The L Word Season 1 Review - Very Informal

The L Word: Season 1

Grade: 5.8/10

The L Word Season 1 overall proved to be better than the pilot suggested. However, many of the issues I had from the pilot remained a significant part of the series as the viewer is essentially shown a group of women who are cruel to their loved ones for a variety of reasons; the primary one being “I couldn’t help myself”.

Worst of all is the character of Jenny played by Mia Kirshner. If ever a role could destroy an actor or actress for me for the remainder of time it would be Jenny ruining Mia Kirshner. The more I think about why these people would ever write a character so major to the story this bipolar, frustrating, mind-numbingly wishy-washy and just plain bitchy is beyond my comprehension as a human being. In the Pilot she wasn’t so terrible. She was clearly confused and realizing that she felt something for another woman; Marina. However this storyline plummets quickly as we see that Jenny begins to do oddly hypocritical things like; avoid Marina, then deliberately go to The Planet where she works, then tell her she it was a mistake, then follow her into the bathroom to do stuff, then tell her it was a mistake, then wait for her to call, then continue to do it with her, then feel really guilty, then not feel guilty. The stupidity goes on like that for a while. Then when Tim finally catches Marina going down on her the logical thing to do would be…to lie, say it was the first and only time and then go to The Planet to tell Marina she will never see her again and then get married to Tim. Totally logical, right? Right? :cricket…cricket: Granted, Tim was the one with the grand plan to get married but really liked Tim and I understand that he was very confused at that point and considering that Jenny makes about 100 of the stupidest decisions a person can possibly make so Tim gets to make 1 bad decision. I allow it. Plus it led up to the moment when Tim leaves Jenny in the motel room in the middle of the night after getting married which was basically the funniest thing ever. What does that lead Jenny to do? Jenny, being Jenny, decides to write stupid things while sitting in a fucking field and then she hitchhikes and takes some shrooms with Cally from BSG and then climbs a mountain and then sits next to a mailbox. Then she comes back and lies to Tim again who, hilariously, throws all of Jenny’s stuff onto the yard. Ahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha. I won’t even go into the rest because I’m getting mad just thinking about it. But I’ll tell you that it involves getting screwed over by Marina and her lover Francesca, throwing wine bottles, writing about manatees who can talk, going to an aquarium and looking at some manatees, having sex while manatees watch and then hooking up with a really nice woman named Robin (played by the great Anne Ramsay) who really deserves better. All in all she is truly a terrible concoction. This is coming from someone who loves flawed characters, deeply flawed ones, but Jenny and most of these characters are either too cruel or too uninteresting to hold my interest or sympathy.

The rest of the storylines did not fare nearly as badly as this. Bette and Tina end up being quite likable. My favorite stuff in the season involved Bette’s handling of the “Provocations” exhibit and her interaction with her father. She blew it all though by randomly fucking over a 7 year relationship by fucking a carpenter multiple times. Because that makes sense. It would have been a lot more interesting if she had been a character who we knew for a while. But no; Candace comes in for one episode and by the end of it they are making out. Poor Tina. Right now I enjoy Tina but I am going to take a wild guess and assume she will do something to make me hate her eventually. I am 5 episodes away from finishing Season 2. Bette gets so much worse in Season 2 but we will come to that in time. I found myself invested in the two of them and it was pretty heartbreaking when they had the miscarriage. Bette’s breakdown at the Fae Buckley debate was rather fantastic and moving.

Dana continued to be pretty annoying. I enjoyed her coming out to her parents and her relationship with the sous-chef but overall her moments of humor are what made her stand out. Her relationship with Tanya is just so stupid and makes no sense. Alice is much worse, in the first season at least (she becomes tolerable in the second season). All she talks about is her stupid chart and gossip. She had an interesting brief relationship with an ex and the stuff with her mother was interesting enough.

Kit was a waste of time. Her presence feels forced and awkward. One of my favorite scenes of the season though, was her encounter with her and Bette’s father.

Of course there is Shane, the saving grace of the show. Her storyline was actually very interesting and I loved where it took her character. Her refusal to get involved with Cherie Jaffe’s daughter was fantastic and the scene where she confronts Cherie both at the house and at the exhibit was really moving. Shane lights up any scene she is in and one the best things about her is the way she handles situations differently than anyone else. She comes off as very free and easy going, which she is, but she has so much integrity. What’s great about her is that she won’t get involved in anything if it’s not her business but she is so loyal to helping people out, to a fault. She’s so caring and it is adorable.

