Post by Naj on Aug 22, 2021 11:19:23 GMT -5
Official Member of the "Vera Ho" Club Users Online
While maintaining this board as active and making random posts since all are long gone and all the lurkers care not to post, I thought I'd scribble some random thoughts about the return of #TheLWord.
The original "LWord premiered in 2004 and ran for six seasons. I was heavily involved with this forum and all things Cold Case, Kathryn, Danny, John, Jeremy, Thom and Tracie. (don't forget "chippy").
But I had other contacts online from Xena and other interests especially a social worker I met who was heavily into all these things and introduced me to The L Word, Bad Girls, Loving Annabelle, Katherine Brooks, and others....
I thought I had watched the entire L Word six seasons video online that was probably bootlegged (illegal) but enough clips on the infamous hub website: www.thelwordonline.com/main.html.
And, I did purchase season 1 DVD set.
This past June I began renting the entire L Word series from season 1 from Netflix to re watch. I purchased Seasons 5 and 6 so far but with the reviews of the podcasts of the entire series, I will, most likely, purchase the first four seasons as well.
I did notice there was a shipping group: "tibette". I didn't think too much of it and didn't get into any of it at the time early on. I just watched the show, when I could, and saw the "love" relationship of Bette and Tina. The rest, for me, I could not really relate, not even much of the sex scenes as a whole of the entire cast. But I was a bit biased toward some of the scenes I liked: Tim and Jenny, Bette and Tina, Tina and Helena, Tina and Henry.
In any event, what I liked about The L Word was the camaraderie of a nucleus of friends: Alice, Dana, Shane, Bette, Tina, Jenny, Kit, Helena and some others as they came and left the series. I always enjoyed the group scenes either at The Planet or outings or group get togethers over the seasons. As, well, I gravitated towards the love relationship of Bette and Tina.
I was not aware how large the #tibette following was and continues to be in 2020 and 2021. I had no clue about the fan leanings, the creator of the series, Ilene Chaiken's history, tidbits about the filming and set stories of the actors. I was oblivious. Sometimes, that is the best way to be.
But, recently, about three months ago, I was on YouTube. I am there daily and up on the page is something about "TheLWord" 2019. There's a new L Word. I went to IMDB and saw there was an L Word series in 2013 and basically dismissed it because I didn't see anyone I recognized.
Maybe a week went by and something came up again on YouTube: interviews with Jennifer Beals. Even though JB was one of the main characters along with Mia Kirschner and I liked Jennifer's story the most (along with Tina), I decided to watch the interview with Jennifer. And that's when I began to see who this actor was in real life and became sidetracked from my normal activities. (I may have regretted this, though)
So I began watching more interviews of Jennifer, then Ilene Chaiken, then the Season 5 and last sit down with the main cast interviews and then Laurel Holloman. I went to one particular website and ended up reading about 1,500 pages of dialog (I read at least 42,000 posts in all) of fans that were "in the know" about happenings of the show, cast and rumors. OYE! I'm too far down the rabbit hole, I thought. Why did I do this?
I found out Laurel Holloman was now a painter in real life for over ten years and showing in Europe and went to look at her paintings. Very impressive. I also subscribed to All Things Tibette Podcast run by two women...one a social worker and the other heavily into writing and Media Arts. I also subscribed to The Pants Podcast weekly run by Leisha Hailey and Kat Monneig (both actors of The L Word). I highly recommend both podcasts. Leisha and Kat are hilarious with many tidbits and they tell us what they thoughtfrom their viewpoint. They are great.
Then I noticed Showtime was allowing free viewership on YouTube of all of Season 1 of "TheLWord Gen Q". So I watched it. Since Laurel was now a painter and had given up acting, I kept that in mind as I was watching Season 1. If one can omit Tina, the show was a bit interesting. (If one can do that).
BUT, when I saw the story line, I was sorry I had been hooked in.
Several things stand out:
* The reboot only has three original returns of the twelve actors. (I didn't count exactly)
* Kit (Bette's half sister) is written out as dead of Opioid overdose.
* Tina is NOW divorced from Bette after all the fans went through in the original to get Tina back with Bette. (Ilene vision hurdle but Ilene knew better to please the fan favorites and brought them back together and married)
* Tina shows up at the end of Season 1 for the very first time for the season.
* It's a difficult watch and feels empty with just three originals returning and the couple everyone loved torn apart for like the 5th time. Unnecessary.
I check online for the pulse of the reboot. What do I find? Anger. Disgust, Sadness. Many, many, many posts of Bette and Tina, the couple that actually were in love in this series. With Bette and Tina there really wasn't even any need for those love scenes. For me, less is more.
But what was important was the viewer saw two people that loved one another but they both had major relationship communication obstacles.
