anything less from IFC. I think not, but Tinas Interrogation tape – Really Papi Really. Lets take one of the very few pure moments from the show (Bette and Tina, Tina being Bettes first and all that jazz) and then take it back and say that Tinas first time was with her SISTER for 3 fracken years. Again I say Really Papi Really. I mean cool give us some character background on one of the most loved characters awesome but to give us the poetry spheel and then that Tina sister was her first and then cut. Thats it, really the last scene we see of Tina is declaring her Sister as her first…Ok I need to go vent in an avenue now where I don’t have to worry about spelling or grammer. UGH – Anyone else want to round up a posie and go kick some Chakin booty until she fixes this across the board mistake!!!
the interrogation tape seemed more like an homage to tina’s chin issues – i turned it off after 45 seconds, so i missed that whole Sister thing! gross!!! and also – not surprisingly — ALREADY BEEN DONE http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uZXnEXhnsEE
It just seems like this show employs the “it’s real” defense carelessly and arbitrarily to defend irresponsible plot choices seemingly chosen moreso for shock value and lack of creativity than for any supreme artistic purpose or true drive to tell important stories.
That goes for visibility in general with The L Word. One second it’s “Oh, this is the first show about lezzies everrrr” and then it’s “Oh, well I just wanted to tell myyy stories, which are about a select group of women in LA.”