TV Review: The L Word Episode 3.05

Monday, February 06, 2006

From Showtime: Dana gets the results of her biopsy and hears the "c word;" Alice meets Uta, a lesbian vampire at "Bisexual Speed-Dating; Bette accidentally discovers something disturbing in Tina's online chat room; ex-flame Cherie drops into WAX and Shane's chair; Jenny gets word that a publisher is interested in her work and tries to be supportive with Moira's transition to Max.

My Rating: 3 out of 4

I'm honestly not sure what happened between the start of the season and now, but this feels like a totally different television series. The L word was just signed on earlier this week to do a fourth season consisting of twelve episodes by Showtime, and if the episodes are like this one or even better then I am a happy camper. Tonight's episode called Lifeline had a lot going on with every one.

The episode opened with Dana being told she has cancer. She needs to have surgery, and it appears she decides to go with a mastectomy. She handles it as well as can be expected, and Laura stays by her side. the day before she goes in for her operation, she calls a meeting of her friends to The Planet, and she tells them she is going in for surgery for a lump found in her breast. She doesn't tell them the whole story, and Laura thinks she should. However, Dana stands firm on not telling them. she has one final tearful loving with Laura, and that is the last we see of her this week.

As for Alice, it appears she is moving on. No more crazy Alice, and I'm sure we're all happy to see her go. Instead we have dating Alice. She talks Helena into joining her at Bisexual speed dating. Helena ends up leaving, and Alice ends up meeting Uta, a lesbian vampirologist and professor. Angus also uses the event to win Kit over. Alice begins dating Uta, and she has the best sex she never thought she'd have again, but she also fears Uta might be a real vampire. She even has Helena look up about vampires online. So we went from crazy Alice to weird Alice. I like weird Alice better.

As for Helena, she still has the hots for the documentary director, and this week things heat up when the woman kisses her. The two have a hot and heavy make-out session that ends abruptly when the woman's boyfriend comes home. I'd like to see more of these two, but I'm not sure it will go anywhere.

Now let's talk about Shane. Cherie walks into Wax today, and totally rocks Shane's world again. She destroyed Shane at the end of season one, but now Cherie is a different person. At least some things are different in any case. She's no longer married, and she now lives on her own. Shane and Cherie are talking when Carmen walks in and catches them two. She starts to run off mad, but Shane stops her. Carmen can't believe Shane hasn't told Cherie to leave or much less that she now has a girlfriend, so Carmen storms off. Cherie then invites Shane to her beach house that weekend. Shane ends up going alone, and we have probably one of the hottest sex scenes on The L Word to date. I think I even spied Shane wearing a strap-on.

Speaking of strap-on's, let's move onto Moira. She is off looking for work, but she is so sexually ambiguous that it causes problems during the interview. Jenny comes home to find Moira cleaning, and she stops her. She then takes Moira into the bedroom, and she helps her transition into Max, strap-on and all. Jenny looks to be very supportive of Moira's choice to be more of a man than woman, and I think these two are starting to grow on me now. They aren't growing on Carmen though because she is not happy with the current living arrangement.

What isn't growing on me is Bette and Tina. They are actually getting on my nerves. Tina is a high powered executive, and she is even flirting with the men that come in to meet with her. Bette sees some of her online activities, and she is shocked. She does confront Tina about it, but Tina isn't very truthful about it. Bette has also started meditating, and this gives her some peace. These two are totally unlike their season one and two selves though. Too much change here in my opinion.

I think this series is definitely improving. Earlier episodes this season were totally unsettling, but this episode and last week's seemed more like the episodes of season one, and this truly when this series was at its best. Things seemed to continue to heat up next week as well.