Overall the season was okay but nothing special. The episode where we see each of the characters first lesbian experience was great. Using Leonard Cohen is always very welcome (he is used twice more). Seeing Devon Gummersall aka Brian Krakow was a pleasant surprise as well as seeing Tigh from BSG as Dana’s father. A few storylines were genuinely intriguing but more often than not they were either actively bad or uninteresting. The women just come off as people who have nothing else to do but fuck up their lives in every way possible and then not take responsibility for anything. Essentially it’s like watching a bunch of children.

Sorry that this review is not an attempt at something deep or professional or meaningful or relevant. The show is simply not worth it to me. You will hear from me after I finish Season 2. I am fast forwarding through pointless nonsense with this show.

Flash Forward: Season 1, Episode 6: "Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps)": 5.5/10

Flash Forward: Season 1, Episode 6: "Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps): 5.5

This episode which does take place during Halloween is named after the Bowie song and features another bad cover, this time of said Bowie track from Sea Wolf. Whoopie. It, once again was a good scene but I guess using original tracks is just not something this show feels like doing or cannot do for assumedly various reasons. One cover that was featured in the episode though which worked very well was Rufus Wainwright's cover of Across the Universe. The scene was VERY typical (one of those penultimate scenes in an episode that shows us all of the characters individually thinking which is done all the time on like every show ever now) but the usage was nice.

Anyways I am more intrigued with the show with each passing episode even though I still think the character development and characterization in general is DREADFUL! I don't know these characters any better than I did in the first episode and I did not know them at all in the first episode...WHICH MEANS I DON'T KNOW THEM NOW!!!

Thankfully my favorite character survived. The mystery of the show is continually set up very well and I hope they can follow through on a lot of the promise they have shown us with the story (because goodness knows they are not following up on anything involving character). We were finally shown a few scenes with Dominic Monaghan's mysterious character. I'll just get this out of the way right now; he is completely miscast. I absolutely cannot take him seriously in this role. He is just not convincing to me at all whihc is a shame. I still thought the opening scene with the cross cutting between Monaghan explaining The Double Slit Theory and Janice being operated on was the best moment in the episode. The Blue Hand stuff was pretty good as well. Overall another decent episode with some nice plotting but still unsatisfactory character development and now we have a key character who is completely miscast.

My So-Called Life: Season 1, Episode 8: "Strangers in the House"

Season 1, Episode 9: “Strangers in the Night”
Grade: 9.6

Television does not get better than this. This would have to take the award for favorite episode of the series thus far; yes even more so than the pilot. While I do not like Sharon I also very much like her I also really like her. I love her character; its just the actress who bugs me. Her mannerisms and speech patterns and constant bitchiness get to me. Despite this I love what she brings to the show and this episode completely delves into Sharon and Angela’s issues and also allows for Graham to have what I would call a near breakdown which ends with him getting fired by his own wife. Harsh. Everything in this episode was perfect. The episode had a slightly different tone to it due to the seriousness of the situation. The way Angela dealt with Sharon staying over was so absurdly the way I would have handled it and while it came off as coldness from Sharon’s point of view, it’s really the only way Angela know how to deal with things. There is a moment when Angela comes in to ask Sharon something and she says it lightly and jokingly at first but Sharon does not hear her and says “What?”. Angela then reverts to saying it more seriously and its such a small moment of perfection and unmatchable authenticity. I loved everything involving Sharon’s mother and the way she handles the situation as well. I honestly do not know what to say about the episode except that everything was perfect. Brian’s connection to Sharon. The scenes with Sharon and Angela. Sharon hugging Brian. Everything involving Graham. Rayanne cutting school to drive Sharon to the hospital. The last scene with Brian and Angela. The underwhelming reactions of Sharon and her mother about their father/husband and the overwhelming ones from Patty and especially Graham. This episode really shows the potential that television has.

Quotes:
Angela: There are so many different ways to be connected to people. There are the people you feel this unspoken connection to, even though there's not even a word for it. There's the people who you've known forever who know you in this way that other people can't because they've seen you change. They've let you change

My So-Called Life: Season 1, Episode 7: "Why Jordan Can't Read"