I'm thinking to myself, I just wanted to tune in and have some fun watching this old gang only to find the gang is not there. Instead there are 8? new cast members. The pulse of the fans is "no interest" and the ratings are an embarrassment. I do know something about ratings as I posted many for Cold Case over its series run. Granted CBS vs Showtime probably not a comparison.
Further I read about the new writer for this reboot: Marja-Lewis Ryan. She is on a mission to make fans Hate her. What?
As season two comes along,(August 2021) I understand Marja better and her vision and possible motivation. And now, I am sorry I got involved in this show. As of this writing the series has tanked badly. Maybe there will be a season three and if there is---I suspect it will be streaming only on Showtime.
I could have watched the series and enjoyed it. But only if there had existed a Bette AND Tina. I do like Leisha and Shane's story, however.
This reboot should have begun with Bette and Tina or at least still married (even though Laurel was busy with her art shows). That way when she showed up as a surprise at the end of season 1--it would not have come across as Bette's leaving her behind and moving on and so is the show. My suspicion is that is what Marja was setting it up for. And that is how the #tibette fans interpreted it (including me).
Was Marja just playing with the fans and would bring them back together? It was an old story long ago resolved. Bette could have found redemption for cheating on Tina seven years into their marriage another way on this reboot. Was there a need to be political in times when we are all tired of the rift among each other about our political beliefs? Can't we have some escape from that when we watch a television show? Apparently not.
My conclusion is that Marja et al. did not have a pulse on the fans. For whatever reason, I do not know. Pulling Tina from the group as estranged was not a good way to start off a new series when that is your base for viewers. Also I find the ratio of old cast to new should have been flipped: 8 old and 4 new. It felt empty with less old cast. The three didn't seem enough and their stories should have been more prominent to start. Again, in these times, fans wanted (me, in particular) a pleasant, fun escape. But, instead, got politics, drugs, sex without love, a throuple, a major divorce, Tina with another woman (controversial actor - Rosie O'Donnell) and Tina de-glamorized giving the impression: Bette is coming full circle to move forward on her own and eliminating Tina from the show. The stress on "family" but Marja is destroying it.
So, why would the majority of the tibette fan base wish to engage Marja's vision: "I'm going to destroy Tina."
They haven't.
I just want to add one last thing. What I saw of Jennifer Beals in those interviews and Laurel Holloman are two loving people who care about their roles on TheLWord. It's obvious Leisha and Kat are committed to a show they love and want to share with the fans I do not desire to see the show hurt for someone's lack of viewer connection. These originals will always be fondly thought of for their participation in a series #TheLWord that brought much good to others. If only, someone, had stopped to really think about how they were promoting this new series. There is some quality there despite what I've read about story lines. But now we have to let it play out as is. Thank you Jennifer, Leisha, Kat and Laurel for your hard work.
thelwordonline.com/
From another board....if true....but it seems true posted today 8.22.21 as to my initial impressions as I began to view Season 1 of Gen Q.
I believe what threw her plan off was when JB pursued Luh and convinced her to come back. This wasn’t anticipated. Then came the stupid, unrealistic divorce S/L to still free Bette up to sleep with other people. This is the part that irritates me. Don’t blame Luh’s painting schedule for the lack of her presence. It seems as if Luh made herself more than available during the filming of S2. Rather than insult our intelligence, just call it what it is. Fans would still be upset but respect you more for telling the truth. In the end you are still getting the same results, low ratings.
source: tapatalk
My comments, above, as to what i felt watching the show now a decade later supports what I thought in my original post above. What a travesty mess and the fans suffer and so do the shining stars of this show: JB, LH, KM, LaurelH.
Selfishness never wins.
Someone tried to take a streamliner of tibette fans into a new era without Tina---a place they have no interest....for money and success for a new writer with a new vision. Why didn't she (MJL) just do it with a whole new cast? Because she only would have had a two seater fishing boat. This is not a respectful way to attempt to con and crumb the show's bread and butter. I would have been more than willing to sign up for Showtime Streaming. But then I saw there really isn't a reason to do it at this time.
So, I won't post the words from MJL from OutMag. It is Hate speech and I do not understand why it is permitted in print. Is it because it's Liberal and only Liberals are permitted to speak hate? It's not a way to gain the viewers one would rely upon for show ratings. I think one always needs to keep in mind some do not have any political leanings and not every one is a Liberal Democrat. Does the show assume this is so?
I am perplexed why her remarks are in print and why no one from the LGBTQ (or appropriate sources) have not addressed Ms.MLR's behavior. That includes Showtime. No one is holding Ms. Ryan's feet to the fire for such vitirol? But Showtime gives her another project?
Instead I will post and celebrate #thelword and leave this thread on a up note. See the fun clips in the next posts....
