They killed Jenny. Can 'The L Word' survive?

--

Positive portrayals

"The L Word" premiered on Showtime in 2004. It was part of a cultural shift in gay and lesbian media portrayals that acknowledged that gay people had families, relationships and jobs -- real lives, in other words -- after years of either nonexistence or representations where they might be sinister at best, murderous at worst. Though Sharon Stone's turn as a Sapphic ice-pick-wielding killer in "Basic Instinct" may have kicked off the '90s, that period also saw the birth of television shows such as "The Real World" (1992), "Will & Grace" (1998), "Survivor" (2000), "Queer as Folk" (2000) and "Queer Eye for the Straight Guy" (2003), which, among others, brought gay, lesbian and bisexual stories into the mainstream.

Matthew C. Blank, the chairman and chief executive of Showtime, said in an interview: "We had already gotten a good deal of attention for putting 'Queer as Folk' on the air. And 'The L Word' seemed like the natural extension of where Showtime was at that time."

The show has brought a loyal audience to the premium cable channel that, according to Showtime, has grown from an average of 924,000 viewers in Season 1 to 1.4 million in Season 5, its most popular so far. Along the way, "The L Word" has been praised for its glossily packaged, highly sexualized view of lesbian life, as well as its likable cast, which includes Jennifer Beals, Katherine Moennig, Leisha Hailey, Pam Grier, Laurel Holloman and, of course, Kirshner.

But it has also been criticized by the chattering classes online and television critics alike for, well, not always making sense. The New York Times' Ginia Bellafante referred to its "lunacy-revealing plot points" in her review of this season; in Entertainment Weekly last year, Benjamin Svetkey wrote, "Dramatic resonance and plot continuity apparently aren't a high priority in the writers' room."

Which is why a segment of viewers are particularly nervous about the death-of-Jenny story. Snarker, who has read the many comments made about her "L Word" posts, summarized the reaction thusly: "I don't feel that there's a big 'Please don't kill Jenny' fan uprising right now. It's just 'Please don't make this show end in a crazy way.' "

Those fans may well have allies among the cast. Kirshner was not available to update her comments from July for this article. And Moennig, who plays Shane, the heartbreaker hair stylist and Jenny's closest friend, wrote in an e-mail, "The murder thing is beyond my comprehension." And: "It seemed like something too big to bite off." But: "Then on the other hand, you never know how the public will react. They could love it and the show could be all the better for it."