The L Word/YMMV

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


  • Crowning Moment of Awesome: The climax of the Planet-vs-SheBar plot of Season 5 (even if it was pretty much a Deus Ex Machina).
    • Jenny tazing a homophobic bully who assaulted Max. Capped off by her leaving him shocked and saying "We're dykes, not fags."
  • Ensemble Darkhorse: Alice.
  • Everybody Remembers the Stripper: It was inevitable. By featuring so many sex scenes between women, the series is mostly remembered as a softcore lesbian porn flick with boring dialogues and bad acting in between.
  • Harsher in Hindsight: The death of Bette's father was followed soon after by the death of the actor, veteran thespian and civil rights leader Ossie Davis (those pictures from the funeral with MLK and Bill Clinton weren't Photoshopped).
  • Jumped the Shark: The exact timing is debatable. Some fans think this happened after Season 3, or even earlier, while others think that Season 4 and beyond was when the show grew its beard.
  • Large Ham: Alan Cumming as Billy in Season 3 bounces back and forth between this and a Deadpan Snarker. He easily steals every scene he's in.
  • Magnificent Bastard: Adelle in Season 5.
  • Moral Event Horizon: Once they learned that he'd rigged the entire house with surveillance cameras so he could turn the intimate details of his roommates' personal lives into fodder for his next documentary, there was no way in Hell the viewers were ever going to forgive Mark (which is probably why he was Put on a Bus between Seasons 2 and 3).
  • Pandering To The Periphery Demographic: The show was supposedly aimed at a female audience. However, it garnered a very large straight male fanbase mainly through extensive sex scenes, reducing gay guys to background extras, making one of the girls bisexual (which ensured a straight guy would participate from time to time) and making straight guys prominent in the supporting cast. Actual lesbians didn't miss that and often denounced the whole show because of the blatant pandering.
  • The Scrappy: Jenny, to some many almost all viewers. There wasn't a viewer who didn't cringe every time Tonya opened her mouth.
    • Niki. The party girl closeted lesbian actress who uses a beard and who dates older women. She was based on Lindsay Lohan. This was confirmed as fact by the actress.
    • Ethnic Scrappy: Papi.
  • Seasonal Rot: Season 6. It didn't help that it was a Post Script Season.
  • Tear Jerker: Dana's death.
  • Testosterone Brigade: Thanks to the generous pandering done towards the staight male Periphery Demographic.
  • They Just Didn't Care: Ilene Chaiken admitted as much.
  • Why Would Anyone Take Him Back?: Tina lampshades it herself: why would she ever get together with Bette? But she does.
    • Dylan did not deserve a second chance with Helena.
  • The Woobie: Dana.