What's Up - Your guide to what's happening in Fayetteville, AR this week!
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T10 WHATS UP! December 8 - 14, 2019 Word" were living the kinds of vastly differing lives and partak- ing in the different types of rela- tionships that real-life queer women were, with a whole lot of dramatic flare thrown in to keep viewers hooked. "The L Word: Generation Q" features the return of original series stars Jennifer Beals ("Flashdance," 1983), indie-pop musician Leisha Hailey ("Dead Ant," 2017) and actor Katherine Moennig ("Ray Donovan") as Bette Porter, Alice Pieszecki and Shane McCutcheon, re- spectively. A few new actresses and actors also get the chance to shine in this sequel, includ- ing Jacqueline Toboni ("Grimm") as an executive as- sistant named Sarah; Arienne Mandi ("In the Vault") as Bet- te's new lover, Dani; and Leo Sheng ("Adam," 2019) as Micah, a professor. The return of Beals, Pieszecki and Moennig gives fans high hopes for the revival; since "The L Word" was such a big part of these women's ca- reers, signing on signals their belief in the script Showtime has put together. While Shane, Bette and Alice were on the air from 2004 to 2009, "The L Word" was THE show for lesbian, queer and questioning television audienc- es. The year before "The L Word" premiered, only two of 674 female characters on prime- time television (0.2%) were les- bians, and the queer communi- ty was crying out for more rep- resentation. That's not to say this show was perfect in its representa- tion, or even that it lived up to the responsibility it had. No one on "The L Word" ever seemed to have to go to work, everyone seemed to be rich (even Shane, the drug-taking, hypersexual hairdresser), and everyone was involved in some kind of affair all of the time, usually with each other. Still, it was a far cry from the LGBTQ tropes running rampant on network television in the preceding years. The important thing is that "The L Word" broke ground for the shows that came after it, in- cluding Netflix's cross-cultural- ly popular "Orange Is the New Black" (created by "Weeds" cre- ator Jenji Kohan, yet another reason to thank Showtime) and CW's newest Arrowverse se- ries, "Batwoman." Showtime is finally getting the chance to bring the dated stereotypes and the oft-problematic storylines of "The L Word" into the mod- ern age with "Generation Q"; selecting L.A. Outfest award winner Marja-Lewis Ryan as showrunner gives the show a promising start. There were six seasons and multiple spinoffs of "The L Word," which was unabashedly serialized with almost no epi- sodic gratuities. Luckily, new viewers can watch a relatively short recap of the entire series on YouTube, and you will have to suffer through the cringe-in- ducing theme song ("The L Word" by Betty) at least once to really understand the pain of those who watched it when it aired. There is a whole lot to catch up on: the series began with an affair, ended with a murder and was not lacking in dramatics anywhere in between. The new series is sure to be full of similar flare, but its characters should be a little more down to earth. Tune in to the series premiere of "The L Word: Generation Q" when it airs Sunday, Dec. 8, on Showtime. Jennifer Beals as seen in "The L Word: Generation Q" continued from page T2 Love is all around: Showtime reboots an old favorite with 'The L Word: Generation Q' TV FEATURE