Wednesday, January 20, 2016

What the L Did I Just Hear?

So I’ve been doing a big “The L Word” rewatch on Netflix. I started at the beginning and have been watching chronologically. But all through the Season 1 binge something has been bothering me. The sparse bubble-dot theme music – which was summarily replaced in Season 2 by that Betty theme song atrocity – was somehow different than I remembered. It seemed…off.

So I went back to my original DVDs and, sure enough, they are different. The weird bubble-dot music is different. Now I had read that “The L Word” had lost some of the licenses for the original music it used when it went to streaming on Netflix. So some of the songs have been replaced with other ones in certain scenes. But to lose the right to what appears to be its original theme song? What the actual fuck?

Anyway, this concludes my incredulity with all things to do with “The L Word” and its theme song choices. And just when I thought it couldn’t anymore given all its crazy*, this show comes up with whole new ways to confound me.

* “all its crazy” includes, but is not limited to Marina’s complete disappearance, Mark’s stalker cameras, Helena’s personality transplant, Alice’s Dana Shrine, Dana’s death and anything and everything to do with Jenny.

6 comments:

PatriciaMoncrief said...
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mel. p said...

UGH, comment spam. And also, UGH, Netflix theme! Jeepers, that's TERRIBLE.

jennifer from pittsburgh said...

You brave, brave soul.

Unknown said...

What the what? I'm sure the last time I watched S1 it was the original music, though that one was on UK Netflix...

Still better than Betty. God, I hate Betty with the fire of a thousand suns.

Panty Buns said...

I love The L Word and bought the 25 DVD set. There was a song I loved that played at the end of episode 4 on NetFlix that was different on the DVDs - and in fact a lot of the songs were different. And I didn't like the ones on the DVDs as much. What's worse, I couldn't find out who wrote or played the song I liked, so I asked Andy Paley in a comment on his blog (he was given credit for the music on NetFlix). They didn't know. I tried listening to all of Leisha Hailey's music but couldn't find out. I do think it had something to do with money. It bothers me that big outfits like NetFlix and Showtime don't want to pay the royalties to the artists through BMI or wherever - and I was a pain in the ass about it grousing to Showtime, NetFlix and Ilene Chaiken but I got nowhere.
Dana's death was one of the things Ilene Chaiken regretted. It upset me greatly, and it was a long time before I binge-watched all 6 seasons the next couple of times. I was also upset about Marina disappearing and Jenny dying and anything not happy. Unnecessary lying irks me and I love happy endings. But I still love The L Word. We need more happy lesbian films and TV shows. When I do a NetFlix search for "lesbian" there are only 6 results. ;(

Fannie Wolfe said...

ALSO - in the episode where Bette debates Faye Buckley and ends up breaking down in tears, they replaced "Hallelujah" by Jeff Buckley.