While maintaining this board as active and making random posts since all are long gone and all the lurkers care not to post, I thought I'd scribble some random thoughts about the return of #TheLWord.
The original "LWord premiered in 2004 and ran for six seasons. I was heavily involved with this forum and all things Cold Case, Kathryn, Danny, John, Jeremy, Thom and Tracie. (don't forget "chippy").
But I had other contacts online from Xena and other interests especially a social worker I met who was heavily into all these things and introduced me to The L Word, Bad Girls, Loving Annabelle, Katherine Brooks, and others....
I thought I had watched the entire L Word six seasons video online that was probably bootlegged (illegal) but enough clips on the infamous hub website: www.thelwordonline.com/main.html.
And, I did purchase season 1 DVD set.
This past June I began renting the entire L Word series from season 1 from Netflix to re watch. I purchased Seasons 5 and 6 so far but with the reviews of the podcasts of the entire series, I will, most likely, purchase the first four seasons as well.
I did notice there was a shipping group: "tibette". I didn't think too much of it and didn't get into any of it at the time early on. I just watched the show, when I could, and saw the "love" relationship of Bette and Tina. The rest, for me, I could not really relate, not even much of the sex scenes as a whole of the entire cast. But I was a bit biased toward some of the scenes I liked: Tim and Jenny, Bette and Tina, Tina and Helena, Tina and Henry.
In any event, what I liked about The L Word was the camaraderie of a nucleus of friends: Alice, Dana, Shane, Bette, Tina, Jenny, Kit, Helena and some others as they came and left the series. I always enjoyed the group scenes either at The Planet or outings or group get togethers over the seasons. As, well, I gravitated towards the love relationship of Bette and Tina.
I was not aware how large the #tibette following was and continues to be in 2020 and 2021. I had no clue about the fan leanings, the creator of the series, Ilene Chaiken's history, tidbits about the filming and set stories of the actors. I was oblivious. Sometimes, that is the best way to be.
But, recently, about three months ago, I was on YouTube. I am there daily and up on the page is something about "TheLWord" 2019. There's a new L Word. I went to IMDB and saw there was an L Word series in 2013 and basically dismissed it because I didn't see anyone I recognized.
Maybe a week went by and something came up again on YouTube: interviews with Jennifer Beals. Even though JB was one of the main characters along with Mia Kirschner and I liked Jennifer's story the most (along with Tina), I decided to watch the interview with Jennifer. And that's when I began to see who this actor was in real life and became sidetracked from my normal activities. (I may have regretted this, though)
So I began watching more interviews of Jennifer, then Ilene Chaiken, then the Season 5 and last sit down with the main cast interviews and then Laurel Holloman. I went to one particular website and ended up reading about 1,500 pages of dialog (I read at least 42,000 posts in all) of fans that were "in the know" about happenings of the show, cast and rumors. OYE! I'm too far down the rabbit hole, I thought. Why did I do this?
I found out Laurel Holloman was now a painter in real life for over ten years and showing in Europe and went to look at her paintings. Very impressive. I also subscribed to All Things Tibette Podcast run by two women...one a social worker and the other heavily into writing and Media Arts. I also subscribed to The Pants Podcast weekly run by Leisha Hailey and Kat Monneig (both actors of The L Word). I highly recommend both podcasts. Leisha and Kat are hilarious with many tidbits and they tell us what they thoughtfrom their viewpoint. They are great.
Then I noticed Showtime was allowing free viewership on YouTube of all of Season 1 of "TheLWord Gen Q". So I watched it. Since Laurel was now a painter and had given up acting, I kept that in mind as I was watching Season 1. If one can omit Tina, the show was a bit interesting. (If one can do that).
BUT, when I saw the story line, I was sorry I had been hooked in.
Several things stand out:
* The reboot only has three original returns of the twelve actors. (I didn't count exactly)
* Kit (Bette's half sister) is written out as dead of Opioid overdose.
* Tina is NOW divorced from Bette after all the fans went through in the original to get Tina back with Bette. (Ilene vision hurdle but Ilene knew better to please the fan favorites and brought them back together and married)
* Tina shows up at the end of Season 1 for the very first time for the season.
* It's a difficult watch and feels empty with just three originals returning and the couple everyone loved torn apart for like the 5th time. Unnecessary.
I check online for the pulse of the reboot. What do I find? Anger. Disgust, Sadness. Many, many, many posts of Bette and Tina, the couple that actually were in love in this series. With Bette and Tina there really wasn't even any need for those love scenes. For me, less is more.
But what was important was the viewer saw two people that loved one another but they both had major relationship communication obstacles. I'm thinking to myself, I just wanted to tune in and have some fun watching this old gang only to find the gang is not there. Instead there are 8? new cast members. The pulse of the fans is "no interest" and the ratings are an embarrassment. I do know something about ratings as I posted many for Cold Case over its series run. Granted CBS vs Showtime probably not a comparison.
