Customer Reviews

The L Word: Final Season

5 star:		(23)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(14)

 

 

"The L Word" has been my guilty pleasure television show for a numbers of years now. I honestly have no idea what originally brought me to the series, nor can I think of any particular moment when it became appointment television, but eventually its hooks got sunk into me and I was lost. I thought it was a beautifully written, shot and acted series with plenty of drama (but never overtly over the time) and a very very talented cast.

Despite this, I was shocked with how downright awful the final season of the series is. The final season (which the writers were given an entire year to write and shot), is composed of an 8-episode mystery of *SPOILER* Who Killed Jenny, with the first act of the season establishing the arc and the remained of the season played in flashbacks leading up to the big moment. Yet, the writers never say who killed her, leaving the story wide open. That's right, a 6 year series with a definite finale ended on a cliff-hanger, in a very anticlimatic episode, and honestly painful to watch episode.

Beyond that this season every character did something or revealed something ridiculously out of character that just kept changing the entire dynamic of the series, and not in a good way. After watching this on showtime, I'm pretending the series ended with season 5.

Ok...where do i start? Well the 6th season of the l word i think was a HUGE waste of time. Not only did they spend too much time on characters that weren't going anywhere as far as storyline. And they didnt spend enough time finishing up the story lines with great characters (ie. Bette and Tina.) which were probably the only characters in the end that you could take seriously. I found myself wanting to fast forward too many parts through out this season that were just a waste of airtime. *spoiler* I dont believe anyone killed Jenny. If you watched the series from the beginning, its just not in any of the girls to kill anyone. It would be sooo out of character.*
As far as the characters this season, they felt rushed, no depth anymore, no wedding,no really good cameos, nothing.

Alice: Funny as usual, great character.

Shane: Apparently she went insane this season and decided to date jenny and not believe any of her friends.

Kit: No depth to her character anymore, just a few "kittisms".

Helena: WHY was she in this season! wasnt she a strong working woman at
the very beginning? they turned her into a character with no point.

Max: IC turned Max into a joke this season. No depth to the character. once again, rushed.

Bette: Still the same strong character from season 1, she's actually grown as a person and she shows it in season 6. great job with her.

Tina: More of a stronger person this season. Her scenes with Bette makes the whole season 6 more interesting.

Tasha: umm what can i say. *Spoiler* the friend threesome thing was a very bad story line. IC trying to bring drama into places it shouldnt be. Why cant these characters just be happy?

Jenny: soooo Rushed. Season 6 made Jenny look like she really went crazy. We all knew she was a little off. But she just turned out to be a Snob,whiny, and sometimes acted like a 5 yr old.

*spoiler* Nothing was answered in season 6. Every character was left in the dark about something. And this show did not end with a bang like it should have. season 1-5 are great! but season 6 was just a waste of airtime and a lot of disapointment. I'll buy it to complete my collection but it definitely is NOT going to be opened or watched.

I am still digesting the finale, which I watched two days ago with a big group of friends and many other people around the world. I think I heard screams of unfulfillment across the land when the credits started rolling after its "Soprano's like" ending. All I can ask is...why? Why would they end it like that? Not only do I think they should have told us who killed Jenny, but dang it, I wanted to see Jenny confronted about many things she had done up to that point. She had this crusade about "everybody needs to be truthful", therefore ruining their lives... but it came crashing down with Shane finding the letter and movie reels. ugh. I am just very ticked off and therefore cannot give a decent rating to this SHORT as it was final season. Very disappointing.
Since that night, I've been all over the internet in search of who killed jenny. Showtime is currently showing "Interrogation Tapes" that supposedly give more insight to the killing. Through imdb.com and E! Online, I've learned that Alice has a spin off called The Farm, where it says she gets convicted of Jenny's murder and sent off to prison. E! mentioned rumor of a movie to finish things off. Now this is all fine and dandy, but just boils me more that I want to know NOW... and the show, being the first of its kind...just should have been a better show in its final season.

Jenny dies in the final episode but questions such as who killed Jenny and how did Jenny die are never answered. That's only the beginning of the final season's many letdowns. The truth is, I hated everything about this season. With only 8 X 1 hour episodes, there was no time to waste; but this is exactly what happens. The majority of the storylines from this season come across as tedious, pointless and cumbersome. Also, I could have done without the 2 added characters, Kelly and Helena's ex-girlfriend Dylan. Both were annoying and their scenes felt like wasted airtime to me. There were too many plot holes and the writing came across as clumsy and amatuerish. IMO, the real killer is Ilene Chaiken. Ilene killed Jenny and the series. We later learned the idea behind Jenny's death was so there could be a spin-off, "The Farm" with Leisha Haily who played Alice from the show. The premise of the spin-off was that Alice goes to prison for killing Jenny. Well with no spin-off, what are the fans left with? A huge mess of what used to to be one of cable TV's greatest guilty pleasures. The final season was so bad it leaves a bad lasting impression of the series. It certainly outraged and disappointed many of the show's fans. Shame on you Ilene.

