The L Files

I am amazed at how much consensus I see our group assessment of the characters in The L Word.  As some of you have realized, I am not even half-way through the first season, and most of you are halfway through the second.  That said, here are the results, high school yearbook style:

Ms. Hot in Herre = Marina, hands down

Most Likely to Succeed [between those sheets] = Shane

Most Likely to Succeed [on monster.com] = Bette

She of Limited Sex Appeal = Jenny

Most Neurotic/Entertaining = Dana

Most Likely to be our Friend = Alice

I will weigh in, sumo style, with those of you who point out that Jenny is not a writer by any stretch of the imagination.  As a writer myself, that portrayal is truly painful.  And the dinner with her teacher, absurd!  Maybe the screenwriters have confused literary writing with method acting?

I will admit that it was genuinely meaningful to me to see the whole sperm donor and insemination drama played out on television, however unrealistic it seemed.  Or, if L.A. is really like that, maybe we should consider a mass migration?

Comments

[tina]

on jenny as writer:

1) in the series, she is not depicted as a *successful* writer--it's just that her character writes and aspires (however audibly and dramatically) to write. how many other people from your college creative writing program did you think were the genuine article? they got in. they graduated. are they writers?

2) i think at least 1/2 the people in the 3 creative writing classes i took in college dressed and acted at least a little like jenny (i wonder--for at least a minute before squinting--if maybe i did also). what stings about jenny, really?

3) question: does being a truly bad, although dedicated, writer make you not worthy of taking on the title of writer for yourself? what if you improve? at what point do you get to wear it?

interestingly, ilene chaiken, the producer / writer of the L-Word, said in a recent interview that she based the characters of Jenny and Bette in part on herself during different stages of her life.

[Robyn]

i think what is so irksome about Jenny is that she is having such a tough time finding her way..and we can all relate to that at some points in our lives. she's so unsure of herself on so many levels. and that is so difficult to see dramatized.

[elswhere]

What bugs me about Jenny, aside from the pretentious-writer thing, is how self-centered and demanding she is. Okay, falling hopelessly in love with someone even though you're engaged to someone else, it happens (if not usually so photogenically). But, without going into it in so much detail as to spoil it for you, the way she deals with that later made me actually come down on her boyfriend's side. Which kind of shocked me.

[Tracy]

I will have to TOTALLY agree on everything you said about Jenny. Yuck, yuck and yuck. I hate the whole writer plot-line that just wreaks of hack. I hate even more that she is sooooooooooooooooo NOT a lesbian. I just don't like her at all. But I love this blog (from one lesbian mom to another). ; )