Season 1, Episode 7: “Why Jordan Can’t Read”
Grade: 8.6

I hate that I cannot remember a ton about this one. I fell in love with the beginning with everyone in the museum. I don’ hate Jordan anymore. I still don’t really care for him I find that I enjoy his presence because it is fun to make fun of him. I figured the song was not written about Angela and I am excited to see if Angela finds out about that. The scenes with Jordan when Angela goes to his band (the hilariously named Frozen Embryos) are so delightfully awkward and true. I love how Angela takes the fact that she knows about Jordan’s reading problem to mean that they have a special connection. Its true but the essence she builds around it in her head was pitch-perfect. I wish I remembered more about this episode. Again, its’ been a while. Patty and Graham deal with the fact that Patty might be pregnant again. I freaking love Patty and Graham. I’ve fallen in love with the both of them. They are the coolest people of all time. Angela deals with a lack of enthusiasm and awkwardness with Jordan and I love how he tries to show interest but he can’t show too much and I love how she tries not to be awkward about things but fails miserably. Wow. Jordan ditches on the first date. Angela looks stunning and Brian and Angela have a scene where they flip on each other which is an awesome scene. Brian is so ridiculously awkward; he speaks his mind too much, butts in on stuff that is not his business and yet I feel bad for him because well he’s so awesome and nobody can see the awesomeness of Brian Krakow. I’m only half kidding on that by the way. So yeah, Jordan does not show because he does not want to meet the parents yet. I sort of understand but seriously that was way harsh of him. I love love love love love the last scene with Brian and Angela playing catch. There are so many groups of two whose interactions I absolutely relish and eat up; Angela and Brian, Brian and Ricky, Brian and Sharon, Sharon and Rayanne, Sharon and Angela and more. Oh and we get to see in this episode that Danielle is a sketchy creepy annoying little girl who wants saxophone lessons from Brian.

Quotes:
Angela: Love is when you look into someone's eyes and suddenly you go all the way inside, to their soul, and you both know instantly. I always imagined I'd fall in love nursing a blind soldier who was wounded in battle. Or maybe while rescuing someone in the middle of a blizzard, seconds before the avalanche hits. I thought at least by the age of fifteen I'd have a love life. But I don't even have a like life.

My So-Called Life: Season 1, Episode 6: "The Substitute"

Season 1, Episode 6: “The Substitute”
Grade: 8.5

This show is becoming an obsession of mine. I find myself thinking about it weeks after watching an episode. I find myself being depressed like everyone else that has seen it that it never lasted. I marvel at the amount of care and time and effort that is put into every single episode. Every single thing about every single episode is so perfect and specifically so. The writing is impeccable, the characters so unique and specific and special and the performances are incredible across the board with Claire Danes quite possibly giving the most impressive performance for a television series I have ever seen. I am not sure I’ve seen a more accurate, naturalistic or true to life portrayal of a teenager in TV or film. The stories are so unpredictable and they never turn out quite the way you think they are going to. They take you by surprise and have little twists that you do not expect which makes the storytelling feel so fresh and original 15 years later. What an amazing show this is.

So this episode has a substitute teacher coming to the school that takes everyone by surprise with his own rebellious way of teaching. It begins as a sort of Dead Poets Society sort of thing and ends with the teacher not being quite the amazing person we thought he was. The best moment of the episode was when Angela who was very inspired by him to fight for free speech goes to talk to him about his leaving and he calls her Amanda. But it does not end there as the episode really just shows how Angela makes a choice to pick her battle by handing out the student literature packet that had been banned from the school.

It has been almost 2 months since I’ve seen this so I really cannot remember a ton of specifics from the episode. I do remember loving the scene with Rayanne and Sharon when they discuss the banned racy poem that Sharon wrote which we had been led to believe had been Rayanne’s poem. The thing I love most about the show are the scenes with 2 characters interacting that you don’t expect to. All of the random relationships and interactions are explored and I look forward to those scenes possibly the most.

Quotes:
Brian (about Angela getting a ride from Mr. Racine): So, is there, like, anyone's car you won't get into?

Angela: Right. I live my life to annoy you, Krakow. You're, like, my world.

Brian: Shut up. I mean, he's old. He's a teacher.

Angela: What? You think I, like, did something with him?

Brian: I don't know. How do I know?

Angela: Are you demented? Do you just view everything in terms of sex?

Brian: Not everything.

Patty: So what is this substitute person like? Is Brian Krakow right? Is he mentally ill?

Graham: Ah, possibly. I mean, he, um, didn't give me any Kool-Aid to drink, or anything like that. No, actually, he's a pretty cool guy.

Patty: Cool? Cool is not what substitutes are. Substitutes have hard to pronounce last names and bad haircuts.

Graham: Well, this substitute is cool.

Patty: He's not a substitute. Maybe he's a narc.

Graham: Maybe you're a narc

Sharon: Oh god, do you know how over my life will be when people find out ..I..wrote it?Rayanne: Do you know how over mine's gonna be when they find out I ...didn't...?

Rickie (reading Angela's poem): There once lived a girl. She lived in a house made of gingerbread and candy. She was always asleep. One day she woke up, and found that the candy had mold on it. Her father blew her a kiss, and the house came crashing down. She walked down the street. Only the people were made of paper. She blew them all a kiss, and watched as they all floated away...