It's so disgusting that I'm having trouble writing how disgusted and POORLY the last season was written. The big exec's must have really said "end it now" for the producer to do such a crappy job. She must know that we won't forget what she did if she puts out a movie or attempt another series. Such a disservice to the actors who took a chance on the series and to leave in that fashion........ ARGH! poor....very poor. Actually I thought the series really took a dive after season 4. I got bored with the season 5 jenny's movie thing. It showed true L word fashion in the last 2-3 episodes. I'm really having a hard time justifying buying season 5 and 6....except to show how it went down hill fast. I would like to know the REAL reason they ended the series....drama perhaps!?

I think tee shirts are in order here that simply say L Word 6 WTF ?
I own the other 5 seasons and I'll probably purchase season 6 only to complete the set (can we say OCD......) but I'm not too happy about it. What a waste of film and time. Maybe this was the plan all along; to have us endlessly write about how crappy the ending was ?? Too bad really, the show, characters and the fans deserved better.

I wonder if the writers of this season, knowing that they needed new jobs, took on other tasks to which they directed the majority of their creativity and talent? They certainly didn't put much into finishing what they had started so well, but then the slide didn't start with the last season. The 5th season had moved increasingly toward more sex and less plot. When that had gone as far as it could, it bombed out completely with the unsolved murder mystery of season 6. I think the decline started as far back as season four.

After the success of the first three seasons, they increasingly replaced character exploration with plot dependant vignettes. Characters served the plot no matter how that violated who you thought they were. Events became unpredictable and seemed to exist simply for their shock value. To me, really good writing explores subtle emotions and employs enough foreshadowing to keep the audience thinking. I don't mind being shocked on occasion, but when it happens too often and is accompanied by a bundle of short plotlines, distraction replaces enjoyment.

L Word peppered its content with many topics, gender change, promiscuity, breast cancer, military regulations, older women coming out, infidelity and alcoholism. The series covered a lot of serious issues, but often, especially toward the end, placed too many competing issues in one show. Over the last three seasons and especially the last two, I found that the plotlines had fallen to the level of quick, unsatisfying vignettes.

In the end what I remember from L Word are caricatures rather than characters and a lot of busy plots. Is it any wonder that its swan song, season six, was a silly murder mystery peppered with flashbacks and completely lacking in substance?

Came into this series late in the game, after the series had ended. Couldn't stop watching it on Netflix and paid for Season 6 here. I have never been hooked on a series but this one [...] me in and when I reached the end of the final episode I felt that my best friend had dropped into a black hole. Well, not really, but what acting what direction and I don't care who killed Jenny. Life and this series aren't always neat. I'm really going to miss Shane's character. Complex. Aren't we all? What's with these whiners who are giving the show a bad rating just because they don't know who killed Jenny. The point was everyone wanted her dead and in that tightly knit group it didn't matter who did the deed. Maybe that was the point.

I loved the first three seasons of The L Word, and it all went downhill after that. The last season was a complete joke, 8 episodes?! Are you kidding me? I don't pay extra money to have Showtime for a lousy 8 episodes, and bad ones at that. There are no questions answered in the season finale at all, what was the reason the writers had for killing off Jenny? This season was the worst season of any tv show I have ever watched and I regret keeping Showtime to watch the final season, it was a waste of time and money on my part.

The L word has been a guilty pleasure of mine for a number of years, but season 5 dragged along and I feared the worst for season 6. Turns out it was far worst then anything I could imagine.
Ilene and Co. had planned on season 5 to be the last season, which is why the last episode of that season feels... odd. However, she managed to talk Showtime into allowing a final season. This was a short season and the intention was to give a proper farewell but, of course, Ilene bumbles and fails in many, many ways.

This season Ilene tried to "listen to the fans". You say you don't like Jenny? We'll kill her! You say you want Shane and Jenny to hook up? Done! You liked Helen and Dylan? She's BACK! etc, etc
Ilene takes these ideas, that could have been good (minus the killing jenny thing) and ruins them. Also keep in mind the season is only eight episodes, does Ilene REALLY have time to write a Bette and Tina a story line where they are adopting a baby? Or Max dealing with pregnancy? Or Kit falling in a drugged fantasy land? Or... you get my point. Instead of wrapping up story lines, she unravels more and more.

You have to take a step back and wonder why do we watch this show? Because of the main characters and the bond of friendship that ties them all together. That is why we love watching this show and watching *some* of the characters grow over the years. I would have loved to see it end on a positive note, them all sitting around at The Planet, for the most part happy, the way the series started. Instead we have an over-dramatic police confessional and mystery killer.

I understand why Ilene did it. She wanted a spin-off television show to reveal the mystery, or perhaps a movie deal to dig deeper into what really happened, or a clothing line that slowly, through cryptic symbols, shows "what really happened". Bottom line, Ilene got greedy and tried to manipulate the ending to work in her financial favor. But there is no spin-off and very unlikely a movie (who would watch it after this anyway?), so one has to wonder, what was the point? I appreciate what Ilene has done, the first tv show about lesbians, a HUGE step in the right direction. I can forgive her for a lot of things and a lot of grievances I have with the writing. But Ilene has a responsibility to these characters, she has a responsibility to be true to them and to end what she began with some amount of decency.
After season six was over, all I could think was, "good, I was sick of it anyway." I still watch season 1 fondly, while trying to forget season 6 ever even happened.