Jessica Biel Stars as Lesbian Journalist in “Limetown,” a Dark Lil Thriller That’ll Ruin Your Day In a Good Way

What do you get when you combine Rehka Sharma, Jessica Biel, Sherri Saum, Marlee Matlin and Kandyse McClure with the mysterious disappearance of hundreds of people at a neuroscience research facility in Tennessee, besides a really weird sex dream? LIMETOWN.

Biel, who also served as Executive Producer of the Facebook Watch series (based on a hit 2015 podcast I am not familiar with), plays protagonist Lia Haddock, a lesbian journalist and podcast host whose Uncle Emile (Stanley Tucci) was among the 326 residents who vanished without a trace from Limetown’s Utopian experiment fifteen years ago. She’s been preoccupied by the mystery ever since, and is determined to turn her investigation into a compelling radio show for her boss, Gina (Sherri Saum), with whom she maintains solid sexual tension throughout the series. Her own family was torn apart by circumstances topped off when Emile left for Limetown. Emile was the assistant to the town’s leading researcher, Oscar Totem, whose body was found in the charred remains of the town everybody left behind. Gina is about to close the book on Lia’s investigation when a survivor reaches out to her directly — the first known survivor to ever make themselves known, let alone reach out to a reporter. Thus kicks off Lia’s twisted journey into the abyss of a teevee show I marathoned until 2 AM and then promptly had a series of disturbing nightmares about.

Lia Haddock fits into a familiar trope — workaholic, determined, deeply troubled female investigator willing to sacrifice everything and do anything to get answers. Also; the familiar trope of said queer female character having a girlfriend who never really becomes a full person. Ashley, whose relationship with Lia is more clearly defined by IMDB (in which she’s listed as “Lia’s girlfriend”) than by the show, is played by Kandyse McClure, who played gay in Hemlock Grove and is one of three Battlestar Galactica alums on Limetown — Rehka Sharma (Tory) plays FBI Agent Sadia Latifi and Allesandro Juliana (Gaeta) plays aforementioned Oscar Totem. However, even Lia and Ashley’s late-series twist about how they met doesn’t quite fill the endless void of information surrounding the nature of their situation, which feels like a missed opportunity. I do wonder if a boyfriend or husband would’ve been sketched quite so lightly. (I have similar questions about the significant others of lesbian investigators on Mindhunter Season One, The Wire, The Bridge, etc.)

I wish I had more lines

Still, they do have sex and we love a lesbian protagonist, especially those of us who lusted after Jessica Biel during her formative years as a tomboy on Seventh Heaven. Throw in a late-season episode devoted almost entirely to Marlee Matlin’s face, and we’re dealing with a very deep queer vibe here that you’re unlikely to resist, even if watching it means you’ve gotta sign on Facebook.

In the spirit of Wayward Pines, Resurrection and The Leftovers, Limetown’s dark unfurling mystery and the bigger questions it raises about who gets to define Utopia and the proper relationship between humans and potentially invasive technology are engaging and high-concept. Atmospheric cinematography and a winning cast obscure the plot’s occasional silliness and, once you learn what was happening in Limetown, questions you may have about why its architects could not very clearly predict its eventual demise. Having never heard the podcast or read the book it was based on, I was very quickly hooked bythe story with the same pathological devotion I granted Homecoming and the first season of The Sinner.

The finale debuts on Facebook today, meaning you’re in a great position to spend the next six hours of your life glued to your laptop screen! You’re welcome!

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Riese

Riese is the 41-year-old Co-Founder of Autostraddle.com as well as an award-winning writer, video-maker, LGBTQ+ Marketing consultant and aspiring cyber-performance artist who grew up in Michigan, lost her mind in New York and now lives in Los Angeles. Her work has appeared in nine books, magazines including Marie Claire and Curve, and all over the web including Nylon, Queerty, Nerve, Bitch, Emily Books and Jezebel. She had a very popular personal blog once upon a time, and then she recapped The L Word, and then she had the idea to make this place, and now here we all are! In 2016, she was nominated for a GLAAD Award for Outstanding Digital Journalism. She's Jewish and has a cute dog named Carol. Follow her on twitter and instagram.

Riese has written 3164 articles for us.

12 Comments

  1. LIA HADDOCCKKKKKKKKKKKK

    fuck i hate facebook i HATE that i have to use facebook to watch this show but gd i WILL

    • i literally JUST YESTERDAY was like “are there new limetown podcast episodes??” and maybe this is better.

      • I know I hate that I’m going to ressurect my facebook for this.

        Also: Have you read the book?? It’s mostly prequel and asks more questions than it answers, but I enjoyed it.

      • i literally hold my hand over the screen while navigating to the sidebar to click the “facebook watch” icon so that i will not have to confront the possibilities of my feed and IT’S WORTH IT

  2. I found out about the Limetown podcast from this very website, like 3 yrs ago!? It was on somebody’s best podcasts list for holiday travel. I immediately listened to approx. 2 episodes and was too scared (“LIAAA HADDOCKKK” still echoes in my brain periodically.) But I haven’t been able to forget it, and off and on over the years I have weighed restarting the podcast against the probability of nightmares. 🤷‍♀️

  3. I literally listened to the podcast last week and thought to myself,”Ah, they said it’s being turned into a TV Show in 2017, gotta check up on what’s become of it.”
    And THEN THERE IS THIS ARTICLE RIGHT HERE!
    I’m so happy and excited!!
    Now keeping my fingers crossed for “Marsfall”.
    I love “Girl in Space” and “We Fix Space Junk” but I don’t know if these would translate well to the screen and Mars is kind of en vogue these days..
    So, consider myself off to feed corporate evil spy software to satiate my Lesbian curiosity.

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