Dollhouse: Season 1, Episode 10: "Haunted"

Dollhouse:
Season 1, Episode 10: "Haunted"
Grade: 8.0

While “Haunted” in many ways gets back to a lot of the one shot episodes that were at the beginning of the show, it is a very intriguing episode. For the first time on the show I really cared about the engagement. I have been interested in other engagements on the show involving Echo but I really found myself totally intrigued by Echo’s or rather Margaret’s interactions with her relatives. It was pretty obvious it was the son early on but whatever, I still found myself captivated by the story and actually somewhat impressed with Eliza’s acting (even though Dichan is such a better actress its ridiculous). I also liked how the main plot of the episode suggested the possible eternity of life that the Dollhouse can offer. I am sure that they are setting that up for something that will eventually come up even though it won’t get to come up because it will probably be cancelled.

I really liked seeing Topher interact with someone that he connects with. We essentially got to see what Topher’s perfect day would be like. I wonder if that day ends with him having sex with the active or if he even uses a girl every time. Topher however will always to me remain creepy and difficult to sympathize with.

On the Ballard/Mellie front we have some intense stuff going on. Ballard has to deal with knowing that Mellie is a Doll as she asks questions about the Dollhouse. He does not know how to deal with this predicament so he basically deals with it by having angry rough and hatred filled sex with Mellie. He finds out that November’s real name is Polly but she has a bunch of different names and mug shots it looked like.

Overall this was a solid episode that for me showed that they could go back to the old format of the show and have a compelling episode unlike the earlier shaky episodes.

Curb Your Enthusiasm: Season 1, Episode 10: "The Group"

Curb Your Enthusiasm: Season 1, Episode 10: “The Group”
Grade: 8.4
This is a strong closer to the season. Just watching Larry at the incest meeting was priceless. His story and the nonchalant manner he explains it with was great as well. Something I loved about this was that Larry really tried to stay true to his promise. There were a lot of really great moments in the episode. Larry and Cheryl’s sex conversation, Larry’s incest survivor story, etc. I loved how surprised Cheryl was when Jeff got her the part in the Vagina Monologues. Well that’s it for Curb Your Enthusiasm. I told you I have a hard time reviewing a show like this? Can you tell?

Quotes:
Larry: You know I've never actually seen the vagina with my glasses on. I don't really have any idea of what it looks like. It's all a hazy mystery to me.

Larry: My name is Todd, and I'm an incest survivor.

Group: Hello.

Larry: I had sex with my uncle when I was 12.

Curb Your Enthusiasm: Season 1, Episode 9: "Affirmative Action"

Curb Your Enthusiasm: Season 1, Episode 9: “Affirmative Action”:
Grade: 9.2

It’s getting ridiculous how good this show is. This would be my second favorite episode of the series thus far. I believe this is the last of the episodes I had seen before. It’s been such a long time since I have watched all of the episodes I am going to review so I apologize again for this being so awful. Basically there was no part of the episode I did not like. In fact each scene was hilarious for various reason all leading up to Larry getting thrown out of the pharmacy for trying to bribe the pharmacist. This episode also features a hilarious usage of the Psycho theme and has some of the most awkward moments I’ve seen on the show thus far. Larry making the affirmative action joke in the first place and having to explain it to the dermatologists guests. Again it’s been a while since I have seen it but I remember lots of it clearly. Yet I do not feel like going into it because I have so many other damn episodes to review.

Dollhouse: Season 1, Episode 9: "Spy in the House of Love"

Season 1, Episode 9: “Spy in the House of Love”
Grade: 8.7

Wow. This is a great episode. Using a plot told from each Actives perspective this could have been really overdone and hacky. However it is glorious. We learn so much here.
Mellie: First revelation: We see Paul find out that Mellie is an Active and not only an Active but a sleeper agent. She goes back to thinking she is Mellie while Ballard now gets the fascinating task of pretending she is not an Active and trying to act normal. The first great scene of the night.

Sierra: While essentially this does not end up really doing much for the episode we got to see Sierra basically be in an episode of “Alias” complete with awesome heels and wig. I would so much rather watch Sierra do this than Echo. Sierra is my third favorite character after Adelle and Saunders. Fourth would be Boyd.

Victor: ADELLE IS MISS LONELYHEARTS!!! How depressing is that? But also how freaking great is it for her character? Seeing her cry at the end of the portion and then seeing the way she reacts to what happens in front of people makes her so fascinating to me. I also just really like how we see the day that Adelle plans for Victor and herself. This whole section just completely knocked me for a loop. Williams does such a great job in this episode.