Further I read about the new writer for this reboot: Marja-Lewis Ryan. She is on a mission to make fans Hate her. What?
As season two comes along,(August 2021) I understand Marja better and her vision and possible motivation. And now, I am sorry I got involved in this show. As of this writing the series has tanked badly. Maybe there will be a season three and if there is---I suspect it will be streaming only on Showtime.
I could have watched the series and enjoyed it. But only if there had existed a Bette AND Tina. I do like Leisha and Shane's story, however.
This reboot should have begun with Bette and Tina or at least still married (even though Laurel was busy with her art shows). That way when she showed up as a surprise at the end of season 1--it would not have come across as Bette's leaving her behind and moving on and so is the show. My suspicion is that is what Marja was setting it up for. And that is how the #tibette fans interpreted it (including me).
Was Marja just playing with the fans and would bring them back together? It was an old story long ago resolved. Bette could have found redemption for cheating on Tina seven years into their marriage another way on this reboot. Was there a need to be political in times when we are all tired of the rift among each other about our political beliefs? Can't we have some escape from that when we watch a television show? Apparently not.
My conclusion is that Marja et al. did not have a pulse on the fans. For whatever reason, I do not know. Pulling Tina from the group as estranged was not a good way to start off a new series when that is your base for viewers. Also I find the ratio of old cast to new should have been flipped: 8 old and 4 new. It felt empty with less old cast. The three didn't seem enough and their stories should have been more prominent to start. Again, in these times, fans wanted (me, in particular) a pleasant, fun escape. But, instead, got politics, drugs, sex without love, a throuple, a major divorce, Tina with another woman (controversial actor - Rosie O'Donnell) and Tina de-glamorized giving the impression: Bette is coming full circle to move forward on her own and eliminating Tina from the show. The stress on "family" but Marja is destroying it.
So, why would the majority of the tibette fan base wish to engage Marja's vision: "I'm going to destroy Tina."
They haven't.
I just want to add one last thing. What I saw of Jennifer Beals in those interviews and Laurel Holloman are two loving people who care about their roles on TheLWord. It's obvious Leisha and Kat are committed to a show they love and want to share with the fans I do not desire to see the show hurt for someone's lack of viewer connection. These originals will always be fondly thought of for their participation in a series #TheLWord that brought much good to others. If only, someone, had stopped to really think about how they were promoting this new series. There is some quality there despite what I've read about story lines. But now we have to let it play out as is. Thank you Jennifer, Leisha, Kat and Laurel for your hard work.
thelwordonline.com/
From another board....if true....but it seems true posted today 8.22.21 as to my initial impressions as I began to view Season 1 of Gen Q.
I believe what threw her plan off was when JB pursued Luh and convinced her to come back. This wasn’t anticipated. Then came the stupid, unrealistic divorce S/L to still free Bette up to sleep with other people. This is the part that irritates me. Don’t blame Luh’s painting schedule for the lack of her presence. It seems as if Luh made herself more than available during the filming of S2. Rather than insult our intelligence, just call it what it is. Fans would still be upset but respect you more for telling the truth. In the end you are still getting the same results, low ratings.
source: tapatalk
My comments, above, as to what i felt watching the show now a decade later supports what I thought in my original post above. What a travesty mess and the fans suffer and so do the shining stars of this show: JB, LH, KM, LaurelH.
Selfishness never wins.
Someone tried to take a streamliner of tibette fans into a new era without Tina---a place they have no interest....for money and success for a new writer with a new vision. Why didn't she (MJL) just do it with a whole new cast? Because she only would have had a two seater fishing boat. This is not a respectful way to attempt to con and crumb the show's bread and butter. I would have been more than willing to sign up for Showtime Streaming. But then I saw there really isn't a reason to do it at this time.
So, I won't post the words from MJL from OutMag. It is Hate speech and I do not understand why it is permitted in print. Is it because it's Liberal and only Liberals are permitted to speak hate? It's not a way to gain the viewers one would rely upon for show ratings. I think one always needs to keep in mind some do not have any political leanings and not every one is a Liberal Democrat. Does the show assume this is so?
I am perplexed why her remarks are in print and why no one from the LGBTQ (or appropriate sources) have not addressed Ms.MLR's behavior. That includes Showtime. No one is holding Ms. Ryan's feet to the fire for such vitirol? But Showtime gives her another project?
Instead I will post and celebrate #thelword and leave this thread on a up note. See the fun clips in the next posts....
Much love to "TheLWord cast: Jennifer, Laurel, Leisha, Pam, Kat, Mia, Erin, Rachel et al...
