As you might have already read over at Ye Olde AfterEllen Blog, Showtime announced that Jodi, Phyllis and Tasha will return for another season of talking, laughing, loving, breathing, fighting, fucking, crying, drinking, writing, winning, losing, cheating, kissing, thinking and dreaming on “The L Word.”Marlee Matlin will be back to bring the battle for Bette’s affections we all know is coming to fruition, and this time she has been upgraded from guest star to series regular. Oh, it’s on! Season 5 is going to be all, “Oh, no you di’int, Jodi!” “Bring it, Tina!” At some point, and I’m not proud of this, I hope we get a little hair pulling.
Cybill Shepherd will be back again as a guest star. What I think this means is that Phyllis will again be relegated to brief moments of over-the-top cheese and/or clunky plot exposition (seriously, can she possibly speak more of Bette’s subtext out loud?). Which is good -- when it comes to Phyllis, less is so much more.
Rose Rollins will be back as Alice’s soldier girl (no word on whether she’ll be back from Iraq as well). This, of course, only makes sense since otherwise it would be the most dangly, most glaring of loose ends in the show’s long line of dangling, glaring loose ends. This also makes me all sorts of happy because Alice and Tasha together are cuter than a bowlful of kittens. 
But, possibly the best news is the news that isn’t here. No word on Janina Gavankar, which probably means that Papi will not be back to torture us with her playa posturing and bad hats next season. This can only mean that there is a God, and she loves lesbians.EDIT I: Yes, yes, it’s an “i” not a “y” in Jodi, my bad. I will go flog myself with a dictionary (which of course is no help with randomly cutsie spellings of names anyway). But seriously, with the rapid and inexplicable growth of the cast of late, who can keep up with all the spellings of all the revolving characters? And who adds two new characters in one season and ends both their names with an “i” anyway?
EDIT II: Well, this certainly hasn’t been one of my more successful posts. First, I misspell the name of a character I’ve spelled correctly all damn season, then I have people on message boards rejoicing in another typo. For the record, I have no problems with Janina, she seems like a very nice young woman. But I have all kinds of problems with the one-dimensional writing that turns her into a caricature that’s all swagger, no soul. Anyway, this serves as another reminder why I shouldn’t post so late at night. Yes, folks, those time stamps are correct. And also part of the reason my sentences on occasion look like they were typed by monkeys with hammers. The other reason, of course, is that I am an idiot. Sigh.
I'd put T&A (a horrible acronym and I'm sticking to it) as tied with the kittens on the cuteness scale. However, they whack the little pussies off the playing field when it comes to the hotness scale. Despite the often unexplainable cast growth (which, of course, fits in with the unexplainable plots), I do think Rose R. is a fantastic addition.
ReplyDeleteI'm ok with Marlee on the show; I think she's a fantastic actor. I'm less ok with Bette/Jodi. Partially this is due to wanting to see Bette/Tina back together. Partially, it's because sometimes in Jodi & Bette scenes the two come off as good friends pretending to make out. (Which is understandable.)
I'm comment neutral on Cybill, but if it gets more appearances by Jane Lynch, then it could be an okay use of 5 minutes or so. Ok, on a relative scale, I'd much rather see Cybill than BETTY, or anyone who's ever been a member of BETTY, etc., etc.
Here's a quick spellcheck exercise: Picture any L Word scene in which Marlee Matlin's character is introduced to someone else. Focus on the finger spelling . . . note the neat visual parallelism between the "j" and the final letter, which isn't "y" . . . .
ReplyDeleteI like Papi, she's fun and positive. She's a been a good friend to some of the L Word girls and seems an all round good person. She's a little one dimensional I'll admit but I like the fun energy she brings to the show so I'd like to keep her around. Plus she's cute when she stops dressing like a crazy person. How adorable was Papi in the scene with her and Helen-a's in Olive Oil's house when Papi read Olive's note about Helen-a folding her undies? Save Papi, death to Jodi(she's so boring and not hot.)
ReplyDeleteI think Papi is just Shane with less backstory. We only need one heartbreaker, thank you very much.
ReplyDeleteBy the way, has anyone been watching Bravo's new reality show Shear Genius? One of the judges is a New York hairstylist who is rumored to be the inspiration for the Shane character.
-Idgiepug
Papi is useless, good ridance!
ReplyDeleteLove your blog Dorothy, you rule!
And Kristanna Loken will be back for one or two episodes in the beginning to tie up the relationship with Shane.
ReplyDeletethat was one of your best posts
ReplyDeleteit made me laugh for long time
i only today discovered it and i am reading it all!
be well