Echo: We see Echo voluntarily offer to be imprinted as she speaks to Topher which is really quite surprising as well and not something I expected to happen. She interviews everyone about why they are at the Dollhouse and we learn some very interesting slight insights into particularly Saunders who never leaves the place. It turns out Mr. Dominic is the spy although I’m a bit confused as to whether or not there are more than one. Still a little confused about his motivations and such but whatever, a lot of things about this show confuses me. It all leads up to us seeing what The Attic specifically is which is not real surprise outside of the fact that the whole process is much more disturbing than it might have been. Then we get in my opinion the greatest moment of the series so far: Adelle getting nicked by a bullet and literally not reacting at all and staying for the Attic process as she bleeds through her shirt. Adelle in this scene has been my favorite part of the series thus far. Until Friday…

Sorry in particular these review suck. Dollhouse has a lot going on which I do not normally catch and this plus it being a while since I have seen it makes these reviews pretty difficult outside of the basics.

Dollhouse: Season 1, Episode 8: "Needs"

Season 1, Episode 8: “Needs”
Grade: 8.0

Holy hell I did not expect to learn this much about everything so soon. The Actives wake up with their personalities but no memories as in an experiment administered by Dr. Saunders my other favorite character. They each know nothing about themselves but we eventually learn a bit about each of the 4 active Echo, Victor, Sierra and November.
I’m not so sure this episode completely worked. It’s been a long time since I have seen it but I simply remember not being entirely satisfied with it. Still there are so many interesting things going on here.

The most interesting part was seeing everyone with their basic personalities and with no memories. We get to see what they are each like on the most basic level. This was great as a building block to later further establishing their characters.

Ballard had a dumb dream that I did not like as it furthered along this obsession with Echo that he has which is really lame.

It was really interesting to see things from the ex-for-the-moment- Actives point of view and how barbarically they view whatever is going on because it really just is horrible.

We learn that November had a daughter named Katie who died.

The saddest thing here is Sierra’s past in which she refused to sleep with the scuzzbag to end all scuzzbags and he actually put her in the Dollhouse as opposed to her volunteering. Now she is a regular client of his. That is so sick and her visit to him is all the more horrifying. Fuck this guy. I hope she castrates that fuckwad. Ugh. I hate that guy.

Victor is charming but ultimately not that interesting. I have a feeling that I am going to be more interested in Victor in the Dollhouse as opposed to Victor outside of the Dollhouse if that ever happens. That being said I love him and Sierra and their stuff together was some of my favorite of the episode. I adore them.

Caroline of course wants to save everyone and go back in. Yay. Again I’m just not all that intrigued by her. But her conversations with Topher and Adelle were really great.

So all in all it was an experiment and so even though Caroline succeeds in letting them out it does not matter because at a certain time they pass out and are brought back to the Dollhouse to be put back. So yeah it’s obviously been a while. I can barely remember the episode but I know that I really liked it even if it was flawed for whatever reason.

Dollhouse: Season 1, Episode 7: "Echoes"

Dollhouse:
Season 1, Episode 7: “Echoes”
Grade: 7.8

This is the second of a string of great “Dollhouse” episode we are to see. All of this leads up to my personal favorite of the series thus far “Spy in the House of Love”. Here we see a really heavy amount of humor that surprised me with its effectiveness particularly with the interaction between Adelle and Topher and anything involving Dominic. While the plot had a ton of holes to it and altogether basically no effort was put into having any of it make sense as long as the characters were acting zany and wacky apparently that is all anybody cared about.
We get to see Caroline through flashbacks. Eliza Dushku and the problem I have with ever feeling any sort of emotion when she is on screen is starting to take its toll. Caroline did not interest me at all and while the incident involving her boyfriend was very traumatic and awful, I never felt it or anything for that matter at all and thus it did not hold a lot of power for me. Still though, it was nice seeing some stuff with Caroline. We also learn that Adelle had been trying to get Caroline to join the Dollhouse for 2 years which means that something else must have happened to make Caroline actually join. We get mention of the Rossum Corporation.
Blah blah more stuff with Mellie and Ballard the most annoying pairing of all time although not nearly as annoying as the ridiculous idea of Caroline/Paul that they seem to be slowly pushing at. She leaves Thank the Lord.

Ok so again anything involving Adelle and Topher – that’s right- Topher was tolerable- in this episode was gold. Adelle is my favorite character on the series at this point based on the last episode that aired. Boyd playing the piano was great. And of course Dominic who was hilarious.
Sam the person who had been helping Echo out has bad intentions and drugs her.