The L Word: Season Four

By the time a series gets to the forth season there are expectations of maturity. It had to have a successful formula otherwise it wouldn’t have made it this far but now there is a major crossroad ahead. The cast and crew have to allow the show to continue to grow while still keeping the elements that pulled in audiences for the previous three seasons. This was the predicament the Showtime hit, "The L Word’ faced as it entered it’s forth season. By this time a premium cable series focusing on a group of Lesbians is now longer enough to bring in viewers. Fortunately for the series it was always the writing, direction and acting that truly defined the series, not jut the sexual orientation of the characters. In this season one of the main themes is the fluidity of human sexuality. This theme really got started in the previous season but here it is pushed past any previous limits. As people grow, gain experiences and change their attitudes towards sex, love and fidelity may alter drastically. This season considers the moral and ethical ramifications of such changes as the characters experience an almost constant state of flux. While there is a bit more of a soap opera feel to this season almost to the point of a surrealistic tendency the L Word has remained consistently a powerfully presented series.

This flux comes into season four hitting the floor running. It opens with the aftermath of the tumultuous events of the season three cliffhanging ending. Shane McCutcheon (Katherine Moennig) has left her fiancée Carmen de la Pica Morales (Sarah Shahi) just moments before their wedding in British Columbia. She was deeply disturbed to discover her father Gabriel (Eric Roberts) his unable to keep any promise or maintain any degree of commitment. After going on a wild alcohol and drug fueled bender Shane is force to face responsibility when her half brother Shay (Aidan Jarrar); a 12 year old into skateboarding. When he needs medical treatment Shane has to sell out and do some high end modeling which makes her an overnight pop sensation. Bette Porter (Jennifer Beals) is on the run after kidnapping her daughter from her former partner Tina Kennard (Laurel Holloman) who had full legal custody. When things are worked out and Bette returns she takes a job at the University as the Dean of the Arts department. There she falls in love with a free spirited deaf artist, Jodi (Marlee Matlin) after a brief affair with her teaching assistant Nadia (Jessica Capshaw). Tina is back at the top of her game as a film agent. Her biggest project is selling the film rights to Jenny Schecter’s (Mia Kirshner) novel. The book as generally received critical acclaim with the exception of one interviewer, Stacy Merkin (Heather Matarazzo) who was brutal in print. Jenny goes off the deep end in her revenge which including taking Stacy’s girlfriend away from her. Gender is in real flux when Jenny’s former girlfriend Moria (Daniela Sea) is on hormones for gender reassignment and is living as a man, Max Sweeney. Things get complicated when he starts to date his boss’ daughter. Bette’s sister Kit (Pam Grier) is facing a real dilemma. Kit is pregnant with her boyfriend Angus Partridge’s (Dallas Roberts) baby and is not certain that she wants to keep it.

Then there is the ever perky Alice Pieszecki (Leisha Hailey) whose radio show has become wildly popular in the gay and lesbian community. Her infamous ‘Chat’ detailing the interrelationships between lesbians has gone online and become a huge internet sensation. Shane has always held the number one position with the most number of affairs but a new comer has documented over 1,000 just beating Shane out. It turns out that this prolific individual is a Hispanic woman named Papi (Janina Gavankar). Papi is the personification of a player. She loves them and leaves them. She has a fling with Alice and eventually the two become close friends. Alice winds up falling for another friend of Papi, Tasha (Rose Rollins) who is a solider suffering from post traumatic stress disorder and is about to be rotated back to Iraq. Alice finds herself drawn into more drama when she meets up with Bette’s boss at the college, Phyllis Kroll (Cybill Shepherd). After years of being a wife and mother Phyllis decides that she is a lesbian. She has her first time with Alice and becomes enamored of her. Needless to say this puts Bette in a very uncomfortable situation. One potential thread of happiness here is with the most unlikely member of this group, Shane. Her brother becomes friends with another boy at school. While on a play date Shane meets the boy’s single mother, Paige Sobel (Kristanna Loken). Shane soon becomes friends with Paige and eventually they become lovers. In one fantasy sequence Shane images them as a fifties sit-com style couple with her as the husband and Paige as the June Cleaver like wife.

The strength and ultimate appeal of this series is the humanity of the characters. While this season concentrates on issues germane to the gay, lesbian and transgender community there are some story arcs that are real for the viewer no matter what their sexual orientation may be. Custody issues like those faced by Bette and Tina happen to couples of all types. Their relationship is shown as one between former lovers who are now in competition for the child. There is still love there but they are forced into an adversarial relationship. Sudden success is seen in a couple of the plots. The darker side is seen through Jenny who needs validation for her work through her reviews. She also turns on her friends in her second novel by including them in thinly disguised characters. Alice also finds a good measure of success but she is grounded enough to deal with it as fun for the moment. Shane is forced to grow up in this season with the addition of her half brother to the mix. Where is an aimless twenty-something who drifted through life from one fling after another finding she has to embrace the stability she rejected at her wedding. One of the series’ trademarks is the opening sequence. Usually it depicts a significant point in the lives of someone connected to one of the leads. In this season the sequences are all connected ultimately leading the initial connection between some of the main characters.

This is such a great cast that alone will keep you watching. Katherine Moennig shows the widest range of emotions in this season. Her character has to range from drunk and disorderly to finding the maternal instincts she never realized where there. Several of the actresses have to play different women struggling with solidifying their sexual identity. Laurel Holloman brings Tina on a journey of sexual self discovery. She was happy in her relationship with Bette, and then found love with a man and by the end of the season is back to women again. In contrast Daniela Sea has to play someone who has to learn to act like a man and form a new identity. The most emotional role here is well handled by Cybill Shepherd as a woman who sees something her life is missing and hopes that becoming a lesbian would resolve her issues.

Showtime once again brings this series to DVD with excellent technical specifications. The anamorphic 1.78:1 video is bright and realistic. The Dolby 5.1 audio always gives a full robust audio field. While this series is not for everyone if you like a good, solid drama with just a touch of soap opera you will enjoy this season set.

Posted 10/09/07