Your life’s about to be full of talking, laughing, loving, breathing, fighting, fucking, crying, and drinking again — because, my friends, that long-rumored The L Word reboot is really actually finally happening. The Hollywood Reporter broke the story this morning.
Eight years after the satisfying sixth season of every gal pal’s favorite crime series, Showtime is ready to revisit West Hollywood. Kate Moennig (Shane McCutcheon), Jennifer Beals (Bette Porter), Leisha Hailey (Alice Pieszecki) and Ilene Chaiken (Jenny Schecter’s murderer) will executive produce the new series. Three of those four women will also act in it, at least a little bit. Shane, Bette, and Alice will “help to connect to what is said to be a new ensemble of women, with viewers following their lives, loves and tribulations.” THR reports that other fan favorite characters “may appear,” and on that list of fan favorites is Dana Fairbanks, so maybe this thing’s going to be a zombie story? Fingers crossed!
Unlike the original series, Ilene Chaiken will not be the showrunner for The L Word: The New Class. She is tied up showrunning Empire at the moment. For a fresh take on the series, Showtime is “looking for someone with ties to the lesbian community to document how relationships, their lives and experiences have evolved today — as well as what has and hasn’t changed since the drama launched in 2004.”
WHO WILL IT BE?! Smart money’s on Ali Adler or Angela Robinson. I’d like to cast my personal vote for Brittani Nichols. Rhea Butcher is also making a very good case for herself and her wife, Cameron Esposito. Maybe you’ve heard of them.
Hello I, a lesbian identified person, have two years of show running experience alongside my lesbian wife @cameronesposito https://t.co/pE5PT7VsQX
— river buddy butcher 🤠 (@rivbutcher) July 11, 2017
This morning I had the chance to speak to Autostraddle CEO and editor in chief, Riese Bernard, about the forthcoming reboot. “WHAT,” she said, over Slack while eating her breakfast. Bernard, you may remember, founded Autostraddle after recapping The L Word for six seasons on her personal blog. Yesterday The Washington Post listed The L Word and Autostraddle, along with The Advocate, as three of the most transformative pieces of modern media for queer women, so it’s fitting that Bernard told me between bites of oatmeal that “This is interesting” and “I’m worried” and “I look forward to recapping this nonsense.”
“Nonsense” it may be, but I would also like to note that Riese Bernard, along with the rest of Autostraddle’s senior staff, stayed up until the wee hours of the morning several days in a row just a few weeks ago marathoning season five of The L Word, rewinding each sex scene and lamenting the fact that no woman has actually mounted another woman on television since then. We did talk. We did laugh. We did love. And even though there were moments too cringe-worthy for us to bear (every time anyone disrespected Max, which was every time anyone talked to or about Max, for example) it was a special experience watching a show made for us, starring women who sleep naked with other women like us, written and directed by women who have loved and had their hearts broken like us. TV has come a long way since 2004, but there are some experiences The L Word provided that no one has been able (or willing) to replicate.
So bring on the smooching! Bring on the fighting! Bring on the women claiming to not be about the drama while being all about nothing but the drama! How old is Angelica now? Have Bette and Shane learned to make decisions that aren’t solely and completely self-destructive? Did Lez Girls win an Oscar? Did Tasha finally realize she was too good for this friend group? Is Jenny clanking around in her and Tim’s old house like the Ghost of Lesbianism Past and Yet to Come? Who will play the Kristen Stewart character? So many questions only time can answer.
Until then:
